Microsoft launches first release candidate of IE8

Microsoft has announced the first release candidate of its popular Internet Explorer 8 browser earlier this week. An even earlier version of IE8 has been bundled together with the beta of Windows 7, though that is merely an interim build that predates this release candidate.

James Pratt, a senior product manager on the IE development team explained, "It's a pre-RC of IE that we specifically tuned for the new features in Windows 7, such as jump lists and touch support."

The new version comes with few changes over IE8 Beta 2, which was released in August. It is "platform-complete and feature-complete" though, meaning that Microsoft will not be adding or removing any features from this build. At this point, it is unclear whether the final version will be ready before the release of Windows 7; it will be bundled together with Windows 7 when it is released. Despite slippages in recent years, Microsoft's Internet Explorer remains the predominant web browser today, with the lion's share of the market.

For more on this story:
- check out this article from Computerworld
- check out this article from InformationWeek

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