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It appears as though we can now only get a 64 bit installation of windows 7 to come with IE9, and I cannot find an installer for IE 8 for it. This presents a problem, as I am building a new machine for a developer, but the company does not support IE9 yet, and all development needs to be able to be run on IE8. I would rather have them on a 64 bit version of windows so they can have more than 4GB of RAM (can get IE8 on 32 bit win 7).

Does anyone know how to get IE 8 on a new 64 bit version of win 7?

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  • 2
    Where are you getting your Windows setup media from? The standard browser in Windows 7 is IE8, IE9 needs to be installed after the initial setup.
    – Massimo
    Nov 7, 2011 at 14:21
  • It's coming from Dell
    – mjmcinto
    Nov 7, 2011 at 14:33
  • 2
    Just use an offical one from Microsoft, then.
    – Massimo
    Nov 7, 2011 at 14:39

5 Answers 5

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Offical Windows 7 (and 2008 R2) installation media from Microsoft has IE8, IE9 needs to be installed after the initial setup.

If you are using customized setup images from your OEM, they can (and often will) include additional updates, including IE9; so you'll have to ask their support.

But if you use a standard Windows setup media from Microsoft, even one which already includes SP1, it'll have IE8.

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You should be able to uninstall IE9 and have the system revert to IE8.

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  • IE9 does not show up as an uninstallable program in Dell OEM installs.
    – Jonathan J
    Nov 7, 2011 at 21:52
  • 3
    Verify the list of updates. One of those will be IE9
    – Jim B
    Nov 8, 2011 at 1:10
  • @JimB I seem to remember certain updates for Vista (IE 8 being one) that had an option to not allow removal at the time it was added to the image. Are you positive that this feature doesn't exist in IE9 installs that could be made from the IEAK?
    – MDMarra
    Nov 11, 2011 at 20:00
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I'm thinking that IE9 was installed when Windows Update was run. You probably don't want to do that; and uninstall IE9 from the machines where it was installed.

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Just did this. Typing up the instructions from memory as I'm not at a Win7 box right now.

  1. Uncheck IE9 from "Features" (not in list of installed programs or installed updates). [This will allow you to install IE8 later. If you fail to do this, the IE8 installer will say it's not compatible. You don't use the installer anyway, look at step 3 below.]
  2. Uninstall IE9 from "Installed Updates"; restart
  3. Go to Features; where IE9 was IE8 will now appear. Check it to install IE8.
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The other answers are correct, but as a work around you could also just turn on compatibility mode in IE9, but I believe that reverts back to IE7. That may work for you though.

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  • That doesn't fix bugs in IE9's JavaScript engine, only the layout engine. We've hit a bug in the new IE9 JavaScript engine which actually crash the browser completely.
    – rmalayter
    Nov 7, 2011 at 22:03

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