IE8 Release Candidate Won't Install on Windows 7

The IE 8 RC is expected to be downloadable by the public any day now. Earlier this month, Microsoft made available to the public, the public beta of Windows 7. Windows 7 testers won’t be able to install Microsoft’s near-final Release Candidate test build of Internet Explorer 8 — a limitation Microsoft is acknowledging and saying is by design.

The version of IE 8 that is part of the Windows 7 beta is an interim beta release and is not the equivalent of the forthcoming Release Candidate.

Microsoft officials have said the company is planning to deliver one more public test build of IE 8 (the aforementioned RC) before releasing the final version of IE 8 in calendar 2009.

The RC build of IE 8 is going to include new compatibility-mode functionality, which will make use of a list of heavily trafficked Web sites that don’t work properly with the default standards mode in IE 8, and thus will default to compatibility mode with no user intervention required.