Go to Windows 7 Insider Guide
Entered CNET Catalog: 10/19/2005
SKU: CNETINTERNETEXPL4VISTA
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 10/27/2005
The latest Windows Vista software build offers a fairly complete look inside the new Internet Explorer. Called Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Vista, it differs significantly from Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP Beta, currently available to the public. With this new browser, Microsoft shores up Internet Explorer's crumbling security status and takes aim at its biggest rivals. Be sure to see our slideshow for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Vista here
Upside: Like FireFox, Internet Explorer boasts built-in tabs, allowing you to open several pages within a single instance of Internet Explorer. You can save groups of tabs within Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Vista, too. A cool new Internet Explorer-only feature allows you to view thumbnails of all open tabs--these are live page views, so you can visually keep track of streaming video feeds and updated text news sites. As in Opera, Microsoft added zoom capabilities within Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Vista, allowing you to examine tiny images up close without much image loss. For security, there's a new ActiveX opt-in center, so you can monitor and control ActiveX on individual Web pages. There's also built-in antiphishing protection; when you surf to a page that Microsoft has recognized as a potentially dangerous site, you'll see a warning.
Downside: This version of Internet Explorer 7 will ship only with Windows Vista; it will not be available as a stand-alone for Windows XP or earlier users. Unless you upgrade to the new operating system when it becomes available in late 2006, you won't be able to use these new features, although a few may trickle down to Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. Anyone still using Windows 98 SE through Windows 2000 will be able to use only Internet Explorer 6.
Outlook: While Microsoft has added several new security features to Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Vista, the problem has been Internet Explorer's intricate marriage with the Windows operating system--and Internet Explorer's nearly monthly appearance on Microsoft's security bulletin update list. Past flaws within IE have led to major viruses and worms attacking the Windows operating system, allowing remote users to take over an infected PC. If Microsoft delivers truly Trustworthy code with Windows Vista, as it promises, then the new Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Vista should be a success. But once the first security bulletin posts for this new Internet Explorer version, look for many users to bail to more secure browsers such as FireFox or Opera.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
User Rating: 
1/10
Ready for Chrome
Pros: The phishing filter is nice to have, if it works as promised.
Cons: Microsoft loves to take the control of its environments away from the consumer. You can't move toolbars around. They scattered the home, refresh, stop icons and far be it from us to put them where WE want them to be.
User Rating: 1/10
Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.
Pros: None that I could see.
Cons: Everything. Interface is hooribly designed, slow.
User Rating: 
4/10
re explorer 7
Pros: need help[
Cons: vista fair
reid71@hotmail.com if there is an it guy out there and can help .i would appreciate ur help
as microsoft cannot help or will not help im desperate plz help thanks cliff
User Rating: 
5/10
Internet Explorer 7
Pros: It has enhanced security, and the tab switching seems convenient.
Cons: The only Cons I found with it is that it does not work well with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 preferred with the 'go to address bar command' only Internet Explorer 6 was designed for Dragon NaturallySpe
User Rating: 1/10
Horrible, just plain awfull
Pros: Nothing, just awfull
Cons: Slow, can't open tabs (not spyware), toolbars relocated, ugly interface, no new features, long download,
User Rating: 
2/10
I can't believe that it broke my All-In-One!
Pros: Nice graphics & security features
Cons: If you have a HP PSC 1350, your HP Director & features are toast!
Well, thinking that all of the problems that they have had in the past with I.E. 6, I thought they would have all the bugs worked out by now...NOT! When I installed it, my HP Director, my Image Zone, and all of the other neat features that my severely patched HP PSC 1350 has to offer, suddenly stopped working! They only started to work again, when I uninstalled my new IE 7! Thank G-d I was able to do that, otherwise, I would have had to reinstall the entire kitten-kaboodle! Back to the drawing board, Microsoft!
User Rating: 
6/10
one of the best
Pros: very fast, clean interface, added features
Cons: constant shut off, no add-ons
as what windows are known for, ie7 is a business tool product--simple and easy, with no add-ons like firefox, or not as pretty as safari. the cons are there are constant error messages and ie7 need to restart again. i'm not very satisfied with ie 7 now. hope ms can continue to make improvements on it. until now, firefox 2.0 is the best browser around, decent speed with spelling check, addons.
User Rating: 
10/10
I like where they are going
Pros: Responsive, tabbed browsing, latest version works with most websites
Cons: Well, it's still beta...
User Rating: 2/10
wouldn't install
Pros: wouldn't install
Cons: crashed system
User Rating: 4/10
poor - poor - poor
Pros: nice graphics
Cons: hates third party apps
tried everything in my little bag of tricks to get two differennt HP camers and one Sony to "open and copy to hard drive" some pics.then I tried Adobe---same thing..Two different HP printers kept "hanging" up on me. Favorite web sites took a long time to get "log in" to include two (2) https sites!!
