Microsoft has made the second beta of its forthcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 8 browser available for download.

The browser contains many new features, including an inPrivate mode that allows the records of a web session to be kept private, improved tabbed browsing and a smarter address bar that uses previous history to try and predict the requested URL.

For system administrators Microsoft has added a new user interface to its Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) that it hopes will make deployment and management easier and has added 100 new Group Policy settings for large scale systems.

The new browser is also attempting to become more standards compliant. Microsoft says it passes the Acid2 browser test, will include CSS 2.1 and supports W3C’s HTML 5 Draft DOM Storage standard and the Web API Working Group’s Selectors API.

No release date has been given for the final browser but it is expected by the end of the year.