Windows 7 RTM will be available in the next days and for all European users there will be no Internet Explorer 8. I’m not sure if there will be an option to install Internet Explorer from the setup DVD or if we can simple add this as a Windows feature in control panel.
Following command line batch file will download Internet Explorer 8 setup:
@echo off
if exist download-IE8.cs del download-IE8.cs
echo using System; > download-IE8.cs
echo using System.Net; >> download-IE8.cs
echo using System.IO; >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo namespace Download_IE8 >> download-IE8.cs
echo { >> download-IE8.cs
echo class Program >> download-IE8.cs
echo { >> download-IE8.cs
echo static void Main(string[] args) >> download-IE8.cs
echo { >> download-IE8.cs
echo if (File.Exists("IE8-WindowsVista-x86-DEU.exe")) >> download-IE8.cs
echo File.Delete("IE8-WindowsVista-x86-DEU.exe"); >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo try >> download-IE8.cs
echo { >> download-IE8.cs
echo HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("[http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/C/3DC5DC1B-2B60-487A-BAE2-732662BC0886/IE8-WindowsVista-x86-DEU.exe");](http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/C/3DC5DC1B-2B60-487A-BAE2-732662BC0886/IE8-WindowsVista-x86-DEU.exe");) >> download-IE8.cs
echo request.UserAgent = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.1;)"; >> download-IE8.cs
echo request.AllowWriteStreamBuffering = false; >> download-IE8.cs
echo request.Timeout = 10000; >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo using (Stream s = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream()) >> download-IE8.cs
echo { >> download-IE8.cs
echo FileStream fs = new FileStream("IE8-WindowsVista-x86-DEU.exe", FileMode.Create); >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo byte[] read = new byte[1024]; >> download-IE8.cs
echo int count = s.Read(read, 0, read.Length); >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo while (count != 0) >> download-IE8.cs
echo { >> download-IE8.cs
echo fs.Write(read, 0, count); >> download-IE8.cs
echo count = s.Read(read, 0, read.Length); >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo Console.Write("."); >> download-IE8.cs
echo } >> download-IE8.cs
echo } >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo Console.WriteLine(); >> download-IE8.cs
echo Console.WriteLine("Done."); >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
echo System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000); >> download-IE8.cs
echo System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("IE8-WindowsVista-x86-DEU.exe"); >> download-IE8.cs
echo } >> download-IE8.cs
echo catch (Exception ex) >> download-IE8.cs
echo { >> download-IE8.cs
echo Console.WriteLine("Error: " + ex.Message); >> download-IE8.cs
echo } >> download-IE8.cs
echo } >> download-IE8.cs
echo } >> download-IE8.cs
echo } >> download-IE8.cs
echo. >> download-IE8.cs
if not exist download-IE8.cs goto ERROR1
"%WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\csc.exe" download-IE8.cs
download-IE8.exe
if not exists download-IE8.exe goto ERROR2
:ERROR1
echo Could not create C# source file.
goto END
:ERROR2
echo Could not create executable to download IE8.
goto END
:END
Note: this is a first version of my script that will download Internet Explorer 8 German for Windows Vista (x86) only. If it is working I will modify it to have an option to choose the correct version you need. Well, if Microsoft is adding a checkbox to the Windows features in control panel we don’t need it.