I removed it and the cameras, printers, etc. all work normal again!!!! Where did I go wrong and/or what oh what did I MISS???
User Rating: 
9/10
Better than I thought
Pros: The new interface, sleek design, tabs, simple look
Cons: the simple look can confuse beginners, its still a beta
User Rating: 2/10
Disappointing Product From Microsoft
Pros: Currently NONE
Cons: Ultra unstable
User Rating: 2/10
Only 5 minutes into using it I had problems...
Pros: Nice re-design, security, and use of tabs
Cons: Difficult to setup and in no way user friendly.
Let's start off with what I love. The security issue is a major bonus for me. However, if you are like any other smart individual, you own virus protection and this shouldn't be a big thing for you. I am a NOD32 user and nothing get's by it, internet or not. So really that wasn't a major thing for me.
Then there is the new design, I like the style but the user interface is terrible. They got rid of the default File, Edit, View, Tools, Help etc at the top of the page. Now unless you are pretty skilled at figuring out the new browser then you are going to have a hell of a time turning it back on. Personally, they should have made it the other way and allowed you to change the design.
Another thing I don't like is they icon options. Nothing is organized, it's all over the place, so you have two icons that do something on the left and like five other icons that do something else over on your right.
And lastly I will talk about the thing that pops up evertime I open IE up. It asks me to specify a few things and that's fine. Except for the fact that I get an error message each time!
Microsoft almost has it with this browser, but they really need to organize it a little better. Sometimes using the default and then just making minor changes to it can be a great thing. I'm sad to say that I will be re-downloading 6 and using that along with my default Firefox that I would never give up for this!
User Rating: 2/10
Poor, huge, non-intuitive, unusable new toolbars
Pros: CSS2.1 support, PNG alpha transparency
Cons: Very bad toolbars, PNG gamma correction, slooooow
In fact any inclusion of other toolbar or application menuwill make it even bigger.
The toolbar can NO MORE be customized to group the buttons that users really want or need, and the GIANT address bar takes too much place andcan't be reduced.The mini-search bar is too much incomplete for users, and any attempt to use another one(for example Google's bar, but EVEN the Microsoft's "DevToolBar" will just take its own new line, without possibility to place it in aconvenient place.
The tabs may beconvenient for some uses, but having this HUGE tabs bar always on screen is non-sense when there's a single tab in the window.
Now if you prefer the classic menus, they will appear in a separate toolbar that takes its own place vertically, and duplicates the function of the new non-intuitive and usable iconic menu on the right of the tabs.
Add then the unmovable position of back/forward navigation button onthe upper-left corner where it is badly placed for notebook users without a mouse, and the counter intuitive single button to show the single history dropdown history list, and this makes navigation in the history a nightmare.
All those fixed-position and non-customizable bars are a big revert from IE6 easier customization.
With IE6, my navigation tools (including custom Google bar) could all fit on two lines including the menu. With IE7 now, it takes 4 lines, and the vertical space left to navigation is only about 65% of the screen height on a 1024-height screen (the rest beingtaken by the 4 lines toolbars and menus on the top, the title bar, the IE status line and the standard Windows bar for the StartMenu/icons/SystemTray/Clock
Now if you visit apage thatloads a Word or PDF, this will add another line below the tabs bar,because the menus and buttons can't be fitted in the new toolbars layout... Even less space on screen!
The displayeditems are placed in very uneasy position and not logically,but there's nothing I can do to remove the unnecessary or duplicate items that Microsoft forces permanently (and even in this case, three of the four lines of toolbars are less than half-filled. What a waste of screen space!)
But that's not all: IE7 is even more sloooooow than IE6. Both at first load time, but also when navigating from one page to the other(including whennavigating back when all is already present in the cached history): it really swaps a lot to disk, because it uses SO MUCH memory.
Well this is just a beta, probably not optimized at all, and the GUI is probably not finished. There's lot to do to make that new layout usable to fit just what users want.
Only good pros: the much better CSS2.1 styling engine (nearly perfect but with some rendering bugs, because some elements sometimes appear truncated within the otherwise correct box model: this causes many form layout in tables to appear with hidden elements, just the background color, so some forms are unusable.)
The PNG alpha transparency is good, but still IE7 does not correctly manage PNG images with gamma or ICC color profiles, and applies extremely incorrect gamma correction, where the image's color profile does not match its colors with the implied HTML&CSS sRGB colorspace. This makes unpredictable the results of displaying titles and texts (specified with HTML, CSS and DOM) on background images, because colors don't match the specification.
So the only PNG images that work are those whichdont specify their colorspace (IE7 assumes it is already in the sRGB colorspace), or that specify the sRGB colorspace explicitly. But IE7 renders the PNG image differently if the image specifies the correct ICC profile or gamma $to which sRGB should correspond.
