The web has been a real learning experience for my family. The kids learn about geodes and where Dora lost her friendship bracelet, while I learn about malware and phishing. Fortunately, Windows Live Family Safety lets me block the sites I know are dangerous for them and allow the ones I know they like and are safe. And if the kids try to do an end-run around mom and check out other sites, I know right away with activity reports.
But even with all this great defensive planning, there are hackers out there working just as hard to find new ways to do their own end-run. Family Safety and Internet Explorer work great together because their always-evolving security features help me guard against these new hacker tactics.
Today, the new Internet Explorer 8 is being released with some great new ways to protect against hackers. There’s SmartScreen that helps protect my family from socially-engineered attacks like malware and phishing, and other technologies that help protect my PC from drive-by attacks like cross-site scripting and ClickJacking. 
SmartScreen helps me protect my kids from more malware than ever before. Malware is hard enough for adults to identify; kids have an even harder time. A game site is a game site to them. Free stuff is endlessly alluring. How are they supposed to know that the cool screensaver they are downloading isn’t really a cool screensaver, but a covert, potentially harmful piece of software that they are putting on the family computer where your banking information is located, right next to the LEGO blueprints and the sledding pictures?
Internet Explorer 8 works against ClickJacking and cross-site scripting technologies to prevent Junior from clicking on a picture of a Pokémon and being taken to another website without realizing it. When Junior thought he was clicking Pikachu, he may have actually clicked something else: buying something from another site, changing settings on your browser or computer, or being shown inappropriate advertisements. It’s complicated, but Internet Explorer 8 lets website developers protect their sites from these kinds of attacks by preventing their legitimate pages from being “framed.” 
All these new features in Internet Explorer 8 work together to help identify threats for you and your kids, block them, or just warn you so you can avoid a digital disaster. Once Internet Explorer 8 is installed, there’s nothing more to configure, nothing extra for you to buy or download or install, it just works. Downloading and upgrading to Internet Explorer 8 only takes a few minutes!
If all this has made you curious about the new security features in Internet Explorer 8 and the new kinds of malicious software technologies that they guard against, you can also read this white paper for all the details.
Oh, and by the way, I am also posting this on the Windows Live Family Safety blog, which has more great info for keeping your family safe online.
– Sylvia F., Mom and writer, Windows Live Family Safety
Windows Live team blog archive 
I love all these features and have been pleasantly surprised especially that all downloads are screened before downloading. If you have a trophy for "Biggest Fan" – I should get it;-)
I\’ve been using the RC1 for a while and just downloaded the final version. Seriously good stuff guys (love the accelerators). Keep up the good work.
I think now its time to move to IE 8 🙂
Improve the javascript and extensions, and its done.
I LOVE the new browser! Thanks! Keep up the good work!Also, could you allow Family Saftey kids 11(or whatever) and up to acess WL Groups and WL Events? Thanks again!
Can the beta in Windows 7 be updated?
The download won\’t pop up for me 😦
@Mike: Good question. This release of Internet Explorer 8 is not available for Windows 7 Beta yet. Please check the Windows 7 site for more details.Thanks for the comments, all!
It great i love it
Actually I found the link and saw maybe soon or sometime down the road.
Pretty big fan of the RC1, personally. Downloading as I type this. Happy browsing, all! Perhaps an IE upgrade for Windows Mobile in the near future? Please?
Good work on it. Although, I don\’t see where you manage what kind of site that isn\’t allowed/controls.
PLEASE VERIFY I received an email from hotmail asking for my username password dob and a warning if i dont submit it my account will be closed? I find it VERY suspect is this a typical procedure, if so I certainly have never seen it?
@Norma: Absolutely not. You should pretty much never reply to an email that asks you for any type of personal information, especially things like passwords, dob, driver\’s license number, etc. If you\’re concerned that you will suffer a consequence, like a closed account, browse to the site on your own to see if they really need anything from you. I would suggest that you simply delete that email and move on.
is there a problem with windows live messenger since yesterday?yesterday i was offered a new upgrade to my messenger, but that upgrade has crashed my messenger..now i can not even download again as after deleting it from my computer, windows live upgrager shows i have a messenger and therefore it can not download the new one!!
i can;t log in
it is great
I\’ve downloaded it and I have to say, Internet Explorer once again fails. Why? Because it\’s juggy and it loads JavaScript awfully slow. Although, I do like the Accelerators. 🙂 Also I think Windows 7 should have it\’s own, exclusive browser.
