Download Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW for Vista SP1 and XP SP3Also Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008Forget about Internet Explorer 7. The wait is finally over. Microsoft
has wrapped up the final version of Internet Explorer 8 and made the
bits available for download. That's right, the gold bits of Internet
Explorer 8 are now up for grabs, as the links for the RTW (release to
web) variant of the browser went live just ahead of the deadline
announced initially, namely noon EDT on March 19. At the time of this
article, Microsoft had yet to announce the official launch of Internet
Explorer 8 RTW via its official channels.
?With the Internet Explorer 8 platform, Microsoft creates opportunities
for Web sites to engage customers in new ways and drive not only more
traffic, but also more value in the online experience,? said Dean
Hachamovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer team at
Microsoft.
UPDATE: The official download links for IE8 gold are now up and
running. Internet Explorer 8 is designed to integrate with Windows XP
(including SP2 and SP3), Windows Vista RTM and SP1 as well as Windows
Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003. The first wave of IE7's successor
will be served in the following languages today: Arabic, Chinese
(Traditional, Simplified and Hong Kong), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,
Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Polish, Russian,
Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. Microsoft has not disclosed its plans for
additional releases of Internet Explorer 8.
Earlier today reports emerged indicating that the final build number of
Internet Explorer 8 was 8.00.6001.18702. This is indeed correct as the
screenshots included with this article prove. Moreover, the full
version number of IE8 RTW is 8.00.6001.18702 (longhorn_ie8_rtm (wmbla)
.090308-0339.
In a first phase, Microsoft will make IE8 RTW exclusively available for
download. Moving forward, the Redmond company will offer the browser
through Windows Update. The last phase in the IE8 delivery process
involves serving the browser through Automatic Updates. In the final
wave, all IE6 and IE7 users running an IE8-supported platform with AU
enabled will have Internet Explorer 8 automatically downloaded and
installed on their machines.
Internet Explorer 8 RTW is not available for Windows 7, as the next
iteration of the Windows client and server operating systems comes with
its own flavor of the browser.
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download
here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).
