IE7 for Windows XP (SP2) Beta: Summer 2005
Posted by Steven Parker on 15 February 2005 - 18:08 · 209 comments & 31981 views
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(11 replies)
#1 Posted by Jedimark on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:10
- Oooh at last...
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#1.1 Posted by zivan56 on 15 Feb 2005 - 20:05
- Hopefully they will rewrite it from scratch rather than adding to the codebase. I cant believe some parts of it are still based on NCSA Mosaic...
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#1.2 Posted by Flyer00 on 15 Feb 2005 - 20:44
- Very doubtful that it will be rewritten. This update wasn't even on the radar until Firefox shook them up a little. They obviously didn't have any big plans for IE. It will probably be a bunch of security patches that they would normally put on Windows Update along with maybe one or two minor enhancements (nothing like tabbed browsing or ad blocking), maybe even some slightly different icons, and they'll call it 7.0 hoping people don't think they are falling behind and switch to Firefox.
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#1.3 Posted by jcvortex on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:27
QUOTE This update wasn't even on the radar until Firefox shook them up a little
I for one need to use IE. I'm glad there releasing a new version.
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#1.4 Posted by SpyCatcher on 15 Feb 2005 - 22:38
- Who cares about version 7 I'm already using IE 8.5
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#1.5 Posted by shockz on 15 Feb 2005 - 22:55
QUOTE Very doubtful that it will be rewritten. This update wasn't even on the radar until Firefox shook them up a little. They obviously didn't have any big plans for IE. It will probably be a bunch of security patches that they would normally put on Windows Update along with maybe one or two minor enhancements (nothing like tabbed browsing or ad blocking), maybe even some slightly different icons, and they'll call it 7.0 hoping people don't think they are falling behind and switch to Firefox
If it was security patches and one or two new features they wouldn't be calling it 7. It would be 6.5 or something to that effect instead.-
#1.6 Posted by parkker on 15 Feb 2005 - 23:36
- As a side question. With all the security holes in Firefox lately, could someone point out where the patches are on the Mozilla website and how you would install them on 1 or more machines?
I tried asking Firefox to look for patches, but it said there weren't any.
Just asking. -
#1.7 Posted by M2Ys4U on 16 Feb 2005 - 00:19
- All the fixes are in the nightlies... but IIRC they're working on a 1.0.1 release, with the fixes in
ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/ -
#1.8 Posted by threedaysdwn on 16 Feb 2005 - 01:17
- I expect tight RSS integration, some major new security features (and reliability updates for XP), and the option for tabbed browsing.
I hope that they take this opportunity to innovate. -
#1.9 Posted by Flyer00 on 16 Feb 2005 - 06:03
QUOTE If it was security patches and one or two new features they wouldn't be calling it 7. It would be 6.5 or something to that effect instead.
Don't be so sure. Honestly, from a user's perspective, was IE6 really that much different than IE5? What were the major new features in IE6? It took them until IE6 SP2 to add a simple pop-up blocker -- when all the toolbars already added that about a year before.-
#1.10 Posted by sphbecker on 16 Feb 2005 - 21:23
- It will not be a rewrite. Microsoft's biggest goal is to make the existing browser more secure and refresh the interface a little so they stop losing users to FireFox. Rewriting something generally opens it up to all new security problems and takes much longer. Those side effects would not be compatible with IE7's goals.
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#1.11 Posted by ichi on 17 Feb 2005 - 01:00
QUOTE Rewriting something generally opens it up to all new security problems and takes much longer
Sure, and that's why the should have began rewriting IE a lot earlier. Building new products on top of aged code (and/or based on an aged design) has a lot to do with Windows' insecurity, it's about time for them to learn from past mistakes.
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(1 reply)
#2 Posted by b0m8er on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:10
- Most excellent news today!
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#2.1 Posted by Hurmoth on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:14
- I disagree, I think the news about AMD adding SSE3 to the Opteron processors was more exciting then this :yawn:
Don't get me wrong though, I am exciting to see what Microsoft comes up with, but we all knew that Microsoft would have to come out with a new version of IE... this is just coming in sooner then what I expected.
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#3 Posted by koocha on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:10
- oooh, how exciting
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(6 replies)
#4 Posted by bipp5 on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:11
- alright! this will be cool to try out
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#4.1 Posted by toadeater on 15 Feb 2005 - 20:05
- Like you're going to have a choice in the matter?
