This small but highly useful feature could gradually make a big difference in your daily browsing. You also get a new session-saver option: When you close the browser, you can click a box to have IE remember your open tabs, then open the same ones next time. But you will see welcome new tabs - which you can drag-&-drop to arrange as you wish - for viewing multiple pages within one IE window. You won't see a menu row with standard XP options like File, Edit, or View (you can bring it back if you want). The back, forward, and favorites buttons, and the address bar, are all compressed into two rows up top, along with a new search box you can customize with your choice of search engine. IE 7's new streamlined look resembles Vista's. (A final version for Windows Vista will ship with Vista early in 2007.)įor this story, we evaluated feature-complete release candidates of both browsers, IE7 RC1 and Firefox 2 RC2, prior to their final release.
Over a few months, the company will prod users to get version 7 via Automatic Updates you can also download it from Microsoft's site at. Microsoft also added an antiphishing tool and boosted IE 7's security in response to seemingly never-ending IE 6 holes. You can't miss the new user interface, with tabbed browsing, integrated searching, and newsfeed support. Microsoft had further to go to bring IE up to par with the competition (IE 6 was released in 2001), and so IE 7 is a more thorough overhaul of its predecessor. The final version should be available at the same site within a week, and existing users of the browser will receive a notice about version 2 once Mozilla has made a minor update to version 1.5 a few weeks after version 2 is out. You can download a near-final release candidate 3 Wednesday here. However, you can add a plug-in that will let you view a site in IE to get around the problem my favorite is IE View ( ). Regrettably, you'll still find some sites written specifically for IE that don't look right in Firefox 2. Version 2 polishes tabbed browsing, newsfeed support, and add-on management.
A built-in antiphishing tool makes its first appearance, but most other changes simply refine many of the same features that are new to IE 7. It's a measured step, purposely non-jarring for current Firefox users. So which new browser is your best bet?įirefox 2 offers no radical changes compared with version 1.5, which came out a year ago. It also arrives just before version 2 of the up-and-coming Firefox browser, which may be just days away. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (.Version 7 of Microsoft's dominant Web browser packs in interface changes, many new features, and plenty of under-the-hood updates. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (.4) (beta3) Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (.5) (beta2) Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (.5) (beta2 preview refresh) Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (.0) (beta2 preview) Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (.0) (beta1) Product type Application Web Browser Vendor Microsoft Release date 2006 User interface GUI Platform Windows Download count 194 (0 for release) Downloads Download name But is archived here, as much software (stupidly) requires it. Internet Explorer is freely redistributable. Something that would have been unthinkable back then. In 1998, Microsoft was hit with an antitrust suit, much of which involved their browser bundling.īy around 2004, Microsoft had destroyed most of their competition, dominated the browser market, and let IE stagnate until released Firefox.Īfter Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft supplanted IE with "Microsoft Edge" which eventually switched to the Google Chrome rendering engine. Microsoft fiercely pushed third party products to bundle Internet Explorer, and web sites to work only in Internet Explorer. Microsoft aggressively and abusively positioned Internet Explorer as part of their "browser war" to eliminate all competition. Home Internet access was still somewhat new and competed against proprietary services like CompuServe, AOL, and Microsoft's own MSN. At various points, Internet Explorer was also available for MacOS, Solaris, and HP-UX.Īt its 1995 release, Internet Explorer competed with the Mosaic web browser and Netscape Navigator. It was initially based on Spyglass Mosaic. Microsoft Internet Explorer is a web browser application created by Microsoft primarily for Microsoft Windows.