It appears the new version of Internet Explorer has a bug that relates to SharePoint. Users with Windows XP trying to use IE8 to access the "Explorer View" for a Document Library over https will recieve the following message:
"Please wait while Explorer View is loaded. If Explorer View does not appear, your browser may not support it."
This means that IE8 will not open the Explorer View over a secure connection. If your URL or Address starts with https instead of http that means the connection is secured with SSL encryption. This was not a problem with IE7.
Hopefully this bug will be fixed soon. In the meantime you can use the following workaround:
Go to the All Documents View
Under Actions choose "Open with Windows Explorer"
If this does not work you may need to turn on your WebClient Service:In Windows go to the Start Menu and choose Run. Run services.mscIn the Services Menu find the WebClient Service and make sure it is Started and set to Automatic Startup.
Given that IE7 also had issues with the Explorer View it would seem that this is an overlooked area for Microsoft's IE testing.