Box shadow problem in IE 8-9

Question

I want to place CSS drop shadows on different objects on a web page. It works perfectly in Safari, FF, Chrome and Opera both in Widows and OS X, but fails in IE 8 & 9. Any help would be much apreaciated. VL Branko
Here is the CSS:
/* this is for putting drop shadows on images that are placed in the text area which is generally white or very light colored */
.dropshadowtext {
-moz-box-shadow: 5px 5px 8px #999; /* Firefox */
-webkit-box-shadow: 5px 5px 8px #999; /* Safari/Chrome */
box-shadow: 5px 5px 8px #999; /* Opera and other CSS3 supporting browsers */
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color=#999999)";/* IE 8 */
: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color=#999);/* IE 5.5 - 7 */
/* this is for putting drop shadows on images that are placed in areas other than the text area  */
.dropshadowbackground {
-moz-box-shadow: 6px 6px 5px #35454c; /* Firefox */
-webkit-box-shadow: 6px 6px 5px #35454c; /* Safari/Chrome */
box-shadow: 6px 6px 5px #35454c; /* Opera and other CSS3 supporting browsers */
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color=#35454c)";/* IE 8 */
: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color=#35454c);/* IE 5.5 - 7 */
/* this is for putting a drop shadow under the area where there text is written color of shadow will depend on the background*/
.dropshadowunderwritingarea {
-moz-box-shadow: 6px 6px 5px #35454c; /* Firefox */
-webkit-box-shadow: 6px 6px 5px #35454c; /* Safari/Chrome */
box-shadow: 6px 6px 5px #35454c; /* Opera and other CSS3 supporting browsers */
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color=#35454c)";/* IE 8 */
: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color=#35454c);/* IE 5.5 - 7 */

Answer 1

I was away for a few days hence late reply. I removed the MS filters from the CSS but it still didn't work in IE9 when I check in browser lab.
I see that you have a demo of how to do it for various versions of IE at
http://alt-web.com/DEMOS/CSS-Shadows.shtml
It worked when I checked in browser labs. Are you no longer recomending this? How would you implement it in CSS?
As for the validation errors they seem to be artifacts left over when  converting from Adobe Golive to Dreamweaver. More deadwood to clean out.