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No IE 11 for Windows 8.0?

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trents

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
I was tinkering around this week with a copy of Windows 8 that I was given to use in an academic setting. It is not upgradeable to 8.1. I was quite surprised to discover that IE 11 is available for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 but not 8.0. It strikes me as weird that it is compatible with Windows 7 but not Windows 8.0.
 
There is an IE to use...10? or Chrome, or FF, etc...

Sure but why would MS make the newest IE compatible with Windows 7 and not with Windows 8? And if it works on Windows 8.1, why does it not work on Windows 8.0?

according to this you need 8.1 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/ie-system-requirements#ie=ie-11

I have an academic copy and upgraded to 8.1. Odd.

This is an "unofficial" academic version that an IT prof may have made available to the students kind of under the table. We were not given product keys so it's only good for a limited time as it can't be activated. I think the intent was for it just to be useable long enough to last the quarter.
 
Minor reasons only. There is some older software that works under Windows 8.0 but not Windows 8.1. Most people would not be using older software so that's not really a reason.

And if you already have 8.0 installed and customized, then 8.1 is more like installing a new OS rather then a simple Service Pack upgrade - which it is not.


I can think of no other reason not to have IE11 on 8.0 other than Microsoft using it to force people to upgrade to 8.1.
 
Did Internet Explorer 11 come out after 8.1? If it did, I believe Microsoft is treating 8.1 the same way as a service pack, thus, just like a "Windows 8 SP1".
 
I found out the hard way that it is more like a new install because a lot of my customizations were no longer there, it reset a lot of the stuff to factory settings and old versions of Comodo Firewall freeware and Avira antivirus freeware were no longer working because they were compatible with 8.0 but not 8.1.

Service Packs tend to not reset so many things when they are installed. I think Microsoft calling it a new version rather than 8.0 SP1 is therefore accurate.
 
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