IE7 Beta 2 Ships

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1. rickdog
   

   April 24th, 2006 at 10:45 pm

   do you know if you can install this along side IE6, or does it replace?

2. Michael Arrington
   

   April 24th, 2006 at 10:48 pm

   Rickdog - I have no idea. You have to uninstall previous IE7 versions to install Beta 2, but that doesn’t address your question. My advice - do this on a test machine or don’t do it at all right now.

3. Liam @ Web 2.5 Blog
   

   April 24th, 2006 at 10:48 pm

   You can’t call it a web 2.0 browser without SVG. Scalable Vector Graphics is the last hurdle before browser UIs match PC UIs. (See our SVG Terminal for an example.)

4. Tony Chor
   

   April 24th, 2006 at 11:16 pm

   Michael, it was great talking with you this evening.

   Rickdog: currently, IE7 replaces IE6. There is no supported way for IE6 and IE7 to install side-by-side. We know this is an issue and hope to address it in a future version of IE.

   Tony Chor
   Group Program Manager
   Internet Explorer

5. Andrew Fife
   

   April 24th, 2006 at 11:41 pm

   Quicktabs is a very cool feature but otherwise it looks just like the beta1 and beta2 preview to me. Also, is it just me or do others actually prefer the drop down menus over the minamalist look?

6. Dan
   

   April 25th, 2006 at 12:10 am

   ahh, the web2.0 colors have finally made it to Microsoft’s IE

7. stuart
   

   April 25th, 2006 at 12:14 am

   Anyone else getting 100% CPU usage after installing this? I just upgraded from IE6 and can’t use IE now - each time I launch IE7 Beta 2 task manager reports iexplore.exe using 99% of the CPU. I’m going to spend 10 minutes researching this and then am going back to IE6.

8. Lars Fischer
   

   April 25th, 2006 at 12:20 am

   Who really cares about this software? It’s MS again copying other people’s technology. MS has never ever invented something that’s worth mentioning.

9. John
   

   April 25th, 2006 at 12:20 am

   Installing IE7 shows just how deeply rooted it is in the OS.
   I can install Opera 9 Weekly builds or Bon Echo nightly builds in a flash and no where near as intrusively.
   Also why does IE7 presume that it’s the default browser?

   Well done on developing your browser but other than your bookmarking/history system ( nice ) it wont become my default browser.

10. stuart
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 1:06 am

    Regarding the high CPU usage problem I had above - the issue was with the IE developers toolbar that was installed. Uninstalling it got my system back to a working state. Thanks to EricLaw on the IE blog for pointing that out.

11. James
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 1:33 am

    Let’s not praise microsoft for being a day late and a dollar short.

    Why not just use firefox? That’s what IE7 is copying. Nothing like reinventing the wheel — which is all that microsoft has done.

12. Keith Dsouza
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 3:08 am

    Great I hope its better than the preview, btw Thanks staurt, i was always wondering what’s causing the heavy CPU usage with IE7, i’ll uninstall the developer toolbar.

    Anyways i prefer the one that’s there for Firefox and Flock rather than the one for IE

13. Jeremiah Owyang
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 5:34 am

    Michael, good write up

    Martin put some pics up from the event here on flickr, tagged IE7B2

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmckeay/tags/ie7b2/

14. Saul Weiner
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 5:36 am

    I have too agree with James on this. Outside of IE& being faster (at least version 1 was), nothing really is new. Quickview (like Apple Expose) is ok. I love my Firefox extensions and MSFT just don’t have that mass yet.

    Also, would love to see some true innovation fom microsoft in this space, not just 95% catch up.

15. Lars Fischer
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 5:46 am

    It would have been really cool if Microsoft had dropped IE completely and would support the development of an OSS browser (Firefox or the Safari code base). This would have eliminated many of the problems coming up with IE7.

16. Realguy
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 5:54 am

    I really like the new look & functionality. However, in previous IE beta versions, installation of the beta caused the style builder function in Visual Studio 2005 to fail (see “IE7 Beta kills the CSS Style Builder in VS2005″), so I wouldn’t recommend trying this out if you’re using VS on the same machine.

