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MSN Explorer is the all-in-one software from Microsoft that makes it easy to get more from the Web. It works with your existing Internet connection, allowing you to browse the web, e-mail and instant message friends, chat, listen to music and much more. Easily sign-in and access to your favorite MSN features and an integrated media player offers a great new way to find and play music and video. MSN Explorer supports up to 9 users, so everyone in your family has their own e-mail, buddies, favorite sites, etc. Innovative new automatic update mechanism delivers updates (service improvements and new features) to you.

Changes in Current Version:

• The new MSN home page is about 30 percent faster, has a new design that makes it easier for consumers to find the things they love and discover new things, and takes personalization to the next level with a new My MSN page
  
• MSN Explorer is improved with support for offline e-mail, streamlined setup, improved navigation and easy MSN Broadband setup
  
• IntelliConnect technology
  
• Exclusive broadband software, content and services
  
• MSN Messenger is easier and more fun to use with an updated design, an innovative typing indicator and new emoticons
  
• MSN Search delivers relevant Search results with a new design that organizes results by categories such as Music, Shopping, People or News
  
• MSN Music enables users to receive alerts for artists saved in Favorites on their My Music page
  
• MSN Hotmail delivers a new junk mail filter and spam protector, as well as strong integration with MSN Messenger that enables consumers to easily check their buddy status in their address book, or quickly send an instant message from their address book
  
• MSN Explorer has received the Designed for Windows XP logo, and MSN 7 is optimized for the latest Windows XP innovations, such as fast user switching

Download: MSN 7 (US-EN) (4.94mb)
View: Explorer Homepage for localized versions
News source: FileForum

When a customer buys a prereleased CD, that person is sent an encrypted URL, which links to Speedera's streaming area, Smith said. The buyer can then listen to the music featured on the CD as often as desired. But once the CD is released to the public and presumably delivered to the customer, Speedera will block the Web address.

This also serves to protect the property of the music industry. After Napster, music companies grew hypersensitive to any offering that distributed copyrighted materials to a mass audience. They worried that the technology could be cracked and thereby allow the music to be copied, pirated and spread over the Web.

With Speedera's technology, listeners are kept from copying or recording the streamed music. Smith said there is a secret key embedded into the encryption that prevents anyone but the buyer to access the URL. He declined to offer specifics on how that is done.

"You can't record the music; nor can you e-mail to a friend. And it can't be accessed if someone posts it on a Web site," Smith said.

The technology is easily accessible for other kinds of media, such as video, and through different software, such as Microsoft's Windows Media and RealNetworks' RealMedia.

Sources close to Amazon said that if offering prereleased music over the Web proves successful, the e-tailer will likely extend the feature into other digital content.