IE7 Beta 2 is out

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-01-31 07:20pm

For those of you who like playing with beta software and want to mess with the latest from Redmond, you can grab IE7b2 here

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-01-31 07:22pm

Is the new beta anything other than an uglified Firefox, or is it still like the last one?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-01-31 07:25pm

You can take a peek at what the team has been doing on the IEBlog.

EDIT: It certainly is a different user interface from the normal web browser. I'll probably be staying with Firefox for the time being, but I'll continue to play with IE7.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-02-01 02:06am

I think that I'll try it, since I do occasioanlly need to visit sites that demand IE (And are important enough that I can't risk using Opera's emulator), and I want to play aroud with the Google toolbar 4 (Which is currently ie only).

I've installed it, now to re-boot the pc, is it's tab function a memory hog? (As compared to Firefox without the memory leaks)?

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-02-01 03:02am

Well it hogs the memory, but the tab prewiev is nice!

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-02-01 04:50am

One word comes to mind, Ugly.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2006-02-01 06:57am

Faram wrote:Well it hogs the memory,

With 9 tabs open on sd.net with several large threads, memory usage is only 71mb. And this is after considerable browsing. Nothing like Firefox's more ridiculous memory usage patterns.

but the tab prewiev is nice!

Stops showing up after 4 tabs

Also mid-click opens a link in a new tab. Except on this forum it does that and follows the damn link. Annoying as hell and I dont know wtf caused it

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2006-02-01 08:06am

ggs wrote:
Faram wrote:but the tab prewiev is nice!
Stops showing up after 4 tabs

Really?

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2006-02-01 08:46am

Of course, there is a rather snazzy extension for that in Firefox anyway, and which opens it in a convenient sidebar to boot, so all IE7 has going for it thusfar is that it has the function by default.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-02-01 09:26am

Archaic` wrote:Of course, there is a rather snazzy extension for that in Firefox anyway, and which opens it in a convenient sidebar to boot, so all IE7 has going for it thusfar is that it has the function by default.

Which means you can't get rid of it even if you never intend to use it. I wouldn't call that a plus.

Incidentally, the beta won't install on my computer, claiming that the operating system is not supported. Weird, since I've got XP Pro...

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-02-01 09:38am

You need XP SP2 and need to pass Windows Genuine Advantage checks.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-02-01 09:44am

phongn wrote:You need XP SP2 and need to pass Windows Genuine Advantage checks.

...why the hell should I need SP2 to install a browser

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-02-01 09:47am

Bounty wrote:
phongn wrote:You need XP SP2 and need to pass Windows Genuine Advantage checks.
...why the hell should I need SP2 to install a browser

...To answer this question, its because IE7 uses many new features and abilities added in SP2, building on them.

Wait...you expected it to just package in everything SP2 added to IE?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-02-01 10:07am

Wait...you expected it to just package in everything SP2 added to IE?

Ah yes, the pop-up blocker and such... I forgot about those. Carry on.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-02-01 10:30am

Bounty wrote:
phongn wrote:You need XP SP2 and need to pass Windows Genuine Advantage checks.
...why the hell should I need SP2 to install a browser

Because SP2 adds things that may be required by the application. This is not new; NT4 applications often required SP3, SP4 or SP6a to run.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2006-02-01 05:34pm

Here's Microsoft yet again taking heavily from another product and making their own, less impressive (at least aesthetically, though I don't doubt it's so technically, as well) version.

I, too, share the sentiment that it's ugly.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-02-02 02:05am

So, if someone else comes out with a new interface concept, it should be theirs and theirs alone? Or are you just raging against the Evil Empire?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-02-02 11:19am

IE7 bugs abound

People didn't lose any time in finding bugs in the latest preview release of Internet Explorer 7.

It's been but a day since Microsoft publicly released a test version of Internet Explorer 7, but Internet news groups and blogs are already teeming with bug reports. Also, one security researcher claims he found a security vulnerability in the new Web browser.

Issues reported several times include compatibility problems with McAfee security software and trouble installing the browser due to unnamed anti-spyware and antivirus tools. Some testers also said using certain features or surfing to specific Web sites caused the browser to hang or crash.

Microsoft made a preview version of IE 7 beta 2 publicly available on Tuesday, but the product is not fully baked, the company has said. The release is meant to give developers and IT professionals a chance to test-drive the software and give feedback to Microsoft so that the final version, expected later this year, and upcoming test releases, will have no, or at least fewer, issues.

