New Test Version of Internet Explorer 7 now ready for public release

If you are one of those Web users who likes to keep up with the latest, most up-to-date technologies then you will be interested in the most recent developments at Microsoft.

They have just announced that they are releasing a new test version of their web browser software, which is of course, is their well known Internet Explorer for the public to sample. Whilst Microsoft has retained a market-leading share with their Web browser they are increasingly facing tough competition from some of the traditionally smaller players in this space.

Have there been previous versions released to the public to test and play with? Yes, while the most recent version is called IE 7 Beta 2, it is actually the third test version of Internet Explorer 7 made available to the general public. Currently it includes fixes for problems that were causing previous versions to freeze and stop working.

According to Microsoft the most common problems reported with the previous test versions involved those types of Webs sites that included banking and news Web pages, mostly because of security changes with Internet Explorer.

As Microsoft, and for that matter, others are finding out, changing or even improving security can be a very tricky business. Almost any change has the capacity to frustrate users by causing legitimate Web sites to stop working.

You mentioned competition, where is the competition coming from for Internet Explorer. Do these competitors have better features? The new version comes amid growing competition from browsers such as Firefox and Opera, which have long offered functions that Internet Explorer is only just now starting to implement. Since IE, with its market dominance, is a popular target for attacks - many also consider other browsers to be more secure.

So what are some of the new features we can expect to see in this new version of the software? Well, there are certainly a great many new features and too many to mention individually at the moment. On a straight feature-for-feature comparison, IE7 stacks up fairly well against its competitor's functionality at this time.

However, you might say the biggest emphasis is on its improved security, the users screen "real estate" designs and management.

Certainly if its improved security model lives up to its design specifications, then those despicable distributors of crooked systems out there will find it much more difficult to make a dishonest living on the 'Net. It should be far more secure and less vulnerable to infestations of spyware, viruses, and generally other forms of malware by blocking downloads, unless you specifically approve them.

One nice feature is IE7's optional Phishing Filter which automatically checks Web sites to see if they look suspicious or are on a list of known sites used by identity thieves, displaying a bright red bar for a known phishing site and a yellow one for suspected but unconfirmed sites.

On the ease of use side, the tabbed browsing features in the new release should make it far, far easier to deal with multiple pages at the one time, on the one screen while giving the user more available screen to work with. Tabs are new in Internet Explorer 7. Before tabs, for example, online shoppers would surf link to link, saving favourites, taking notes, and then make their purchase. Tabbing has stopped all that. Here's how it works. When you open Internet Explorer, the top of the browser window, below the tool bar, displays two tabs: your current page and a smaller, blank tab. The blank tab is shown below, surrounded by the red oval.

How much does it cost, and where can we get it from. I guess the good news is that the new software is free can be downloaded from the Microsoft site, but only to English-language customers at this particular time.

It is expected there are plans for at least one more software release before the final version of Internet Explorer 7 is set loose on the public. That is expected to be in the second half of this year. Interestingly, this time frame coincides with the release of a new version of Microsoft's Windows Operating System is expected to be available for business users. It is then releasing the new Windows, called Vista, to consumers in early 2007.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au