@T: Just make sure you install "Family Safety" software and set things up from there. It\’s pretty simple to do once you\’ve installed it.
if u forget all the login info plus question and answer how do you go about getting in to an emal address as i cant get in to one of mine
Someone used my E-Mail Account and ask to send money to a address in Nigeria on my Name it is a scam I am not in Nigeria,How can this happen? Hans Blunk
Thanks Jen.
Liked the beta and rc 1 versions. Downloading 8 now
You\’re welcome, T. Have you tried it and did it work?
can any one tell me why i cant read my emails it seems to be frozen for over a week
@carol watkins, @Hans Blunk, @boo bare, Sorry, but there is no support staff for this blog. Please check with the Hotmail Online Solution Center at http://windowslivehelp.com/.
I received a e-mail from the U.K. from Microsoft Windows Support claiming I won $5.5million pounds, just send money for insurance and shipping or something like that. The money is from Microsoft. Scam right?
@Tim Weir:Thanks for reporting this. Yes it is a common scam, one of those listed in our recent blog post about e-mail scams here: http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!36411.entry- Antonia Windows Live team
I\’ve downloaded 8 and now the printer spooler is not working and I can\’t find the solution, please help. I\’m running Vista and had no problems before.
hi .i have a problem with the messenger i cant open it .i have another account & i can open the messenger with it but with my new one i cant.could you help me please ,thanks
hi
@WLT: Oh – WOW! You\’ll never guess what\’s happened. During all the Hotmail updates along with everything that spread through Live in recent weeks; one night, some time ago, I sat here after reading of other people\’s woes concerning poor email printing from the web-based Hotmail. Whilst reading everyone else\’s gripes about it, I sat here with a smug smile on my face because I wasn\’t having any trouble. But, suddenly, about two months ago at a guess, I was only getting a 6pt text size on the printed email pages as well. Having been advised by a mate to print via Live Mail on the Desktop, I got the same response there so have had to copy/paste email text into Word for weeks now, just so that I could print my emails properly! I\’ve just run a test since installing IE8. My emails now print perfectly again from the web. What have you done, Microsoft? Whatever it was, you\’ve fixed the error. Thank you soooo much;-)
we are having a problem with our windows live chatting we cannot log in it alwasys says there is an error we do not have a valid ip address????? confused on how to fix the problem if anyone knows how to help please blog back!!
Okay, okay, so I\’ll try the new IE 8. But, if it freezes up or crashes; I will demand my money back.Thanks,Diane
Um Jeff, I think it\’s 3.2 GHz. 😀
Using it fully for the first day. Several sites have appeared to load web pages faster than FireFox 3.0.1 which i was using until yesterday 🙂
Thanks.
i recieved the email below saying i won 1 million euros – i\’m assuming this is a scam ???can you advise pleaseFrom: EUROMILLION (eurosmilss@luckymail.com) Sent: 17 March 2009 17:20:48 To: 1 attachment PAYMENT P…doc (57.8 KB) i TERMS AND CONDITIONS Dear Sir/Madam, You don\’t have to purchase a ticket to enter this lottery, your email indicating you as a winner in the lottery programs held by the EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY was received. Your email address was selected through the computer ballot system drawn from over 25,000,000 company and 40,000,as one of the lucky email address that emerge from the first category to have won the sum of €1,000.000.00, One Million Euros, the information was passed to you by the lottery coordinator to ensure that we are in contact with the rightful owner of the winning email address to avoid double claiming. To commence on the processing of your Winning Prize as your claim agent, you are advised to provide us with the following information: etc………
sto es lo mjor =DDDD…
Dear fellow Windows Live Hotmail users,I just sent the following message to "Extended Stay Hotels" about their ad that Windows Live Hotmail (WLH) placed directly over the text of an email that I COULD NOT READ because of portion of it was covered by the ad. What give? This is the height of inconsiderateness by WLH, as is the entire new design, which places ads–often animated and totally distracting–onto our email pages!Here is the text. I urge other users of WLH to also boycott companies whose ads impede our ability to use our emails. The important part here, is to also let WLH know that we are protesting in this way (what other power do we have in this situation?)"Dear folks at Extended Stay Hotels,An ad from your company has been placed on my email messages (by Windows Live Hotmail) in such a way that it covered the text of an important email–which I then could not read.My only option–as a consumer–is to let you know that as long as this situation persists, I will not be purchasing any of your products or services.Sincerely,(name witheld on this blog)
How ridiculous that it requires XP or higher to run. That\’s why I use Firefox!!
i cant download the new msn at all!