17. SCX_T
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 6:17 am

    IE7 is a huge inprovement from IE6 but still nowhere near replacing Firefox as my default browser and it will probatly never be better than most open-sourced browsers

18. Mortimer
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 6:25 am

    Re: Lars’ comment, I agree: why in the world does MSFT even _need_ a browser? It generates no revenue, is the source of huge negative publicity and legal bills for them, and (as an aside) sucks as a browser relative to Firefox. And the original justification — the battle against Netscape — was won long ago.

    Today, they would win major points by adopting FF.

19. Jim
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 6:48 am

    Microsoft copies what other people do for the saem reason that everyone else copies microsoft. Isn’t copying the largest form of flattery. The difference between most companies and MS is that MS release alphas, betas, release candidates instead of just releasing a preview a month or so before release. It’s done to give developers time to rewrite software to work with their updates but it also gives 3rd party vendors time beat MS to the punch. OSX has quite a few features that MS had already put into vista alphas long ago but they removed tehm so they wouldn’t be accused of copying. hmmm. Face it, Firefox is a nice browser, but quite ugly. For me that’s not an issue but for the general public it’s all about rendered graphics. i prefer fast and simple myself. That’s why camino for mac exists, to give mac users a firefox version that looks like a mac, what a waste. So until Firefox cleans up it’s interface and looks betters MS will continue IE7 development, not to mention why should they have to really on someone elses technology to move forward with web 2.0 software, they’re the big company not the small one?

20. Cujo
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 7:11 am

    Is it just me or is it ugly. I know some aesthetics shouldn’t matter and the usability should be first but the screen caps above turn me off of it. Then again I can’t stand the XP cartoony look either and that’s what it seems to be emulating.

21. Joshua Delsman
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 7:21 am

    From a developer’s standpoint, I really couldn’t care less if my client’s users use IE, Firefox, Safari, etc. What matters is that Microsoft is taking an initiative to upgrade their browser’s standards compliancy.

    I’m not saying IE is better than Firefox, or that you should use Firefox at all. What I am saying is that if you’re going to make IE the default browser on your operating system (which MIcrosoft does for all of its new users), make it so that it renders every page correctly.

22. Marcelo
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 7:26 am

    No. Thank you very much. I will stick with Firefox and its beloved extensions.

23. Shah
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 8:18 am

    When I installed IE7 Beta v.1, the the embedded media files (video or audio, played on Windows Mediaplayers embedded in the browser) stopped playing in the browser. Any ideas about this?

24. Mike Frisco
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 8:34 am

    Try making a textarea of 100% width within a div container of 50% width.

    Looks fine, right? Try typing in it.

    The textarea extends to 100% of the page, beyond the container. Hooray for progress!

25. Nil
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 9:17 am

    I am sticking to firefox.

26. John Doe
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 9:37 am

    It’s good to see that MSFT is going to try shoving another version of thier subpar browser down our throats. Thank God for Firefox and Opera.

27. Kurt Koller
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 10:05 am

    You guys are smoking crack. IE had the first CSS implementation back in the day. AJAX is based almost entirely on MS “Remote Scripting” technology that I worked with _5 and a half_ years ago. Firefox was th one playing catch up, and they leapfrogged _slightly_.

    I don’t know what IE has to offer, but you people are smoking crask if you don’t think that open source folks are the copy cats. Hi: Linux? OpenOffice? The last time I installed Linux with a desktop I was AMAZED at the resemblence to the windows XP desktop. Right down to the startbar and themes.

    Get off the crack.

28. Not a fanboy
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 11:05 am

    I agree that IE copied everything… OpenSearch support, the close box on each tab, QuickTabs, one click to add a group of tabs as a favorite, the integrated favorites/history/feeds, a view of RSS feeds that allows me to sort and filter, the list extension work that’s live right now with Amazon wish lists, eBay search results, and Yahoo Music, the anti-phishing work… oh yeah, never mind. Oops. We should ignore any data that disagrees with our emotions about Micro$oft. Nothing to see here. Really. Move along.