You'll use it and you'll like it! Or Chairman Bill will send you to the gulag; where thousands of slaves work to death to fix bugs in M$ products.
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#4.2 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:24
- Where did all the troll-chivalry go?
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#4.3 Posted by Sn1p3t on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:57
- toadeater, although I am not a Firefox fanboy, I will do this service just for you.
Get Firefox. You do have a choice. If you don't like IE, why troll on this news posting? You lowered our estimation of your IQ by at least 6 points with that reply. -
#4.4 Posted by Octol on 16 Feb 2005 - 03:36
QUOTE You lowered our estimation of your IQ by at least 6 points with that reply.
You're kidding, right?
If he lost 6 points they'd have to put him on life support!
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#4.6 Posted by toadeater on 16 Feb 2005 - 20:11
- Hi, Sn1p3t. Thanks for letting me know about Firefox, but I've already been using it since it became stable.
Since you are obviously so knowledgable about the industry, maybe you can tell me how I can use Firefox to access Windows Update, and why I can't remove IE from my installation of Windows without breaking parts of Windows. I'd also like to know how I can use Firefox as the default HTML engine for Windows applications rather than, once again, IE.
Maybe then I would have a choice in what browser I can use, but right now users of Windows do not have a choice, the are enslaved to Micro$oft. They are Microslaves.
As for your estimation of my IQ, I doubt you can count past single digit numbers.
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#5 Posted by slax on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:11
- atlast microsoft is coming with some solution... i dont know how effective IE can be... when firefox is getting strong in the market...
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(2 replies)
#6 Posted by BanneD on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:12
- nice, maybe it will compete with firefox then
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#6.1 Posted by kirk26 on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:14
- 90% of the market compared to 5%.
I'm a firefox user, but I'm just stating facts. -
#6.2 Posted by ~*McoreD*~ on 15 Feb 2005 - 23:53
- he was being sarcastic. i am pretty sure.
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(1 reply)
#7 Posted by AngelicRaver on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:12
- Microsoft.. responding to Firefox.. years after its threat started to loom
Good move on MS, but kindof late.. -
#7.1 Posted by threedaysdwn on 16 Feb 2005 - 01:22
- Late? Yeah... sure was stupid of them to wait until they control only 90% of the market before releasing an upgrade
I'm betting that there was a lot of internal pressure as well. Several Microsoft guys switched to firefox (and lots more to Maxthon and Avant). And with the delays of longhorn this just makes sense for them.
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#8 Posted by Conaire04 on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:13
- Sounds great
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#9 Posted by Dan C on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:13
- Sweet
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(9 replies)
#10 Posted by allfive6 on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:13
- sounds like the end of firefox is near
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#10.1 Posted by koocha on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:21
- I don't think so. As long as Microsoft keep ignoring the standards and create their own, firefox will keep on going.
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#10.3 Posted by ThaCrip on 15 Feb 2005 - 20:10
- onlyway firefox could possibly end is basically if people make it "bloated" cause as of now it's pretty darn good
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#10.4 Posted by HawkMan on 15 Feb 2005 - 20:22
- that's untill the featurelist you see they plan on implementing for FF2... definately won't be upgrading if they plan to include all that crap wich should mostly stay as extensions. then I'd just stick with IE or use Opera instead.
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#10.5 Posted by Julius Caro on 15 Feb 2005 - 20:41
- End of Firefox? This is just the re-start of the Browser Wars!
This is getting exciting... xD -
#10.6 Posted by M2Ys4U on 16 Feb 2005 - 00:26
QUOTE 90% of the market doesn't care
80% of the market doesn't know.-
#10.7 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 16 Feb 2005 - 02:39
- Sorry, his claims actually have... any sort of proof whatsoever whereas yours... don't.
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#10.8 Posted by Surr3al on 16 Feb 2005 - 15:58
- Interesting how one of Microsoft's biggest selling points is people's stupidity that the internet is "internet explorer" and that they aren't connected until they double click that icon.
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#11 Posted by _Dom_ on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:13
- it doesnt really give infomation on the technologys its providing... like CSS2 / CSS3 support , PNG alpha support / tabbed browseing
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#12 Posted by Steven on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:15
- Microsoft Press Release Regarding IE7
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(3 replies)
#13 Posted by Mr. Dee on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:16
- I guess that means Internet Explorer 8 for Longhorn then!
