Still with no release date, Microsoft has released details that the next version of its browser, IE8 will be pushed out via Automatic Update, Windows Update, and Microsoft Update as high priority to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users.

For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 the update will only be pushed out with an important priority.

For network administrators or users who do not want to update, there is a toolkit available to stop Internet Explorer 8 being pushed out.

The toolkit has no expiry date, unlike previous versions, and can be configured via a registry file run on uses machine or pushed out via a group policy.

You can download the IE8 Blocker Toolkit here.

Microsoft has confirmed that IE8 will now be delayed to 2009. On the IEBlog, Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of Internet Explorer has stated that Microsoft “will release one more public update of IE8 in the first quarter of 2009, and then follow that up with the final release”.

The reason for the delay according to Hachamovitch is so the IE team can “make any changes they feel are necessary for the best possible customer experience using IE8, and report any critical issues. Our plan is to deliver the final product after listening for feedback about critical issues”.

Despite the delay, this should be good news for users of IE, as the current beta 2 is still quite buggy. The extra time should let Microsoft fix all outstanding issues to deliver a stable and complete product.

With the release of Google Chrome, John Resig has performed JavaScript benchmark tests on a wide variety of browsers on both Windows Vista and XP. These browsers include:

• Chrome 0.2
• Safari 4
• Safari 3.1.2
• Opera 9.5.2
• Firefox 3.1
• Firefox 3.0.1
• IE7
• IE8 Beta 2

Testing, using three benchmarking tools; SunSpider, V8 Benchmark, and Dromaeo, has produced some interesting results. Results show that Google Chrome is ahead in all but one benchmark test – very impressive for a browser that is still in its early beta stages. It shows the performance of the new V8 JavaScript engine and the power of the WebKit rendering engine found in both Chrome and Safari.

You can read the full JavaScript Performance Rundown article to see the other (not-so)surprissing results.