On the backend side of things, IE8's rendering engine has apparently been improved to more compliant than previous versions. In plain english, IE8 should properly render more websites better, regardless of how poorly the vast majority of HTML on the internet is coded. Microsoft introduced a new tab in IE8 called Compatibility View for this, and when enabled it maintains compatibility by using different rendering techniques to fix broken tables and images on badly coded websites.

Finally we come to internet security. By the time you've read this sentence you've already become an anonymous statistic on a half-dozen servers around the world. Internet Explorer 8 won't change that, but it will protect you with an increased the level of security both in the browser window, and in the way IE8 interacts with the Windows operating system.

If you visit a virus laden website, IE8's automatic script blocking can prevent a browser hijack. Other security features like SmartScreen are better prepared to prevent phishing attacks (ie. fake bank websites asking you to log in), stop malicious pop-ups in their tracks and basically mitigate cunning internet scavengers from feasting on the bones of net novices.

Microsoft has also made it a lot easier to remove ad-ware from the browser. About time. With Internet Explorer 8 you should be able to remove unwanted browser tool bars and widgets that are auto-installed by certain applications just by clicking a 'close' button that is inserted along side the toolbar.

Me thinks this is a little shot over the bow of that pesky Google Toolbar bundled with every application of late...