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#13.2 Posted by ichi on 16 Feb 2005 - 00:46
- Just remember it took them 5 years to go from ie6 to ie7.
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#13.3 Posted by MtDewCodeRedFreak on 18 Feb 2005 - 03:38
- Yeah I remember the IE 6 Beta in March 2001.
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#14 Posted by JZolloXP on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:17
- About damn time! While I am a firefox user, I will definately give IE 7 a fair chance.
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(13 replies)
#15 Posted by bucko on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:17
- Ok I understand microsoft wanted to only support SP2 with IE7 because of security however there are still thousands of people that use Windows 2000 and Windows 98SE. Now this is were firefox can gain market share if microsoft don't play its cards right.
You can say "just upgrade to XP then" well a lot of people still have old computers that can't run XP and they don't have the money to upgrade there hardware (even though that's the cheap way to go people won't upgrade).
What about me, I'm on Windows 2000 Pro, I don't like XP Pro as it's got loads of features I don't need, were does this leave me? I can't upgrade because I'm a poor student. Our college has XP if your wondering how I tried XP.
Last edited by 21917 on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:23 -
#15.1 Posted by ev0| on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:35
- dude, most universities offer xp for like 10 bucks or less. It's time to bite the bullet. It's 2005 after, not 1999.
XP SP2 is faster, more reliable, and the stuff you don't need you can turn off. -
#15.2 Posted by Mr. Dee on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:50
- I don't why you are suffering from Windows 98 inertia, when you graduate from college and go to work somewhere, its gonna be Windows 2000 or XP, unless you plan on working as a cashier in grocery store or nursing home you will probably encounter 98.
Bill Gates said they are listening to their major customers still on Windows 2000, so its likely you will get IE 7 for Windows 2000. -
#15.3 Posted by Drestin on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:53
- If you run a version of software (ANY software) that has known vulnerabilities in it - and don't do something about it - it's your fault if you get penetrated. Simple.
You can't expect MS to support every version of everything they've ever released. Or any company for that matter. Eventually stuff becomes old and unsupported. That's what Win9x/Me and NT are - unsupported. Get off those platforms. W2K is no longer being sold. It's being support but only in legacy mode. No suprises, all this is documented and known from history.
XP is the current version of the MS OS. All updates to it are free. It's been out for 3 years. The problem is yours, not theirs.
By the way, I can't even imagine having a machine so slow that it can't run XP being useful for anything other than a paperweight or linux. So, join your fellow cheap-ass linux types - follow the penguin. Leave realworld computing for us with two nickles to rub together for something other than starbucks. -
#15.4 Posted by bucko on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:10
- HELLO I'm talking about people who don't have a clue about computing in general.
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#15.5 Posted by ichi on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:18
QUOTE So, join your fellow cheap-ass linux types - follow the penguin. Leave realworld computing for us with two nickles to rub together for something other than starbucks.
You're such a kind guy -
#15.6 Posted by RangerLG on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:32
- I run Firefox on my Win98SE machine at work and it runs like a dog. Firefox is aimed at XP users with a decent amount of computing power. Not those of us who are stuck with 98. Once someone on 98 with a Celeron 500 and 64Megs of RAM tries FF, they will run back to IE5 or 6 (whatever they were running). Believe me, I speak from first hand experience as FF will bog down my 98 machine with only a few tabs. I don't think FF will gain any significant market from 98 users. 2k users are another story since their machines tend to be more powerful.
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#15.8 Posted by mr_da3m0n on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:49
- supernaut@ewigkeit supernaut $ uname -a
Linux ewigkeit 2.6.10-gentoo-r6ewigkeit #4 Mon Jan 31 01:33:07 EST 2005 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
Yes sure, I forgot, sorry I am poor with bad hardware and will now proceed to go to starbucks.
What the hell was that...
Completely gratuitous. I hope you never breed. -
#15.9 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:27
- You're all a bunch of kids.
(Both of my local supermarkets run some distro of Linux on their machines.