29. einar
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 1:14 pm

    re: lars comment, you could say the same for google.

30. James
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 1:22 pm

    Swell, just what I need — stuff like amazon wish lists, ebay search results and other crapola attached to my browser. Sounds perfects for AOL type users.

    Never mind that Microsoft has to have a friggin’ help line just to have folks install their latest masterpiece.

    If a browser requires that kind of tech support to install it, you should find another browser.

31. Frank Cefalu
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    I think you should stop immaditley putting down microsoft already. its sad and childish.

    I use Mozilla and IE, and trust me, the problems the latest Mozilla gave me with god damn flash making my browser crash drived me nuts.

    Microsoft is also a pioneer in the field, you just have to accept and give kudos to those who do a good job.

    Fact is there would be no Web2.0 if there was no microsoft. So don’t go around saying Microsoft copys everything.

    Linux menu setup = Microsoft

    PHP, MySQL, SQL, ASP, XML, SOAP. Where do these all come from? Does it matter who slaps their name on the product? As long as the product better servers the community, and competition exists we have jobs ppl! Get real!

    We are lucky there are ppl out there still charging for services instead of competing on almost dirt cheap level against competitors in India. We need ppl like Microsoft to bring value to our products and a face of corporate know how.

    I am tired of ppl just blantly blaming microsoft for all its problems. How can you expect such a big company to be good in everything. I think they are doing agood job considering the size and how well their management teamis to do so many multiple tasks as once.

    Microsoft Vista, IE 7, Office Live, Live.com, MSN Live Beta, Msn Communicator, God ppl!

32. Steve
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 8:53 pm

    I’m not gonna waste people’s time to bash IE and praise Firefox anymore but I would direct you to John C. Dvorak’s column in PC Magazine yesterday.

    “Microsoft should pull the browser out of the OS and discontinue all IE development immediately. It should then bless the Mozilla.org folks with a cash endowment and take an investment stake in Opera, to influence the future direction of browser technology from the outside in. Then, Microsoft can worry about security issues that are OS-only in nature, rather than problems compounded by Internet Explorer.”

    http://www.pcmag.com/print_art.....507,00.asp

33. Jon
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 9:47 pm

    IE *7* beta?

    I didn’t realize IE 6 had passed the beta phase yet…

34. Friendly Guy
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 10:14 pm

    Jon, are you stupid? IE has been around for years - it’s not like Google where every damn product is in perpetual beta for decades

35. Friendly Guy
    

    April 25th, 2006 at 10:14 pm

    I of course meant IE6 has been around for years (thereby implying it’s not a beta and is a fully supported product)

36. Matt Emery
    

    April 26th, 2006 at 5:32 am

    Friendly Guy, are you aware that Jon was being sarcastic?

    Good call Jon!

37. Jeremy
    

    April 26th, 2006 at 9:55 am

    Well this build totally killed my ability to run Google Desktop. It took me 2 hours to figure out why IE would crash with multiple tabs. I finally traced it back to my Desktop Search.

38. LN Tanenbaum
    

    April 27th, 2006 at 9:45 am

    IE7 crashes every time mult tabs open. uninstalled

39. Farooq
    

    April 27th, 2006 at 10:34 pm

    0. The only appreciating/innovative thing about IE7 B/B2 seems to be the menu navigation & memory management.
    1. Be it IE 7 beta/beta2 Simply annoyed with that repositioning the ’standard’ position of Refresh button..
    2. That Ctrl+F search box is much slower than that of Firefox and lacks way behind when compared with that Firefox Search features & implementation.
    3. Too few AdOns I’d say :s

40. Matt Shadbolt
    

    April 28th, 2006 at 8:05 am

    Regarding Mortimer’s comments:

    The only reason Microsoft have kept Internet Explorer is for MSN. They make HUGE amounts of money on the traffic from MSN websites because by default IE’s home page is MSN (Hotmail, MSN search, Groups, Shopping etc.) . Most users don’t (or don’t know how) change their home page. Most users also don’t realise there are other “Internet’s”(Browsers) out there.
    Microsoft can continue to patch up an inferior product because, basicly, everyone who uses windows, uses Internet Explorer. I hate it as much as anyone who has experienced an open source browser, but the fact is, the majority of computer users don’t know, and really don’t care!

