Highlights of new functionality included
- JScript debugger .
- Webslices (sort of widget extractor for websites)
- Activities (extend your right click with custom menus)
- HTML View (think firebug /
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar)
Other important changes
- Connections per host increased
this was 2 connections and will go up to 6 when a highspeed connection is detected.
- Increased Javascript speed
- It will break the visuals from quite a few sites and some sites (windows update amongst others)
More information:
Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit website Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Whitepapers More information can be found in the release notes
How to test
For this Microsoft supplies VPC images, this will be your best bet to test since you probably won't easily be able to run the IE instances side by side.
Internet Explorer Test VPC Images
The download links
IE8 for different windows versions
Microsoft Expression Web Beta
Also out, is something I missed, Microsoft Expression Web Beta
This is Microsofts answer to Dreamweaver.
Most important new features:
- PHP support (intellicense / previews)
- Media support extended (Silverlight + Windows Media enhancements)
- Photoshop integration (import with live update)
- FTP enhancements
- Support for new ASP.NET functionality (3.5 / MS AJAX)