Microsoft IE 7 Goes (More) Beta

Hans W. Smith writes "Microsoft has unveiled Internet Explorer 7, releasing the new "preview" version of its Web browser to the general public for testing. The latest version works only with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and includes many of the features Microsoft has been touting for months such as: privacy protection,tabbed browsing and a search box similar to Firefox. They tried to outdo Firefox tab browsing with a feature call Quick tab which shows thumbnail view of all open tabs in a single window." Yup, you saw it yesterday. Posting before coffee never works.

Comments

"Quick Tab"

[arcdx]

They tried to outdo Firefox tab browsing with a feature call Quick tab which shows thumbnail view of all open tabs in a single window.

This can be accomplished in Firefox by using the foXpose extension.

IE7 is a dupe!

[Alphab.fr]

The "new" quicktab feature is nothing more than a copy of the Firefox Viewmatic Foxposé...
http://viamatic.com/index.php/firefox

And M$ says to dev, please install IE7 Beta and test your pages... except that if I do that, it kills IE6, and I can't check my pages as they'll be seen by 90% of visitors...

Re:Microsoft should thank Firefox

[CyricZ]

I know you're joking, but keep in mind that many of the innovative developments which are credited to Firefox actually appeared first in other browsers, such as Opera, Konqueror, and Amaya. Tabs, ad blocking, mouse gestures, and so forth.

Re:css fixes?

[Bogtha]

Yes, yes and yes.

I appreciate that it's a genuine question, but a completely information-free comment should not be Score: 4, Insightful.

Needs "Genuine Advantage" validation

[james_bray]

Just to save some people the bother of downloading....

I tried it ... some thoughts.

[Gnascher]

1. They are requesting that developers install it and test thier sites and report back. However, it installes OVER IE6, so you can't have them both on the same machine. This is a major showstopper for a developer, since we NEED to have IE6 installed for current functionality and compatibility.

2. Fails the Acid2 test miserably

3. They've moved the Refresh button to the right of the address bar, while the Forward and Back buttons remain in the same position ... this is just dumb. All the navigation buttons should be grouped.

4. The "Stop Navigation" button has also been moved over to the right. They've also changed the look of the button to a red "X", so that it now looks like a "close something" button instead of a "stop this action" button.

5. They've "fixed" the functionality that allows you to utilize many CSS hacks to compensate for IE's rendering flaws, however they haven't fixed the underlying bugs that the "hacks" were intended to fix. As a result, a lot of sites I checked out that rendered just fine in all current browsers (including IE6) are now broken in IE7, because the "hacks" no longer work in IE7, but thier standards complience is still shoddy, and thier box-model still sucks.

6. The graphics for the tabs looks "clunky" as compared to other tabbed browsers.

7. They've hidden the main menu, so now you have to go through a few clicks to find the options that used to be only 1 or 2 clicks away.

Overall, I hope they don't think that this release is close to production readiness. They've changed a number of things just so that they look different, while in the process breaking a number of UI conventions that have long been established an work.

They've still got a lot of work to do in thier CSS support ... I don't understand why even some of the most basic CSS functionality is beyond thier ability to grasp. I can understand some of the more 'advanced' CSS features being a little tricky to interpret and implement, but basic positioning, sizing, padding and margin issues should be pretty easy to understand.

They claim to have fixed .PNG alpha channel transparency, and that's true ... to a point, but it doesn't work when the .png with transparency is used in a layer in some cases.

One thing I can applaud them on is that they've added the ability to use XMLHttpRequest without using thier proprietary ActiveX control, which will simplify those of us writing AJAX code into our web apps. They claim the old ActiveX method will still work for legacy support though.

So, that's my take. They've come a long way from IE6 ... but I beleive that they've got a long way to go in order to have a final release of IE7 that can truly compete against the other players in today's browser market.

Run IE7 locally without replacing IE6

[AC-x]

The iexplore.exe.local trick seems to work for IE7.

Simply download the installer, use WinRAR or similar to unpack the installer into a folder, add an empty file called "iexplore.exe.local" then run iexplore.exe.

No having to uninstall IE6, or even install IE7 at all. The interface gets a bit messed up but it's definitely running a new engine (still some CSS bugs I can see tho, tut tut....)

Re:Run IE7 locally without replacing IE6

[Wierdy1024]

I highly recommed AGAINST doing this - IE7 runs fine, great etc., but when you close IE you'll find that windows explorer can no longer open folders, and that Internet explorer can open a web page, but hyperlinks no longer work. If a hyperlink is clicked 152 internet explorer windows open up, all saying "Action Canceled", and then the machine runs out of memory. I spent ages with system restore and registry backups trying to undo all IE7's registry changes, but in the end I had to format and re-install windows.

So overall, DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU DON'T MIND BREAKING WINDOWS EXPLORER AND IE6!!!

How to Run Both IE6 and IE7 PB2 On the Same PC

[wolverine1999]

This page explains how you can run both on the same PC without needing a virtual machine. It works well for me.

http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2005/12/2 8/434132.aspx