How to build offline web applications in IE8?

Is it really true that there is no way to support an offline web application using IE8? I wonder how people/companies are getting around this problem (no IE8 support for HTML5 offline features) if they absolutely need to use an IE browser (not IE10) and need to use it when no net connectivity exists. I realize there are plenty of rich client solutions but am curious about any lightweight solutions whereby IE8 would access something like applicationCache. Apparently Google Gears is no longer a solution for this problem. Any other third party solution people would recommend开发者_Go百科?

Any suggestions would be helpful!

Thanks.

The only currently practical option is Chrome Frame, but this is almost equivalent to just installing a whole new browser.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the concept of offline web app, but we routinely use HTML Applications (HTA) to create web apps that operate client-side, accessing the file system and local data stores, and automating local apps.