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27 February 2010
How to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 with detailed explanations for each step of the upgrade process.
Microsoft released its updated Internet browser, Internet Explorer 8, in March of 2009. Internet Explorer 8 (or IE8) comes preinstalled in Windows 7. Users with Windows Vista, XP or Server 2003/2008 will, at one point or another, be prompted to upgrade. Before we walk through the upgrade process, let’s answer a few basic questions.
Should you upgrade?
If Internet Explorer is your primary browser (the one you use the most or exclusively), then the answer is “Yes”. If, like myself, you use an alternative browser such as Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera or any other for most, if not all, your browsing needs – then it obviously isn’t necessary.
Why should you upgrade?
As stated above, if you use Internet Explorer as your primary browser, then you should upgrade for the following reasons:
- Better security
- Much faster than previous versions
- Accelerators, InPrivate Browsing, Web Slices, SmartScreen
- Support for IE6 browsers is being phased out
You may think, on the one hand, that claims to increased security and faster browsing are just “claims”, however, most independent test show IE8 keeps up with (in some tests slightly outperforms) both Firefox and Chrome. Some claim it is almost twice as fast as its predecessor IE7, although actual test results generally demonstrate this to be slight exaggeration. Bottom line, it is a marked improvement over Internet Explorer 7 for speed and is an actual contender in the browser wars.
As for security, IE8 is among the most secure.
And those features?
Well, like it or not, the new features in IE8 such as Accelerators and Web Slices are not only cool, but quite useful. We’ll cover these features in our follow up article.
OK! So how do I upgrade?
You can download Internet Explorer 8 from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/
While IE8 is a fast and feature rich browser, installation is a little daunting as there quite a few steps in its installation and configuration, options that for many may seem a little cryptic. Most people either click through all the steps accepting the default settings or keep clicking the “Ask me later” button because they’re intimidated by all the options and couldn’t be bothered. We will try to help you by explaining your options.
Once you’ve downloaded the file, double-click it to launch the installation.
Click “Run”… 
At this step, you are asked if you would like to “Help Improve Internet Explorer”. Essentially, if you accept, your browser will report non-specific data back to Microsoft to help them understand how IE is being used and where improvements could be made. You can opt in or not. In this example, I chose not to participate. Make your selection and click “Next”.
The typical “License agreement”. Simply click “I Accept”. 
You can choose to install Windows, IE and MSRT updates or not. Check or uncheck the “Install Updates” box and click “Next”. 
If you chose to install updates, as I have, this step may take a bit longer. Files will be downloaded and installed. 
Once the updates and IE8 installation are completed, you will need to restart your computer. Click “Restart now”. 
When your session restarts, you will need to configure your new IE8 browser. This first option asks whether or not you would like to turn on “Suggested Sites”. This feature is an online service that tracks your browsing history and makes personalized website suggestions based on sites you’ve visited. While this may sound like a neat feature, I don’t like sharing my browsing history with some anonymous service and don’t really have a use for site suggestions. Make a selection and click “Next”. 
At this step, I recommend you choose “Choose Custom Settings” as opposed to “Express Settings”. If you are a big fan of all Microsoft services (Windows Live, Bing) then by all means, use the express settings. If you would like to be able to select which search engine, mail client, map service, blog service and additional features to use, then you will want to use custom settings. Click “Next”. 
At this step, you can choose to use “Live Search” as your default search engine or you can select one from a list. Personally, I like Google. Select “Show me a webpage after setup to choose more search providers” if you would like to choose your own preferred engine (Ask, Yahoo, Bing, Live, Google, etc.) and click “Next”. 
Do you want to download updates for your search providers? I don’t see the harm. Select “Yes…” and click “Next”. 
This is where you get to select which accelerators to use. Accelerators streamline your browsing experience by allowing you to quickly access additional information from any website. I recommend you enable accelerators, however, I opted for the “Show me a webpage after setup…” option in order to choose which accelerators I want rather than the default Microsoft services. Click “Next”. 
Should you turn the SmartScreen filter on or off? SmartScreen is a useful security feature I recommend you enable. It will provide warnings when you reach websites that have been reported as fraudulent or dangerous. This feature can be toggled on or off at any time. Click “Next”. 
Compatibility view updates should be enabled. Compatibility view will allow IE8 to properly display web pages designed for older browsers. If you reach a site that isn’t displaying correctly, simply click the “Compatibility View” button to the right of your address bar and IE8 will adjust it. Click “Finish”. 
Once you click “Finish”, the first time your new IE8 browser launches, it will have numerous tabs displayed. We’ll start by configuring our default Search providers. Click on the “Add Search…” tab. You will see the following options. Under the “Web Search” heading, choose your preferred default web search engine. This is the default search engine that will return search results when you type keywords, phrases or questions in the address bar or in the “Search” box in the upper right corner of your browser window. As for topic search, you don’t have to select any, however, if you would like to perform searches on any of the sites listed under “Topic Search” (ie look for an item on Amazon or eBay), simply click those you would like to activate and they will be added to your upper right corner “Search” box in the form of a drop down list (see the 2nd picture). 
When you select a search provider or topic search, you will prompted with a dialogue similar the the one below. You have the options available (namely if you want it to be your default search tool). Simply click add to enable it.
You will also have a second tab where you can select which (if any) accelerators you would like to use for Blogging, Email, Map and Translation. I prefer Google’s offering but you are free to select your preferred services if they are listed.
How do accelerators work? Well, in this example, I’ve pulled up a web site and selected a single word on the page. When you select text or any content (ie pictures), the accelerators icon will be displayed. That is the small blue and white square with the blue arrow.
If you click on this accelerator icon, a contextual menu will appear listing your accelerator options. If you want to translate the word, select your translate accelerator from the list and you will be brought directly to your translation service in a new tab.
As for the compatibility view, as stated above, if you come a cross a website that isn’t displaying correctly, click the compatibility view button (the one that looks like a torn page) and IE8 will attempt to correct display issues.
We will be back with further tutorials for other IE8 features and add-ons, including SmartScreen and InPrivate Browsing.
Thanks for reading!
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