How do I get the IE 8 off my computer?
I get this when i try to install ie8 im running windows vista \’Setup cannot continue because one or more updates required to install Windows Internet Explorer 8 are not present.. Double-click the “Internet Explorer Troubleshooting” shortcut on your desktop to install them separately and then reinstall Windows Internet Explorer 8.\’
Jordan, I would first make sure you have all of the updates for Windows. Click Start and then search for Windows Update. Then, on the left hand side click Check For Updates. Install the updates, if any are available. This should take care of your problemI have tested IE8 since Beta 1. It is impressive and a great upgrade from IE7. It does load pages faster then IE7. One thing Sylvia forgot to mention is to make sure you have the most up-to-date plugins such as, Adobe Flash, Silverlight, or anything like that. If you don\’t, IE8 will prompt you to update these things before you can successfully run IE8. Also, there is a compatiblilty button that will sometimes appear next to your address bar. You can click this button to fix a webpage that isn\’t loading correctly in IE8. This button renders the page in IE7 mode.Enjoy!
Christian, I had the same problem with one of my computers that runs Windows Vista x32. I have Windows Vista x64 on mine. If you have another PC I would go to that and download the installer there. I will also upload the installer to my Skydrive if you wish to download it from there. Here is the address: http://cid-b94832f33c780d46.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Internet%20Explorer%208%20×64/Internet%20Explorer%208%20×64.exeI would also try to empty your Internet Cache. I hope this works for you.
I have problems dealing with one woman; In love with more than two; Is it an handicapped or not?
Widows is showing me more and more, that thier ad content is more important than my browsing experience. if this continues, I will surely seek other browser software, and potentially eliminate vista from my system as well!
I need to print off an E-Mail and it is more than on page long and it will not let me print off the whole E-Mail, it\’s a letter. I need help now!Chris
Some banks will not allow access after I upgraded to IE8. I called Wells Fargo and they do not support IE8 so I can no longer access my banking.
@ Mary- who uses Wells Fargo for a bank?
John – you are funny
Seeing as Web Messenger in Hotmail seems to have arrived, I\’ve noticed that there doesn\’t seem to be a way to see all your online contacts on it, you have to go through the list and see individually which contacts are online. If you implemented a way of seeing all your online contacts together on Hotmail it would make Web Messenger easy to use as at the moment it is not particularly useful due to the fact that you have to find a contact to see if they are online. Could you also improve the contact search so that it lists contacts as you type on the contact page as it does with mail on the desktop and when you type a name into the to bar when composing an email instead of having to press the search button each time and wait for the results page to load.
Mary, try using the compatibility button. This button will cause the browser to trick their servers making them think you are using IE7. That button can be located up by the address bar. It looks like a piece of paper that has been ripped in the middle. You can also go to Tools then Compatibility View Settings and add Wells Fargo\’s website to that. This will then cause that webpage to render in IE7 Compatibility mode all of the time.Good Luck!
I also forgot, here is a resource from Microsoft that will help you with your IE8 questions.http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/support/faq.aspx
Hey can anyone please tell me how can I share my pictures from flickr to SkyDrive without saving it on computer one by one..???
Hi, I don\’t know why my Home page some time changing the lugguage from English to Arabic when I am chicking my InBox and come back to Home page? please help me to fix this issue.
David – thank you! I can now enter sites that do not support IE8 – and thanks for the link to IE8 Support – don\’t know why I didn\’t think of that. Anyway – I\’m happy, and love IE8.
Your Welcome Mary! I am glad you like IE8!
I continue to get emails from sources that indicate I need to verify my Windows live account, posted with exclamation points and the like. Does the Windows Live team send out these kinds of emails? At this point I do not open them and using report them as phising scams.
I am also getting e-mails saying I need to respond with my sername password and date of birth or my hotmail will be shut off. I don\’t trust this but would be really upset if my hotmail was shut off. This was the only way I could figure out to contact someone. Is this a scam???