) -
#15.10 Posted by MegaManXcalibur on 16 Feb 2005 - 03:15
QUOTE By the way, I can't even imagine having a machine so slow that it can't run XP being useful for anything other than a paperweight or linux. So, join your fellow cheap-ass linux types - follow the penguin. Leave realworld computing for us with two nickles to rub together for something other than starbucks.
So your saying that people who don't have money have no right to do any "realworld computing?" Or that people who don't pay money for their operating system are all poor cheap-*** people?
Wow thats some serious sterotyping. Did you ever stop to think that many people don't use Windows because they don't like Windows or that Windows is unable to complete the work that they need done? Seriously just because somebody wants to use Linux, Mac, Solaris, OS/2, or even an Atari doesn't mean they are cheap-***es, poor, or any less of a computer user then you. It just means they want to use a different operating system which they like, and if they like it who are you to say they are wrong?
QUOTE By the way, I can't even imagine having a machine so slow that it can't run XP being useful for anything other than a paperweight or linux.
Well then you mustn't have any money troubles. Sure you can afford a new computer but guess what, not everybody can. Seriously take a look around your local town, unless its a very right area like Beverly Hills, I'm sure you can find at least one (more likely several) family who couldn't afford a new computer. Just because you can afford a new computer doesn't mean you everybody can, and they are also the same people who couldn't afford a new copy of Windows XP.
Then you have different people who like the computer systems that have and it gets the job done. Many people can't justify spending money on a new computer or new operating system when the system they currency has does the job they need done. Now I agree that Microsoft shouldn't be expected to patch up 11 year old systems, but I also agree that if a person likes their system you shouldn't run them down for useing it.-
#15.11 Posted by Darkinspiration on 16 Feb 2005 - 04:46
QUOTE I don't why you are suffering from Windows 98 inertia, when you graduate from college and go to work somewhere, its gonna be Windows 2000 or XP, unless you plan on working as a cashier in grocery store or nursing home you will probably encounter 98.
aie ... In what kind of world are you living? There is a lot of windows98 install outhere. In fact it's still one of the most use os in the world. Use primary by standard users who don't need to upgrade (you dont need a 3100+ to run office 97 and quicken) and compagny who just don't see the need they have an os that does the job why spend milions to license something else? hell if it does what you need why upgrade ?
Microsoft doesn,t have to support all of it's software forever but users are not obliged to upgrade theyre hardware as well. And for our beloved MS ...(cough cough) it's a real problem since they are not getting any money from those users.-
#15.12 Posted by Raa on 16 Feb 2005 - 12:46
- Ooooh..... Not happy :|
For a FACT: I can still buy Windows 2000 OEM's AND I do, AND I sell them - to all my customers. XP sux. Dont argue, dont flame, just accept.
I've used XP on multiple machines for many reasons (namely dealing with customer's problems) and it is just a Dog's Breakfast [To be blunt]
Sure, SP2 went a long way to help, but there's plenty of room for improvement.....
Sorry, its Windows 2000 all the way, its faster, more reliable and its all-round better.
To not make/support IE7 for Win2k is a major kick in the pants I personally think. There better damn well be a version for it, or me along with a lot of other people, aren't going to be happy customers.
I think its time for MS to get off its XP propaganda high-horse and start supporting ALL of their customers EQUALLY.
(Anyone seen any major upgrades for Windows 2003 server? Didn't think so. And "beta" sp1 doesnt count!)
Thats my 20cents with rant. If you dont like it, tough luck. Stick with your XP.... and dont forget to patch -
#15.13 Posted by bucko on 16 Feb 2005 - 13:15
- Well like I said I use Windows 2000 Pro to but that is really not the start of my topic, I bow to mozilla if they get all them thousands of Win 98/2000 computers running firefox. It's a big task but if they want to get anyway near IE7 market share then thats the only thing left to do. I'm sure a lot of people are still running XP SP1 now (even my college is!). So there is another place for mozilla
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(2 replies)
#16 Posted by ichi on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:18
QUOTE maintaining the level of extensibility and compatibility that customers have come to expect.
If it wasn't Gates who's saying that, I would've thought he was being sarcastic. I mean that's the kind of sentence people would use when flamming Microsoft.
Anyway, I seriously hope this new version doesn't suck. It's about time for IE users to get a decent update.
