Props to news.google.com, this is a major surprise, originally there wasn't going be any new version of IE until the Longhorn is released. He also outline another interesting info about the Windows AntiSpyware protection:

The new version of the browser will be available to users running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed. Released last summer, Service Pack 2 provides increased protection against certain types of worms and viruses--especially those that exploit software security holes known as "buffer overflows."
...
Microsoft also will provide its new AntiSpyware protection, released last month in beta, as a free addition to the Windows operating system, contrary to expectations.

Did they released it because of the security concern or simply a reaction to thier sliding dominance in Browser market? Either way it should be interesting to see what's new in the new version of IE 7.

Full article here, Google news on this here.

i was just reading about this on /. it'll be interesting to see what they've changed/added.

Did they released it because of the security concern

I think you meant media concern?

Microsoft don't act fast (or at all) unless a flaw or vulnerability gets the public's attention. If their reputation is on the block, they slowly act. Marketting first, programming second, security as an afterthough (if at all).

I don't expect this to be anything new or interesting, just typical, hollow promises from Microsoft about the bestest and most secure internet experience yet ... *yawn*

Edit: but thanks for the article pointer Opec!

last edited by parabol at 12:52:02 16/Feb/05

^^^ Props to slashdot, here's the official annoucement from Microsoft:


http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/feb05/02-15RSA05KeynotePR.asp

I think you meant media concern?

Microsoft don't act fast (or at all) unless a flaw or vulnerability gets the public's attention. If their reputation is on the block, they slowly act. Marketting first, programming second, security as an afterthough (if at all).

Yes that was what I really meant to say. Single bullet to kill 2 birds definitely: a) An excercise in Public Relation definitely and b) They're browser market is definitely eroding fast since Firefox 1 came out, most articles estimated that at the beginning of '04 they're market share (pre Firefox 1.0) was 95%, by this year it's 90%. Some will argue the erosion is not directly as a result of Firefox 1.0 but a combination of Firefox, people has gotten smarter about security and bad press about IE exploits etc that make people switch. Nevertheless, it would have to be quite unsettleing for them

I don't expect this to be anything new or interesting, just typical, hollow promises from Microsoft about the bestest and most secure internet experience yet ... *yawn*

Yes this is also a feeling that I get as well from reading various news sources. Most think that it'll simply be a *tighter* IE in terms of security and probably "usual" (but nothing exciting) browsing navigation tool like tabbed window etc but, basically don't hold your breath on any innovative changes.

The Antispyware announcement didn't surprise me. I was expecting them to take the same approach with it as they did with their firewall.

It doesn't surprise me that there's a new IE coming either. It was just about guaranteed they'd have a new one for Longhorn. And what better way to make sure it's right than release it as a beta before longhorn ships. That way they can release a less buggy version with Longhorn.

I would expect it to have tabs (big deal!) and a few of the other features currently in Firefox and Opera. What will be a surprise is if it has ad-blocking.

Yeah the MS will still sell the "Corporate" grade Antispyware etc, but that "free" version refers to the home users version. Given that most of the problem with malware are home users it's probably wise for them to not charge for it.

Which is a business model I particularly agree with. Winzip does it, AVG does it with antivirus, Zonelabs do it with firewalls and so do a number of other companies.

If you can hook consumers with a solid, free for personal use product and gain market share then the businesses will lean towards those products as well (as long as they are solid of course). I look at our IT department, have the corporate products we use are MS simply because the management don't even think, they just automatically buy MS. But most of the others (usually niche apps) are recommended by us techies or occasionally requested by a user.

sif they won't just firefox up IE.

add some tabs add some gestures. done.

You mean Opera up IE? Since Opera had those features before firefox...

You mean Opera up IE? Since Opera had those features before firefox...

True.

Also, to Opera up IE would be to add an official advertisement banner. But you get unwanted advertisement windows via spyware through IE anyway, so there's no point :)

last edited by parabol at 19:58:29 16/Feb/05

Microsoft don't act fast (or at all) unless a flaw or vulnerability gets the public's attention. If their reputation is on the block, they slowly act. Marketting first, programming second, security as an afterthough (if at all).

I don't believe that's the way it works at all. That may be the way it appears from the outside, but i believe there are lots of hard working, very clever people working within Microsoft, but that when it comes time to release something to the public, it has to go through legal and marketing - this is where the problems arise. When Microsoft acknowledge they've made a mistake, they are very generally want to rectify it.. depending on the magnitude of the problem and the severity of the mistake, that can take some time.

You only have to talk to any Microsoft developers (or people that deal with the internal Microsoft developers), to know that everything now is very security focused, aiming at security over functionality, and trying hard to make their applications run with least privilidge and avoid situations where exploits could easily arise, yet still provide the ease of use that is now expected on the windows platform. They have an enormous amount of backward compatibility to deal with in any changes they make, and when tightening up anything you are likely to cause major ripple-on effects with your customers who are abusing APIs or functionality other than how it was meant to be used (and therefore documented and planned for in any future development).

I would not be suprised at all if IE7 kills off some of the backward compatibility they'd been providing up till now for hangovers from IE3 and earlier, and even kill off some of the functionaility provided in more recent version prior to their security drive... but we'll see what happens.

Note: I am not a Microsoft fanboi.

Yeah unfortunately that the problem with large corporation like Microsoft, who provide a massive range of software, some of which are still being used today. That's thier main problem, being a business it has to look after thier customers so their old software won't break. Their early success really can be seen as thier worst enermy because, to improve security, or make changes to the APIs, it will mean breaking a lot of (old) software.

I know when Windows XP first came out there were heaps for software (32 bit not even that old, I'm not talking about 16 bit apps) that didn't work with it. And boy did they copped it baaaaad. Eventually they released a patch to for thier compatibility mode and the 3rd party people updated the software to work win XP.

