'Lower Rights' IE 7.0 Coming

blacktop writes "eWeek has official confirmation from a Microsoft vice president that the upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0 browser upgrade will ship with reduced privilege mode turned on by default to help thwart browser-based attacks. In addition to anti-phishing and anti-spoofing features, IE 7.0 will add support for IDN (International Domain Names), built-in RSS and seamless search that will include choices of search providers."

Comments

They're adding IDN support NOW???

[bgarcia]

IE 7.0 will add support for IDN (International Domain Names)

Oh, goodie!

I was wondering when IE would be able to support the Unicode URL spoofing attacks!

Appropriate for the largest audience

[wyoung76]

IMO, Microsoft has made the correct decision in announcing this change in IE. The main audience is the so-called "mom & pop" audience which haven't the faintest idea of how to do things, and just want things to work. They also tend to get hit with more problems which the typical /. crowd probably ends up having to fix.

Microsoft may be a bit slow to get there, but they'll get there in the end.

Re:Appropriate for the largest audience

[Mithrandir86]

Good to see that competition from Mozilla's Firefox is inspiring Microsoft to improve IE.

Regardless of who wins in the battle of open-closed ideologies, the ultimate winner shall be the consumer. Which is exactly how it should be.

Re:Appropriate for the largest audience

[Mithrandir86]

Crap, I forgot about posting against the /. articles of faith and got modded a troll.

Just a second.

Greedy M$ is making another foolish move. Hopefully they'll be bankrupt soon. All corporations are inherently evil. Linux forever!

Was that better?

Multiple search engines!

[grasshoppa]

You can use msn! Or, maybe you'd prefer msn!

Or, if those two options don't suit you, you can use MSN!

Possible MS logic?

[B5_geek]

Hmm let me guess, this 'less-priviledged' IE "user" will be unable to install 3d party apps & addons (let's call them "plug-ins").

Idiot #1: I want to install these smile-themes and weather app, but IE won't let me. It says that these "plug-ins" are unsafe and operate at a higher priviledge level. I don't know what that means BUT I WANT MY SMILES! ...... you guys know the rest of the story.

Is it worth the switch?

[Dancin_Santa]

I remember about 6 or 7 years ago when I was switching from Netscape 3 to IE 4 that there was a huge argument over whether Netscape 4 or IE 4 was the better product. The step up from versions 3 was significant.

Lately, having switched to Firefox to avoid rampant security issues, I feel fairly comfortable with this browser. There are some things that I wish were better like better Googlebar and better plug-in handling, but am pretty happy with it.

So with IE7, what's the draw? What features will it have that will encourage me to jump ship again? The feature list doesn't impress me as much as the jump from Netscape 3 to IE 4 did. And security is not an issue with Firefox, so that's not a good enough reason.

I guess I'll just have to download the mandatory Critical Update and try out the browser for myself.

Re:So basically ...

[evilbessie]

Yes, that's is what they are doing but an interesting thing about the article

"Nine months ago, we started hearing from partners like Dell that spyware was a major issue. Our own data from [Dr Watson] crash reports was telling us that 30 percent of all machines had some form of spyware. It reached a point where we had to do something."

So yes they implement security but only when someone else points out that over 25% of all computers are infected with malware. Obviously this new Security concious microsoft takes some time to believe thaty they may be wrong... enjoy

Slow ears

[KiloByte]

From TFA: "Nine months ago, we started hearing from partners like Dell that spyware was a major issue."

Hmm, let's see. (5 years-9 months) times the speed of sound... this means that Dell's headquarters are 46 million kilometers from Redmond.

Re:WHAT??

[Dorothy 86]

Yeah, but verbing nouns weirds the language.

Re:New Features?

[Gorath99]

So what will Microsoft be offering in IE7 that is new, and not just a take on Mozilla/Firefox/Opera?

It seems to me that Microsoft is only playing catch up, has invention died over in Redmond?

To be fair, Firefox has taken many (most?) of its features from other browsers as well.

Let MS copy what they want. If IE improves, so much the better. Firefox et al will have a reason to find new ways to improve and I'll have a better browser when I'm stuck on a Windows box at work/school/whatever.

30%, Try 80%

[blazerw11]

Here are just a few references pointing out the real percentage of computers infected with spyware:
80%
8 out of 10
88%
Or, just search it.
So, 5 years to admit to the problem as it was 3-ish years ago.