I also hope MS didn't forget all the "interoperability" stuff they recently talked about.-
#16.1 Posted by threedaysdwn on 16 Feb 2005 - 01:56
- Yeah, well, maybe Mozilla maintains compatability with W3C standards...
But IE maintains compatability with, you know, web sites. -
#16.2 Posted by jagedEdge on 16 Feb 2005 - 13:00
- IE no longer maintains compatbility with websites. Websites try to maintain compatibility with IE, and it's becoming increasingly hard. There is a push for CSS-driven websites, and IE is making it harder for web designers to create completely W3C compliant pages (that have easy to read and understand code).
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#17 Posted by Jason on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:21
- Thanks to an alert at the featured sites community website, we are at liberty to share news on the new version of IE,
Why write the above rubbish, its just a cut and paste from the below link like all other sites.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/02/15/373104.aspx?Pending=true
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(3 replies)
#18 Posted by smashguy on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:25
- too bad I'm still using windows XP SP1... maybe I should upgrade to Windows XP SP2..
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#18.1 Posted by Rivers on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:03
- hhmm yeah I dont fancy fecking up my computer again with sp2
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#18.2 Posted by PCyr on 16 Feb 2005 - 00:45
- If you did it right, you shouldn't have fecked it up in the first place.*
*Disclaimer: yes, a small amount of users have legit problems, but the vast majority don't, so I'm just saying this to cover my butt hoping you're not the minority. -
#18.3 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 16 Feb 2005 - 02:38
- Pretty much 99% of the upgrade "problems" are from users jacking up their system before-hand. Beyond that, I found a malware program that specifically kills a certain process started by the SP2 installer. As soon as I found that, I laughed and reformatted the system.
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#19 Posted by Aaron660R on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:26
- w00t! i cant wait!
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#20 Posted by kronik on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:26
- exciting news indeed and about freakin time.
although i'm pretty sure this wasn't thought over-night and that MS has been working on this for some time now just not made public until now. they always were the silent killers.
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#21 Posted by Mx² on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:27
- Yay
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#22 Posted by whitedragon on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:28
QUOTE and a final version of the Windows Anti-Spyware tool to be made available to all customers of licensed Windows at no charge
THAT rocks my boat!
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(1 reply)
#23 Posted by PureLogic on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:29
- And this will feature what exactly? Because it would be nice seeing some features added instead of never ending security updates only...
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#24 Posted by SoulEata on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:43
- ORGASM
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#25 Posted by Kilroy-was-here on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:47
- Will it include standards-compliance? I'm going crazy if it does. Been waiting for that several years.
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#26 Posted by imtoomuch on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:48
- This will definitely make the browser "war" more interesting.
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#27 Posted by chrisxtreme on 15 Feb 2005 - 18:53
- Everyone remember Internet Explorer 4? What about 5? Ever since version 4 there have been no major "upgrades" to the browser besides "behind the scenes" stuff. Unless Microsoft is trying to take a bite of Firefox, I forsee version 7 being no different than these previous upgrades.
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#28 Posted by DrunkenMaster on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:01
- I think this is partially a way to trap a lot of corporations into updating workstations to XP from 2k or 9x since you otherwise have to test/buy Java licences to use Firefox.
I wonder why you'd want to buy Longhorn anyways since XP will get many of the new features.
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(2 replies)
#29 Posted by Galley on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:05
- Who cares? It will still pale in comparison to Opera 8.
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#29.1 Posted by divertom15 on 16 Feb 2005 - 06:00
- Yeah your right because Opera has a big ad, askes for money, and the company has refused to fix that flaw with the recent vunerability with urls and international characters stating that "thats the way its supposed to work" thank your mighty opera when your open to security threats
I agree much better in fact ill download it right now and be a hypocrite like everyone else and use a hack or serial to alieveate the big a** ad. -
#29.2 Posted by ichi on 17 Feb 2005 - 00:40
- Actually, that's the way it's supposed to work.
On the other hand, as long as the real "bug" is not fixed, implementing some workarounds in browsers would be nice.
Anyway I don't think it's a bug, but more like domain registrars shouldn't allow that kind of names.
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(2 replies)
#30 Posted by Webgraph on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:07
- Boooooo! Too little, too late, Micros*it! By the time they release IE 7, Firefox will be at a point that web browsers can not simply get any better! Long live Firefox.
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#30.1 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:29
- Ya, they're going down in flames with their... 90% marketshare was it?
