Internet Explorer 7 Hits The Street

Microsoft released the Public Preview version of Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0 Beta, a pre-release version of its next Web browser. The idea was that developers and Web site operators should use this build to test their sites in anticipation of the final IE 7 release.

Download Internet Explorer 7 Here.

What Has Changed in Version 7:
Unlike both IE 5.x and IE 6.0, IE 7.0 includes both major functional changes as well as major changes under the hood that impact both the security and stability of IE as well as how the product renders Web sites.

• User Interface Improvements: The navigation bar in the new internet explorer is completely redesigned. Everything else is new and interesting. The major theme here is to have buttons as short cuts and pulldowns for more detail.
• Tabbed Browsing: Another interesting change is that the IE 7 introduced tabbed browsing. There is Quick Tabs feature which is technically unique. Quick Tabs let’s you visually switch between open Web documents.
• Integrated Search: The new Internet Explorer features a built-in search box, similar to the one in Firefox. Like Firefox, Internet Explorer has an infrastructure for adding more search engines.
• Favorites and History: Favorites and History have gone through a major redesign in this version, which aggregates these two document lists with the new RSS (Real Simple Syndication) support.
• RSS Integration: If there is one thing that definitely stands out in IE7, it is RSS integration. IE presents RSS feeds using a smart view which lets the user search, filter and sort the entries contained in the feed.
• Other Notable Features: There are also lot of additions in this new version like Printing Advances, Clear Type, Text Zoom, Fix Settings, Security Features, Enterprise Features and so on.

Getting Around IE7 Problems:
The new version of internet explorer has born with some problems.

• Problem With Viewing Some Sites: Every time a new version of Internet Explorer has been released, there have been sites that will not work with that new version. We can get around this problem with User Agent String Utility Tool Here. This tool opens an Internet Explorer 7.0 window which is configured to report its identity to websites as being Internet Explorer 6.0 – an excellent way to work with Web sites that are improperly coded to only recognise IE6 and earlier.
• IE7 (iexplore.exe) Crashes: Some times when we open a new tab the process crashes without any error message. Just vanishes from processes.This may be due to Add-Ons, so sometimes disabling add-ons will help(Internet Options -> Advanced -> Reset Internet Explorer Settings).
• McAfee Update Problems: Security settings in the new version of Internet Explorer are causing problems for users of McAfee software.McAfee have released a workaround solution to the problem. The install advice is here, and the update guide is here.
• “Internet Explorer Has Encountered A Problem And Needs To Close”: Instead of manually installing IE7, download it along with windows update.
• Start-Up Problems: Sometimes during start-up we get a window named “SMARTBRIDGE ALERTS: MotiveSB.exe and some error message. MotiveSB.exe is a program installed by SBC Yahoo and some other Internet providers to help them diagnose problems.Just disable the startup entry of MotiveSB.exe(Start->Run->msconfig-> startup).

If you still have problems with IE7, then try downloading IE from windows update site instead of manually downloading and installing.

Bottom-Line: IE 7 is a huge monumental improvement over IE 6 in both security and functionality, and will likely impress most typical Windows users. There is evidence of really good effort and innovation.

The bigger question is how does IE7 compare to Firefox 2.0 and is it enough to hang on to IE’s huge market share?

IE 7.0 Beta 2 is stable enough to use on production PCs and servers, and if you’re wondering what the future is going to look like, dive right in.