Beta 1 of IE8 has been released and can be downloaded here. I just finished downloading it and installing it on my computer and have already hit my first snag. Apparently Office Live Workspace Beta, which was released worldwide yesterday (and I happened to blog about yesterday as well) doesn’t work with IE8 yet. I get the following error when trying to access my workspace:

To use Microsoft Office Live, your computer must meet one of the following requirements:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later, running on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2003. You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer from the Windows Internet Explorer page. 
  • Firefox 2.0, running on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later. You can download Firefox 2.0 from the Firefox Download page.

One nice feature about the beta is the button right on the toolbar to Emulate IE7. It forces you to close and reopen your browser to switch modes, but once switched, everything works just like it did in IE7. It’s a nice way to try out IE8 without having to fully commit to it and be able to switch back to IE7 mode if a website isn’t working or rendering properly.