Following the availability of Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 at the end of January 2009, Microsoft also started serving the Group Policy Settings Reference for the latest build of the next version of IE. According to Microsoft, the Group Policy Settings Reference is designed for copies of IE8 RC1 running on Windows Vista RTM and SP1, Windows XP SP3 and earlier, Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows Server 2008.

“This spreadsheet lists the policy settings for computer and user configurations included in the administrative template files (admx/adml) delivered with Windows Internet Explorer 8. The policy settings included in this spreadsheet cover Internet Explorer 5, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8. These files are used to expose policy settings when you edit Group Policy objects (GPOs) using Group Policy Object Editor (also known as GPEdit),” revealed Nick MacKechnie, a senior technical account manager at Microsoft New Zealand.

At the same time, Microsoft issued an update for IE Group Policies, associated with Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1. Following the implementation of the update, users will be able to view IE Group Policies on both Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP 64-bit Edition that are running IE8 RC1. Microsoft released IE8 RC1 on January 26, 2009, indicating that it is ready to move to the next stage in the browser's development. The upcoming milestone for Internet Explorer 8 is RTW (release to web).

“You will not be able to view Windows Internet Explorer Group Policies on Windows Server 2003 SP2 or Windows XP 64-bit Edition with the ADM file included with Windows Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1. If you open the Group Policy Editor (GPEdit.msc), you will see a warning dialog stating that the inetres.adm file could not be loaded. You will still be able to view and configure Group Policies unrelated to Internet Explorer,” Microsoft added.

Group Policy Settings Reference Windows Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 is available for download here.

Update for Windows Internet Explorer Group Policies with Windows Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 is available for download here.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is available for download here.