    Thanks.
    Matt.

41. John
    

    May 10th, 2006 at 7:48 am

    I just installed IE7. I made sure Firefox is still set to be my default browser. When I click on a link in an email, my browser doesn’t open, just a window with my desktop. If I click on Firefox in this window, it just opens but to my homepage. The only way I can get the link to open is to copy and paste it into Firefox. If I set my default browser to be IE7 of course it will open. Is there a fix for this?

42. John
    

    May 10th, 2006 at 10:09 am

    The problem about Firefox not opening or going to a link when clicked has been solved. I removed IE7 and went back to IE6. This fixed the problem.
    There is more information at the following Firefox post:
    http://forums.mozillazine.org/.....69#2256469
    The message is beware of IE7 beta 2 if you want Firefox to work.

43. web design uk
    

    May 17th, 2006 at 3:56 am

    I much prefer Firefox.
    I’ll always be embarassed to use IE.

44. Rich
    

    May 17th, 2006 at 3:46 pm

    I really like how Arial font renders in IE7. But as a bilingual Russian/English user, I can switch languages with an IME hotkey in IE7 as I could in IE6 or other browsers.

    So how does IE7 make the fonts render so prettily? Is there away to do this in other programs?

45. rochette
    

    May 18th, 2006 at 7:38 pm

    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.
    Here’s a list of Search Providers for IE 7.

    http://ieproviders.com/

46. Adam Toth
    

    May 18th, 2006 at 10:08 pm

    I’m also getting crashes everytime I open multiple tabs.

47. brian
    

    June 10th, 2006 at 8:23 am

    Same problem here with IE crashing whenever I open a tab. This build is garbage. At least Firefox beta builds are usable.

48. leanne
    

    June 10th, 2006 at 2:21 pm

    I am using ie7 beta 2 and continually get crashing while opening multiple tabs.

49. hanne
    

    June 25th, 2006 at 12:45 pm

    Have been using ie7 beta 2 for 3 weeks and it works wonderfully! Had to reinstall flash and activex and acrobat reader first. It is a beta version, dont forget. A little searching and reading usually get good results. McAfee is the only thing I cannot get to function properly, but have read that both ms and McAfee are working on it.

    Greetings from hanne

50. Ryan G
    

    June 27th, 2006 at 12:24 pm

    Installed IE7 & worked fine until tried to click on videos. Video feeds started to crash Windows Media Player. Had to close WMP, wait for don’t send error report (sent first 10 or so) & restart WMP to play. Try to play another video — crash. Uninstalled IE7 and WMP works fine. I’ll stick with IE6 & Firefox (on occassion). Wait for Beta 3 or so.

51. kla
    

    September 6th, 2006 at 8:22 pm

    Player. Had to close WMP, wait for don’t send error report (sent first 10 or so) & restart WMP to play. Try to play another video — crash.

52. web hosting company
    

    September 27th, 2006 at 3:16 am

    I’ve tried IE, Opera, Netscape but I’ve stuck with Mozilla Firefox. Just wanna know Is it possible to have two IE browers on XP, one is IE6 and the other is IE7? If so, how?

53. Patrick
    

    November 3rd, 2006 at 5:34 pm

    wow, try opening multiple tabs in myspace with this program. Maybe its the wonky css and html and multimedia, but it seriously chokes. I can open like 20 tabs with Firefox, same pages, same things enabled.

    I’m glad to see IE is finally evolving, but its too little, too late.. I installed the IE7 upgrade, kinda disappointed, sticking to firefox permantly now..

    cheers