Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta 2 Direct Download Link Without WGA

After the almost disastrous launch of IE 8 Beta 1, the second beta of IE8 (Internet Explorer 8) has been released for free download. Various improvements, enhancements, bug fixes and some new features are added to the new version of IE8 Beta 2.

A lot of users’ reviews on IE8 Beta2 have been outright negative, which means that IE8 Beta 2 is not even worth a try. But for users who are daring to try, it’s possible to download and install IE8 Beta 2 version 8.0 from microsoft.com. There is no WGA validation required (Microsoft has removed the WGA check since IE7) for downloading and installing the web browser. So even if your PC is not genuine and fails validation, IE8 Beta 2 can still be installed and used, but probably it’s not a good choice, yet.

For convenient, here’s the direct download links and IE8 Beta 2 information pages on Microsoft Download Center for various operating system, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions available.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x86)
Direct Download: IE8-WindowsVista-x86-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Vista x64 Edition and Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition
Direct Download: IE8-WindowsVista-x64-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Window XP SP2 and SP3
Direct Download: IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Server 2003 SP2 x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition
Direct Download: IE8-WindowsServer2003-x64-ENU.exe

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows Server 2003 SP2 (x86)
Direct Download: IE8-WindowsServer2003-x86-ENU.exe

Some features of IE8 Beta 2 include InPrivate browsing, reopen closed tabs, Smart Address Bar, Web Slices, Accelerators and SmartScreen Filter.

Update: Download IE8 RC (Release Candidate)