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(13 replies)
#31 Posted by mircleman on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:07
- I agree no major improvements. they are just to slow wayyyy to slow.there are other browsers out there far better. and there is a browser coming soon that will knock them and most others out of the water ( stay tuned ). microsoft problem is they never like to admit there are exploits and problems with thier software.ohhhh yeah they scramble later and come out with bug fixes and updates monthes after the fact and then say look we listened bull!! when ms was founded in 1986 and windows 3.1 came out aas far as vast improvments there not many especially security wise. true there has been improvments in gui and basic over all stability. but come on almost 20 years and we are still talking security and exploits. not acceptable in my book. I dont care what they say or what anyone says, a 100% virus free, hack proof , exploit system can be designed. they cant or wont do so. for those non beleivers you will see soon enough. so im not impressed at all with this anouncement. same thing as always lot hype and little delivery. and i dont agree with the comment that windows xp is out if your runing 98/2000 its a paper weight. thats called forced upgrading and that plain and simple is unproductive. thats like saying if you drive a 2000 car its useless buy a new one nonsense! just my 2 cents.
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#31.4 Posted by Dan C on 15 Feb 2005 - 19:58
- Good for you. Can't really read that ****. He could of a least used paragraphs.
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#31.5 Posted by super_evil_8_ball on 15 Feb 2005 - 21:41
- Or at the least, capitalize the first word of a sentence.
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#31.7 Posted by threedaysdwn on 16 Feb 2005 - 01:57
- Yeah I got that far, had a cheap laugh, and moved on
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Thanks to an alert at the featured sites community website, we are at liberty to share news on the new version of IE, of which so far, will only be available for Windows XP SP2 customers. Speaking at the Keynote Address at RSA Conference, Gates confirmed it:
“We’re installing Windows XP SP2 companywide on over 50,000 desktops because we recognize that its security enhancements are significant. As the frequency of attacks against computer systems increases, it’s becoming critically important to have our systems protected against hackers, viruses and other security risks,” said Joseph Martella, director of End User Computing, Product Engineering at Merrill Lynch.
Gates also announced the Windows Update beta to start mid-march, and a final version of the Windows Anti-Spyware tool to be made available to all customers of licensed Windows at no charge.Building on those advancements, Gates announced Internet Explorer 7.0, designed to add new levels of security to Windows XP SP2 while maintaining the level of extensibility and compatibility that customers have come to expect. Internet Explorer 7.0 will also provide even stronger defenses against phishing, malicious software and spyware. The beta release is scheduled to be available this summer.
The announcement in full (also available at the IE Team Web Blog)
Featured Community Site Owners,
Today at RSA, Bill Gates talked about Internet Explorer 7. As the guy responsible for IE, I wanted to say a couple of things about it.
First, some basics: we’re committing to deliver a new version of Internet Explorer for Windows XP customers. Betas of IE7 will be available this summer. This new release will build on the work we did in Windows XP SP2 and (among other things) go further to defend users from phishing as well as deceptive or malicious software.
Why? Because we listened to a lot of customers, analysts, and business partners. We heard a clear message: “Yes, SP2 makes the situation better. We want more, sooner. We want security on top of the compatibility and extensibility IE gives us, and we want it on XP. Microsoft, show us your commitment.”
I think of today’s announcement as a clear statement back to our customers: “Hey, Microsoft heard you. We’re committing.”
Why are we talking about it today? Because our customers have asked us, with increasing urgency, what our plans are. We want to convey our intentions to our customers clearly and in a timely way.
I’ve gotten questions about the ship date. We know that feedback from customers and partners is crucial. We’re going to release a beta and listen, then refresh the beta and listen some more. We’ll ship when the product is right.
I’ve gotten other questions about support for Windows 2000. Right now, we’re actively listening to our major Windows 2000 customers about what they want and comparing that to the engineering complexity of that work. That’s all I can say on that topic.
Please know that the IE team is working hard. We’re eager to improve and better secure the web experience for the hundreds of millions of IE users around the world. We delivered on XP SP2. We are actively delivering on our part of a great 64-bit Windows client. We continue to deliver on security updates for customers who have not moved to XP SP2. We’re going to deliver on IE7.
Dean Hachamovitch
General Manager, IE Core Development Team