The public preview release of IE 7 includes many of the features Microsoft has been touting for months. Among them are new security and privacy protection capabilities such as mechanisms designed to combat phishing attacks, spyware and other threats.

But browser testers may already be at risk, according to security researcher Tom Ferris. Late Tuesday, Ferris released details of a potential security flaw in IE 7. An attacker could exploit the flaw by crafting a special Web page that could be used to crash the browser or gain complete control of a vulnerable system, Ferris said in an advisory on his Web site. Microsoft had no immediate comment on Ferris' alert.

Also, the preview version of IE 7 clashes with some security software. Users reported that after they had downloaded and installed the beta, McAfee security software failed to display any text or graphics in their Windows when opened. Reinstalling the applications had no effect, according to the user reports.

"I have McAfee Internet Security Suite on my system, and when IE 7 is loaded, neither work," one tester wrote in Microsoft's news groups. "Surely...getting the system to work with an industry leader is a small price to pay."

Microsoft acknowledged the compatibility issues with the McAfee software in a response on the IE team blog. "The McAfee issue is known, and we'll work on this for a future build," a Microsoft representative wrote on the blog.

McAfee also said it is working to fix the problem with IE 7. "While the issue affects the way in which users view the McAfee interface, McAfee's automated protection is still running and protecting the user's systems," a company representative said in an e-mailed statement.

Other people had trouble installing IE 7 altogether, reporting an error during installation that stated a file called "msfeeds.dll" could not be found. This problem stems from compatibility issues with unnamed security applications, a Microsoft representative wrote in a blog post.

"Some anti-spyware and antivirus software is known to interfere with IE 7's ability to install," a Microsoft representative wrote. The software maker offers a work-around and otherwise recommends users wait until a future IE 7 release that it hopes will address the problem.

Granted, it's a just a beta and hence I'd be surprised if no bugs surfaced.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2006-02-02 12:01pm

Anyone who expects a beta to have no errors must live in a nice fairy tale...
At least it looks good, no problems so far with it. And my McAfee works just fine.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-02-02 12:22pm

Anyone who expects a beta to have no errors must live in a nice fairy tale...

You mean like I said at the end of my post

These problems are going to get fixed, that's what a beta release is for. However, it might be useful information for those who installed it.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2006-02-02 01:20pm

I'm using it now and I think I can get used to it, although I've already noticed some minor bugs.

E.g. on webboards it will not mark pages as read no matter what I try, unless you log out and log back in... and it screwed up Firefox's Bookmarks when I imported them; everything is there, it just is out of order and seemingly random.

Oh, a useful tip I discovered: If you don't like the quick launch Favorites drop down (I know I don't) hit the Alt key and the more traditional Tool Bar menus shows up. From there you can use a Favorites menu more like Firefox's, and IE 6's. Hit it again to make it go away, or close the menu you are using, and it will disappear automatically.

EDIT: Oh yes, I fogot to mention that McAfree is functioning just dandy so far and installation was painless for me.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2006-02-02 03:34pm

Ugh. They tried copying Safari and Firefox. And they failed.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2006-02-02 03:41pm

Durandal wrote:Ugh. They tried copying Safari and Firefox. And they failed.

It's still a beta...
And they're not the only ones to copy from other browsers...
And don't forget Opera

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2006-02-02 05:14pm

Durandal wrote:Ugh. They tried copying Safari and Firefox. And they failed.

At least PNG-24 support works.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2006-02-02 05:33pm

Found another problem; it won't seem to install the activ-x plugin, and I can't watch certain online streaming videos (e.g. ++www.thatvideosite.com), although others function flawlessly.

The refresh button is in the wrong place... but this is a matter of becoming used to the interface, not worthy of complaint in the end.

And yes, it does support PNG-24

The tab preview is cool, and the tabs are just as easy to use as in Firefox. It has a fairly cool zoom feature too, for those pages that refuse to fit in the browser (*cough over-sized-pictures cough*). Supposedly it also can scale pages to fit on one page for printing, although I have not tried it.

One rather big complaint: the text search function is no different, it does not search the document letter by letter like Firefox does. I had really hoped this would change.

I have no idea how secure it is in comparison though, I don't often travel to sites with popups... I'll be trying that next I think.

EDIT: Still working on the popups, but I noticed another failure. Expanding images works the same way it does now--have to move the cursor away from the image, move it back, wait, then hit the expand image button at the bottom right corner. I much prefer Firefox's simple click to expand method. I hope this and other things are changed as the beta progresses.