What does this mean? PNG is still not usable for transfering accurate photos taken by digital cameras, and only the old JPEG format renders with correct colors, but with poor accuracy, or with very large filesizes. Or you'll need to use a third-party PNG renderer instead of the Microsoft one (but then you'll loose support for alpha transparency!!!).
Hmmm... IE7 Beta2 Public Review does not renderthis CNET page correctly:
the CNET VIDEO REVIEW does not work, and the PHOTO GALLERY displays a IE logo, but any click on it to display the photo does not work. Most probably a IE7 compatibility issue with JavaScript...
User Rating: 
3/10
Internet Explorer plagiarism
Pros: Nice Graphic
Cons: Unable to set tool bars
User Rating: 9/10
Great Browser ....
Pros: Security, Tabs, Looks
Cons: Crashes but hey it is BETA
User Rating: 3/10
Sure its better, but no matter what it's still a security liability.
Pros: Seamless integration with anything Microsoft, so you can do all sorts of...windows-y things.
Cons: It's tied into the Windows OS, so it will no doubt have the same glaring security issues that previous versions have. You're also at Microsoft's mercy when it comes to updates or other features.
The editors previewed it with a precautionary tone, and with good reason: they know that the past versions of IE are plagued with security holes.
Don't get me wrong: I think that the new interface is pretty, and I'm sure it will have tighter security. Let's ignore the fact that it looks exactly like Mozilla Firefox- when you look at the two side by side, you'll wonder if Microsoft's idea-well has dried up.
Here's the main problem though: it is integrated into the Windows system, and is therefore virtually impossible to remove (especially when infected). For years, Internet Explorer has been the front door for spyware and viruses: once your internet browser gets infected, your entire operating system is left up for grabs. Ever installed any AOL software, and suddenly found that AOL has taken over your IE with toolbars and links galore? And AIM is a legitimate program! (By the way, this is also a hint to stop using AOL's version of AIM- there are better chat clients with better functionality out there).
I'm glad Microsoft has finally decided to update IE for the current decade, but I still think it's a good idea to forego it for the more flexible (and secure) alternatives.
User Rating: 
8/10
It's a preview schoinard
Pros: New features
Cons: out in 2006
User Rating: 9/10
Its gonna be great!
Pros: Comes with Windows, more secure, tabbed browsing
Cons: None so far, although it has not come out, yet.
User Rating: 2/10
Sure, eyecandy is great but...
Pros: More eyecandy, more secure than previous IE versions
Cons: Little support for CSS, failure to support web standards
User Rating: 3/10
The browser wars are over: Microsoft surrenders!
Pros: Slick look; tabs (!); improved stability and security (?)
Cons: Vista ONLY?!? ***?!?
What kills this browser, though, is expressable in just two words: Vista only. VISTA ONLY?!? What the Falling Under Control of Kenny is THAT about? Only about half of Windows users have even migrated to XP at, what, 3-4 years after release? With a rumored hefty hardware requirement for Vista, the adoption/migration is going to be MUCH slower than even that! I'm no coder, but you can't expect me to believe it's hard AT ALL to work the important security fixes/improvements of IE 7 for Vista into an IE for everyone, i.e. for XP and 98!
This isn't the first instance of it, but this benighted idea of using substantial browser improvements (especially security improvements!) to leverage OS sales is evidence that Microsoft's flying the white flag in the (first?) browser war of the 21st century. This essentially turns what was once a free product into a $100 item. They used to sell the ad-free Opera for less! But it's even worse than that! Your average app, let alone a web browser, doesn't force you to install an entire OPERATING SYSTEM to make it work! This is the most ridiculous "upgrade path" in the history of personal computers. Big Bill had best be hittin' his knees every night to pray that ol' "Mad Dog" Jobs doesn't suddenly see the light and start selling the Mac OS without the overpriced hardward dongle that is the Macintosh computer. For that will be the final nail in the Windows coffin that Bill and Co. have largely constructed themselves, with their baseless arrogance and complete lack of attention to their customers and the market as a whole.
User Rating: 3/10
What's a poor web developer to do?
Pros: Fixes some IE 6 deficienceis
Cons: Further fragments the PC browser world....
About the only sane stragegy is going to be code for Firefox and web standards, then try to make things work on multiple IE versions. Uggh!
User Rating: 3/10
Microsoft's attempt to kill competition again!
Pros: Nice looks, added security features
Cons: integration with Windows will still make it vulnerable, will require hefty hardware for full beautiful looks as required by Vista
User Rating: 5/10
OH LORD! It does new things MSIE 6 on Windows XP already does?
Pros: NONE. I don't have Windows Vista. Do you? It's not in the stores anyway.
Cons: NONE.NONE. I don't have Windows Vista. Do you? It's not in the stores anyway.
