Almost one year to the day that Bill Gates announced Internet Explorer 7 for XP SP2 at RSA 2005, Microsoft has released a second public beta for the new-and-improved Internet browser. Hoping to stop the increasing tide of disgruntled surfers switching to Mozilla Firefox and Opera 8, Microsoft has mirrored the look and feel of those other browsers while adding a few unique features to IE 7 for XP SP2 (mostly borrowing from what we've already seen in IE 7 for Windows Vista previews).
Although this is a public beta, which means that anyone can download and install it now, Microsoft is quick to caution early adopters that this is still a technical beta, meaning that Microsoft wants Web site developers to see how the changes in the new IE will affect their sites. For the end user, know that not all Web sites will function properly using IE 7 for XP SP2 beta 2. And note that you must be running Windows XP SP2 in order to install this beta; all older versions of Windows are now limited to Internet Explorer 6. The final release of IE 7 for XP SP2 will be in late 2006.
More eye candy
Microsoft has reworked the overall familiar look and feel of
Internet Explorer 7 for XP SP2. The address bar now appears on
the top and is not movable (relocating the bar is a common ploy
among spyware and adware vendors). Also, the toolbar has been
simplified to show only icons. Want the menu bar back? No
problem, just add it. Also, the Favorites sidebar now has three
tabs: one for Favorites, one for History, and one for RSS
feeds.
Tabs
Description: Continuing from beta 1 is the ability to use tabs
within Internet Explorer. However, borrowing from what we've seen
inside the Windows Vista prereleases, Microsoft has added the
ability to visually display all open tabs. Unlike with Vista's IE
7, you can't mouse over the open tabs to see previews of each
page, something that Firefox and Opera currently allow you to
do.
Zoom
Another feature borrowed from Windows Vista is page zoom. You can
wheel in or wheel out on a page, which is perfect for those with
less than 20/20 vision. Opera currently offers this feature.
Shrink to print
IE 7 for XP SP2 will automatically size a page so that when it
goes to your printer, you won't lose the content on the far right
side of the page. The text may be smaller, but the text will be
whole. You also have the ability to print only the highlighted
section of a Web page.
RSS
New to Internet Explorer 7 for XP SP2 beta 2 is a complete Really
Simple Syndication (RSS) substructure. Currently, when you use a
third-party application to receive and read RSS feeds, the app
must load a complete RSS rendering engine. Microsoft has created
its own and adds it to the Windows XP SP2 operating system
(hence, you'll have to reboot when you install the new IE 7
beta). However, the payoff is nice. When you subscribe to an RSS
feed, you'll no longer see a page of HTML but a fairly basic
representation of all the current feeds for that page, plus any
categorising the site has done regarding specific topics. Also,
Microsoft has joined with Mozilla in using the same icon from
RSS, making it easy for users to switch between Firefox and IE
7.
Built-in search
Although MSN Search is the default search setting within IE 7,
Microsoft does link out to Google and other sites, so you can
quickly change that. If your default search is currently set to
Google, however, no need to worry: when IE 7 imports your data
from IE 6, it'll preserve your search engine preference. Also, IE
7 will lock that preference so that installing toolbars won't
automatically -- and sometimes without your permission--change
that preference.
3%
2%
Downloaded and tried the new browser but only kept for an hour. Shows promise but still a long way to go. Still too many bugs at this stage. In my case, for what ever reason, my cursor wanted to keep doing an Irish jig all over the desktop. My homepage rendered okay but this was not the case with a friend. On my friends machine where there should have been three columns there were only two. Additionally, now that he has taken it off, the old version of IE6 is playing up and not rendering the pages properly. While an old firefox fan I have to admit I am impressed with the new netscape browser. So closely aligned with firefox it is quite a viable alternative for those who do not want firefox. I now have both Netscape and firefox and must admit Netscape may have a slight edge, due to the seurity centre feature where security for each individual site can be set through its site controls. Others of course will have different opinions but IE7 will propably be okay once the kinks of the program are worked out. Al it it needs is time as they are now on the right track.