Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RC1 Unofficial Leaked Download

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is the next version of IE web browser to be released by Microsoft. The IE8 Beta 2 has been released back in August 2008, and although it’s a great improvement over IE8 Beta 1, the Beta2 still has plenty of issues to be ironed out. IE8 will be included with Windows 7, and Microsoft has planned to release IE 8 RC1 (Release Candidate 1) for Windows Vista and Windows XP by end of January, which should be more stable, and has less bug.

If you can’t wait for official release of IE8 RC1 by Microsoft which can be anytime now, Lord Devrexster has posted a leaked version of Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 on WinMatrix forum. The leaked IE8 RC1 has the build version 8.0.6001.18343, so it’s not meant for Windows 7, where even the Windows 7 Beta has IE8 already at build version 8.0.7000.0, although IEBlog has mentioned that the version of IE8 in Windows 7 Beta is somewhat older than the Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate (IE8 RC1) that is about to release for Windows Vista and Windows XP.

The leaked IE 8 RC 1 is only available for 32-bit (x86) Windows Vista and Windows XP. The IE8 RC1 also cannot be installed on Windows 7 Beta, which already has its own interim beta build of IE8.

Download Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 for Windows XP: IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe

Download Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 for Windows Vista: IE8-WindowsVista-x86-ENU.exe

Update: Download official IE8 RC1 build 8.0.6001.18372

From early words, IE8 RC1 doesn’t improve much from IE8 Beta2 though. As some partners of Microsoft has already receiving an even newer build of IE8 at 8.0.6001.18344. And, Windows 7 Build 7025 has IE8 at build version 8.0.7025.0, which should be similar to IE8 RC1.