Sidebars in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

Upon closer inspection, things are not as rosy as I first thought.

Same Old Same Old

Sidebar cuts into status bar.

The IE8b1 Explorer Bar cuts into the status bar, displacing the status bar text to the right. Exactly like IE7’s sidebar bugs.

Opening the sidebar makes the menu drop below the address bar, ignoring the registry setting. The menu bar must always be at the top of the window.

Also, there are large gaps around the controls in the Explorer Bar. This is an inevitably narrow area so wasting space is an especially bad idea. Check the sidebars for Folders and Favourites in Windows Explorer on Windows XP to see how much better it is when the controls are a snug fit.

New and Amazing Bugs

Menu bar dissappears and address bar is drawn twice.
  1. Start IE8b1
  2. Right-click the command bar.
  3. Hide the Menu Bar
  4. Right-click the command bar.
  5. Show the Menu Bar
  6. View > Explorer Bars > History.
  7. Hey presto! You get what’s in the screenshot.

Different combinations of these actions produce the effect at different times. You often get the effect after closing the sidebar.

As was obvious with IE7, the UI in XP builds of recent IE versions uses technologies which are far from production-ready. IE6 has a more reliable UI than IE7 and IE8b1.

Further Review

Check the IE8b1 review overview for things I find after using it more.