Improved security
Many fleeing Internet Explorer 6 have cited increased security
concerns as a major reason. There are many legacy problems within
Internet Explorer that have resulted from Microsoft's decision to
marry its Internet browser with its Windows operating system
architecture. IE 7 for XP SP2 attempts to mitigate some of those
concerns. While in the short term these may dissuade some
criminal hackers, others may find other flaws within the
venerable browser to exploit going forward.
Antiphishing
We think the most useful security enhancement, on a day-to-day
basis is the new antiphishing component within IE 7 XP SP2. Using
heuristics, or algorithms, rather than
whitelists, Internet Explorer can analyse a given page and
determine whether it's the real McCoy or a spoofed page. Should
you land on a suspicious site, you'll see a golden bar across the
top of the page. You'll have a chance to correct any errors,
saving pages you know are not frauds but that may appear so
within IE.
Internet security settings
Another very good change is the simplified Internet security
settings options. Microsoft has raised the security bar, making
the default setting Medium-High. If you need to change any of the
security settings -- say, to install new software via download --
you'll see a golden bar across the top of the screen, reminding
you that you are now surfing under less-than-secure settings. You
can use a one-click menu option to change those settings
back.
ActiveX opt-in
One of the sore spots for Microsoft has been flaws within the
ActiveX Controls native to Windows but easily exploited via
Internet Explorer. With IE 7 for XP SP2, Microsoft has neutered
all but the most essential ActiveX Controls. If you need more,
you'll be asked to activate them on a case-by-case basis. This
should limit criminal hacker-attack vectors within IE 7.
Address bars in every window
A new feature within IE 7 for XP SP2 adds an address bar to
pop-up windows, allowing you to determine whether you want to
view that content (advertising, for example). This feature is
currently available in Firefox.
IDN support
Another way a criminal hacker can attack Internet Explorer users
is to substitute characters from one character set into another
within a domain name. For example, if you set English as your
native language, all URLs will display characters from the
English character set. If someone decides to use a Cyrillic
character in a fraudulent domain name, you'll see a warning
across the screen.
High-assurance security certifications
If you do online banking or e-commerce with IE 7 for XP SP2,
you'll notice that Microsoft has also upgraded its certificate
requirements. Currently, all certificate authority statements
from Web servers are rendered as low security, with Microsoft
pushing site developers to adopt a more robust certificate
authority transaction. In this case, the client-side app is
available before the back-end technical enhancements will be
ready, but Microsoft did say this was a technical beta.
One click cleanup
Although Firefox and Opera have offered this for years, Microsoft
has finally made it easy for anyone to delete their browser
history.
Be sure to check back for a full review once the final version of Internet Explorer 7 for XP SP2 is released in a few months' time.
8%
1%
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.