I mean they still have the OS/2 and POSIX sub-system built-in to Windows XP, and I'm pretty sure 99% of home users don't use that.

I'm no Microsoft fan boy either but, I can see how easily a bunch of really clever programmers can be render helpless against the corporate policies, practices and "market pressure".

Also the only problem with making major changes to IE is the fact that it's now part of the OS. So making major changes any deeper than cosmetic will definitely be very tricky.

natslovr, take that unsensationalistic, reasonable attitude elsewhere

down with M$ firefox r00lz man

OMG Jim's a communist maens!?$$@@$###11oneonehashash

ill stick to FireFox me thinks......
it will be interseting how much more memory IE will chew up...lets see it sits at about what 20MB now? me predicts IE 7 will use 30MB...

last edited by Irhabi at 01:32:40 17/Feb/05

firefox 4 lyfe

I don't see why they don't give you the option of using firefox for windows update, I mean what makes IE so special? I guess it has cheaty ways ms can access your system data or whever they access for windows update.

on another note, I wonder if it'll finally support png transparencies :)

I thought it was to do with ActiveX controls.. but i don't know enough about browsers to know if that's correct. It certainly is annoying. My IE got hijacked the other day, and I couldn't get to Windows Update to get those new patches until i'd rebooted and unhijacked it. Of course, i then had to reboot as part of the windows patching.

natslovr... you just need to fireup MS AntiSpyware, and the hijack's are destroyed. LOL

My desire to use Firefox and my apathy for change are fighting yet again.

Windows Automatic Updates has just informed me there are another 10 security patches this morning for WinXP SR2 (can't remember how many are for IE). In addition, the patch for stopping malicious software has a EULA. Reading through it (as we all thoroughly do!), I found that any time this update stops malicious software, it will automatically report the event, current OS, current CPU, and a few other things to Microsoft. If you don't want this to happen, simply follow the discreet non-hyperlinked address to a MS web site where you can scroll through many pages until you find the section where it tells you where abouts further down the page you can find information on where to disable it. Once you get there (FAQ #22 or thereabouts), you can follow the hyperlink to a seemingly unrelated developers page (I thought I'd hit the wrong link) where at the bottom you will be given the registry address for disabling the automatic notification to MS.
You have to create, not change, create the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MRT\DontReportInfectionInformation as a REG_DWORD with the value of "1". Of course, you'll have to create the key MRT as well if it doesn't exist, but MS doesn't tell you that. Hope you're familiar with RegEdit. If you do this after the reboot, make sure you write down that registry address somewhere 'cos you're not going to find it again.
So until my background programmes finish their number crunching, I'll just continue clicking "Restart Later" to the Automatic Updates window that pops up every few minutes (also ignoring window transition effects being turned off) to remind me that I haven't rebooted yet, as though the yellow exclamation mark in the system tray wasn't enough.

My apathy is starting to lose this fight. All I have to do now is figure out whether to download Firefox English or Firefox English-British (wtf?).

you just need to fireup MS AntiSpyware, and the hijack's are destroyed. LOL

Well spybot search and destory and adaware both failed to remove it without requesting a reboot. Didn't think to try MS Antispyware.

Firefox > > > > > > > > > > > > x 10 ^ 23rd IE.

Well, I've installed Firefox and I can't say I'm overwhelmed.

Good:
Engines toolbar
Plugins are handled well
Slight speed increase

Bad:
New windows opened from the right side of the screen appear over the top of the current window (IE puts it on the left side of the screen). I run in high res with a browser window on each side, so having to shift new windows like this is a pain.
Can't find any option to edit web pages (like "Edit With" in IE).
"New Window" reverts to the default homepage, rather than a duplicate of the current page. If I wanted a blank new window, I'd click the quicklaunch link.

Meh:
Download manager. I use Net Transport if I need any kind of download control.
Tabbed browsing. It's okay, but it seems to take more clicks just to save taskbar space.

Unless there's something astounding I've missed, I can't see how it's 10^23 times better than IE.

Tabbed browsing. It's okay, but it seems to take more clicks just to save taskbar space.

ctrl+tab is your friend

Will the new IE have the alpha rendering problems addressed?

Loving Maxthon

ctrl+tab is your friend

What? You mean I have to use that keyboard thing? :p

BTW, I had to post this reply in IE. Firefox can't seem to remember that I'm logged in here, despite cookies being turned on. Firefox also doesn't strip all HTML tags properly when saving pages as TXT files ( http://www.abc.net.au/rage/rage.htm for example). I'm not anti-MS enough to put up with these problems.

last edited by DrFrag at 02:19:00 18/Feb/05

Can't find any option to edit web pages (like "Edit With" in IE)

If you want a HTML editor, why don't you download Mozilla instead? Firefox was a Mozilla spin-off that intentionally stripped the original program of the HTML editor and Email client to make it a dedicated, lightweight browser with no bloat.

Firefox can't seem to remember that I'm logged in here, despite cookies being turned on

Using a proxy server by any chance? Just seeing if I can help ...

I'm not anti-MS enough to put up with these problems.

Most people who install Firefox don't do it because they hate MS. My dad and most of my friends are just glad that they aren't plagued by spyware problems since switching over. They've got the choice of applying a billion security fixes, changing settings, adding anti-spyware software to keep IE clean, or installing firefox. You can even switch to a different browser (if you don't like Firefox) and you'll still be doing yourself a favour by not using IE.

"New Window" reverts to the default homepage, rather than a duplicate of the current page

Not being picky, but "New" implies "New". I'm not sure why they'd implement a feature that behaves in an unintuitive way like this. There should be a plugin that caters for this need :)