IE8 RC1 finally able to access certificates on an E-ID card
Ever since this morning, even before I noticed my friday afternoon problem went away by itself over the weekend, I’ve been feeling a little bold. Maybe you yourself are familiar with the feeling of being invincible, on a roll, miles ahead of the hurd…
Anyways, feeling the way I did, I decided it was time to re-install Internet Explorer 8 and give it another go. Maybe this time everything would work out for me.
You have to know that a while ago I installed IE8 Beta 1 followed by Beta2. And to be honest, aside of the fact I had some minor ‘drawing’ problems on some occasions and google having trouble showing results when searching for stuff, it seemed to do the job just fine.
That is, untill I recently tried to use my Belgian e-ID card and authenticate myself to the website where one can fill in his tax report. It was just then that I noticed that although my certificates were registered and available when looking at them in Tools > Internet Options > Content > Certificates, IE8 (up to Beta2) did not show them in the popup box which should list the certificate and let you pick it. The popup box just stayed empty.
Because I really wanted to use my e-ID card to authenticate myself I decided to go back to IE7 as I was sure it worked before upgrading to Microsoft’s Latest and Greatest. And indeed, after downgrading everything worked just fine once again.
So feeling the way I felt today, I was convinced reinstalling IE8 (using RC1) would give me the advantage of both enjoying this new version and still be able to use my e-ID card. You know what, IT DID! I like to think it was due to the fact of me being so great but it could as well be that Microsoft fixed one of the bugs left in the beta versions….
Thoughts on IT 
yeah… probably best to chalk this one up to Microsoft 😉