No. This is phishing. No legitimate vendor will EVER ask you to update account information via E-mail. Not unless YOU initiate the status change. The bastards who sent you that are looking to rob you or compromise your account. Avoid like the plague.
i cannot login, i keep getting the platform if not working
@Harry E and No name: Those messages are a phishing scam, and not from Windows Live. Delete them. As Michael Dees said, we would never ask you to confirm your password, and will never ask you for account information unless YOU initiate the request. For more info on this scam, please see our recent blog post: http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!36411.entry
I have been repeatedly trying to remove the warning to my incoming E Mails that I am away on vacation when I am not but without success and I do not know how the warning got on in the first place. It is causing me and others irritation and inconvenience
The Windows guidance notes fail to recognise the need for clarity and brevity. As Confucious said " If what is said is not what is meant, that which ought to be done , remains undone "
The Internet Explorer 8 is very nice, but there seems to be a lot more "Connection Error/Problems" than the IE 7.
Right so i go to sighn in on msn, and it comes up with error code: 8e5e0152 and ive been searching it for ages and nothing has popped upp please make this ass clear as possible as i am only 13 years old and i need help sighning in!!!!:@
I get the prompt that I need to upgrade. It get\’s almost to 90% done and it then rolls back. It says it cant uninstall the old version. I\’ve tried through the control panel, add remove program and it can\’t find the .msi uninstall file. How can I get that? Or how can I uninstall this?
I am talking about the Live 8.5 upgrade. Anyone else having that problem?
hi there got a problemwith msg everytime i try to check my emails or chat with someonei get windows live communication platform has stopped workingand i cant do nothing with it been looking online for a fix tried all mentioned but nothing workthx in advance
hey got another problem but thats on my desktop this timebut now i can only access my files by safe modeand not to sure wat i need to do theresince i got that i havent use itthe security center service is not running plz plz help thx in advance
I have recieved the same information as Carol HutahaeanCarol Hutahaeanwrote:i recieved the email below saying i won 1 million euros – i\’m assuming this is a scam ???can you advise pleaseFrom: EUROMILLION (eurosmilss@luckymail.com) Sent: 17 March 2009 17:20:48 To: 1 attachment PAYMENT P…doc (57.8 KB) i TERMS AND CONDITIONS Dear Sir/Madam, You don\’t have to purchase a ticket to enter this lottery, your email indicating you as a winner in the lottery programs held by the EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY was received. Your email address was selected through the computer ballot system drawn from over 25,000,000 company and 40,000,as one of the lucky email address that emerge from the first category to have won the sum of €1,000.000.00, One Million Euros, the information was passed to you by the lottery coordinator to ensure that we are in contact with the rightful owner of the winning email address to avoid double claiming. To commence on the processing of your Winning Prize as your claim agent, you are advised to provide us with the following information: etc………21 Mar.Is this a scam Kind regards Nick
@No name -Yes that is certainly a scam. Do not respond. See our tips about how to identify and avoid e-mail scams here: http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!36411.entry.- Windows Live team
This is not about the new Safer SurfingWith The New Internet Explorer , but an email from some one with a lot of e-mail address about the Messanger that if I did not re joined and send in all my contack list that I am going to be deleted, because that there were only 548 some number like that that we ALL WILL BE DELETED AND IT WOULD COST $10.00 TO GET BACK ON. iS THIS FOR REAL? mari , marilyn_graves@hoymail.com
All right , is good to know that the new Internet Explorer 8 brings more safety to websurfing. Keep it up guys, we count on you
Okay – here\’s what happened to me yesterday – don\’t worry, it\’s repaired now but for everyone else: if you who are reporting sign-in, or any other problems and you have the Live Essentials package installed, go into Programs & Features (in Vista), or Add/Remove Programs in XP; pick out your Live Essentials program in there and do a repair, NOT an un-install! Once the repair is done, whatever difficulty you\’re having now should be resolved. My Live Homepage decided to scarper after I did a few security changes yesterday. I can\’t live without me Homepage! The repair job fixed home.live.com/whatsnew.aspx, which is your Live Homepage URL. (Without the end comma, by the way;-) Give it a go. It can\’t hurt, but like I said, this is for those of you who have the Live Essentials package. Thumbs up, Microsoft, for a really good fix-it!
@mari do you even have to ask? Of COURSE it isn\’t for real.
btw IE 8 doesn\’t actually work—it to keep you safer…it lets trojans through like water through a garden hose.
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