Microsoft’s Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch this week announced at the MIX conference in Las Vegas the availability of IE8 Beta 1. Microsoft are debuting a number of new features with IE 8, some of which appear to have been “borrowed” from both Firefox and Safari.

First, Microsoft is debuting a feature called “Activities.” This feature was included to allow users to streamline many of their internet-related tasks. For example, Microsoft has partnered with Facebook, eBay, StumbleUpon, Yahoo, Windows Live and MSN, and provides ‘activities’ associated with each

Another new feature is called “Web Slices.” These function in a similar way to links, as they are tabbed below the URL bar; users may select slices of websites they like, and Internet Explorer will automatically check that particular website for updates, which will be easily viewable from the “slice” tabbed on Internet Explorer, unfortunately at this time only a handful of sites offer slices,.

The Phishing Filter which was built into Internet Explorer 7 has been given a new feature, users can now turn on and off a “safety filter,” which will block websites that have been recognized to contain malicious software or phishing devices.

You can read more about the features of IE8 on the MSDN Developer Network.

Although intended primarily for developers, the beta is public and can be downloaded from here. A quick note of caution to all: Several people have experienced problems with running this beta under Windows Vista with Service Pack (SP) 1 installed

If you load Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 and then decide you don’t like it, you can click the Emulate IE7 button to return your browser to the look and feel of the current version.

.

Last night I visited a friend who was experiencing a problem with Internet Explorer (IE) 7 on his Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 2 computer, he had recently updated IE7 from the Microsoft update site and now every time he tried to view a web page he received the message “Webpage cannot be displayed”.

I reviewed his computer settings and all appeared to be OK, the problem was obviously associated with the IE7 update and the changes made to the file signatures. I remember reading a recent Microsoft knowledge base article about compatibility problems with older versions of antivirus and security software. Although his subscription was up to date he was still running an older version of his antivirus software.

From the knowledge base article this problem can occur with IE7 on Windows XP, Server 2003 and Windows Vista computers

To resolve the problem I decided to remove and reinstall a later updated version of his antivirus software after which IE7 opened and he was able to access web pages without a problem, the older version of the antivirus application was causing the conflict, it shows that you should not just subscribe and apply updates to your antivirus and security software, but should update the version as well if possible

.

After downloading the Internet Explorer Cumulative Security Update for December 2007, some users running Internet Explorer (IE) 6 on Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 2 have experienced an unexpected crash or hang up when trying to a visit a Web site giving the message “Internet Explorer has experienced a problem and needs to close”.

I personally have not experienced this problem first hand as I run both IE 7 and Firefox browsers, however if you have had this problem, visit the Windows Update site or download this patch. Once installed the problem should be resolved

.