Home Hardware Games Software Articles News Services Directory

Software Review and Free Download | Internet and Network Tools | Internet Explorer

» Review Internet Explorer 7
(October 2006)

Internet Explorer 7 Final

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability. End user improvements include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more.

Internet Explorer 7 features
Review the features below to see the advances that have been made to ease of use, security, and the development platform in Internet Explorer 7.
Makes everyday tasks easier
Simplified User Experience
The Internet Explorer 7 frame is reorganized to make it noticeably simpler, more streamlined, and less cluttered with unnecessary items. This maximizes the area of the screen devoted to the WebPages that you want to see and makes performing the most common browsing tasks easy.

Advanced Printing
Automatically scales a printed webpage so that it's not wider than the paper it will be printed on. Internet Explorer 7 also includes a multi-page print preview with live margins, resizing text to avoid document clipping, and an option to print only selected text.

Instant Search Box
Web searches using your favorite search provider can now be entered into a search box within the toolbar, eliminating the clutter of separate toolbars. You can easily choose a provider from the dropdown list or add more providers.

Favorites Center
Offers easy and fast access to Favorites, Tab Groups, Browsing History, and RSS Feed subscriptions. Expands when needed, and can be anchored in place for even easier access.

RSS Feeds
Automatically detects RSS feeds on sites by illuminating an icon on the toolbar. A single click on the icon allows you to preview and optionally subscribe to the site's RSS feed, and then be automatically notified as content is updated. Read RSS feeds directly in the browser, scan for important stories, and filter your view with search terms or site-specific categories.

Multiple news tabs open in one Internet Explorer 7 browser window

Tabbed Browsing
View multiple sites in a single browser window. Easily switch from one site to another through tabs at the top of the browser frame.

Quick Tabs
Provides easy tab selection and navigation by displaying thumbnails of all open tabs in a single window.

Tab Groups
Tabs can be grouped and saved into logical categories, allowing you to open multiple tabs with a single click. A Tab Group can easily be set as the Home Page Group so the entire Tab Group opens every time

Internet Explorer is launched from the Start menu.

Page Zoom

Enlarge individual webpages, including both text and graphics, to either focus on specific content or to make content more accessible to those with vision limitations.

Dynamic security protection
expand all topics

ActiveX Opt-in
Disables nearly all pre-installed ActiveX controls to prevent potentially vulnerable controls from being exposed to attack. You can easily enable or disable ActiveX controls as needed through the Information
Bar and the Add-on Manager.

Security Status Bar
Enhances awareness of website security and privacy settings by displaying color-coded notifications next to the address bar. Internet Explorer 7 changes the Address Bar to green for websites bearing new High Assurance certificates, indicating the site owner has completed extensive identity verification checks.

Phishing Filter notifications, certificate names, and the gold padlock icon are now also adjacent to the address bar for better visibility. Certificate and privacy detail information can easily be displayed with a single click on the Security Status Bar.

Phishing Filter
Proactively warns and helps protect you against potential or known fraudulent sites and blocks the site if appropriate. The opt-in filter is updated several times per hour using the latest security information from
Microsoft and several industry partners.

Cross-Domain Barriers
Limits script on webpages from interacting with content from other domains or windows. This enhanced safeguard will further protect against malware by limiting the potential for malicious websites to manipulate flaws in other websites or cause you to download undesired content or software.

Delete Browsing History
Allows you to clean up cached pages, passwords, form data, cookies, and history, all from a single window.

Address Bar Protection
Every window, whether it's a pop-up or standard window, will present an address bar to the user, helping to block malicious sites from emulating trusted sites.

International Domain Name Anti-spoofing
In addition to adding support for International Domain Names in URLs, Internet Explorer also notifies you when visually similar characters in the URL are not expressed in the same language, thus protecting you against sites that could otherwise appear as known, trustworthy sites.

URL Handling Security
Redesigned URL parsing ensures consistent processing and minimizes possible exploits. The new URL handler helps centralize critical data parsing and increases data consistency throughout the application.

Fix My Settings
To help protect you from browsing with unsafe settings, Internet Explorer 7 warns you with an Information Bar when current security settings may put you at risk. Within the Internet Control Panel, you will see certain critical items highlighted in red when they are unsafely configured. In addition to alerts warning you about unsafe settings, you will be reminded by the Information Bar as long as the settings remain unsafe. You can instantly reset Internet security settings to the "Medium-High" default level by clicking the "Fix My Settings" option in the Information Bar.

Add-ons Disabled Mode
To help troubleshoot difficulties launching Internet Explorer or reaching specific websites, you have the ability to start in "No Add-ons" mode, where only critical system Add-ons are enabled.

Features Unique to Windows Vista
The following features are available only with Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista:

Protected Mode
Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system. Exploits and malicious software are restricted from writing to any location beyond Temporary Internet Files without explicit user consent.

Parental Controls
To help keep kids safer online, parents can control browsing behavior through the parental control settings built into Windows Vista. The child's safety level can be monitored and changed remotely. The safety level carries over to many PC activities, such as playing games or browsing the Internet. A child's browsing session can even be examined by a parent afterwards, and cannot be removed without the parent's permission.

Improved platform and manageability
expand all topics
CSS Improvements
Application Compatibility Toolkit
Alpha Channel in PNG
Group Policy Improvements
Internet Explorer Administration Kit
Improved AJAX Support
Open Search Extensions
RSS Platform
Platform Compatibility

FinalSense Rate: