Microsoft has released a patch via Windows Update for Internet Explorer 8 for the beta operating systems it released to the public on January 9. The fix is available on Microsoft's automated Windows Update service and also through the Microsoft Update download center.

Microsoft in a support bulletin did not specify the problems with IE8 on Windows 7, but said about 10% of Windows 7 users were reporting problems with the browser. It added that about 1.5% of users were encountering full-on crashes of IE8, currently available only in trial form, on Windows 7 Beta.

The update addresses a wide range of problems that the company stuck under a "reliability" heading. "We use the term 'reliability' to broadly encompass all types of stability problems including crashes, hangs, memory leaks, etc.," said Herman Ng, a program manager on the IE8 team, in a post to the group's blog.

However Microsoft did not go so far as to call the update a release candidate, which would mean it had managed to sync Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) on Windows 7 with the version already available to Windows XP and Vista users. After applying the update, Windows 7 still reports IE8 as "Beta."

In the next month or so, Microsoft will release the final version of IE8 to the public, as well as the Release Candidate of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 which will come with an updated version of IE8 as well.