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What is Internet Explorer 7What is Internet Explorer 7? This article or section contains information about a program that is under development. It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as the software release approaches and more information becomes available.
Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary graphical web browser made by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It has been the most widely-used web browser since 1999. Internet Explorer has been included as the default browser in all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 OSR1. The last major upgrade to Internet Explorer, 6.0 SV1, is included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 only. Version 7 of Internet Explorer is currently under development; Beta versions have been released on a regular basis, most recently build 5335.5 released March 20, 2006. Also, Build 5342.2 of Internet Explorer 7 was released bundled with Build 5342 of Windows Vista on March 24, 2006. Versions of Internet Explorer prior to 6.0 SV1 are also available as a separate download for versions of Windows up to Windows XP. Internet Explorer was also developed for several other operating systems: Internet Explorer for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX (the latter for use through the X Window System on Solaris and HP-UX). All of these versions have ceased active development.
Version 7.0 of Internet Explorer has been renamed to Windows Internet Explorer, as part of Microsoft's rebranding of component names that are included with Windows. Set to ship with Windows Vista, and as a separate download for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, large amounts of the underlying architecture, including the rendering engine and security framework, have been completely overhauled. Partly as a result of these security enhancements, the browser will be a stand-alone application, rather than integrated with the Windows shell, and it will no longer be capable of acting as a file browser. The Windows Vista version will incorporate additional security measures, most significantly "Protected Mode", whereby the browser runs in a sandbox with even lower rights than a limited user account software. As such, it can write to only the Temporary Internet Files folder and can not install start-up programs or change any configuration of the operating system. This is expected to increase the security of the system considerably. However, the Windows XP version of Internet Explorer 7 will not feature "Protected Mode" operation. Security research agency Secunia reported an "Extremely critical" security vulnerability in the initial Beta 2 Preview of Internet Explorer 7, which was released in January 2006; however, the vulnerability does not affect the subsequent March release of the Beta 2 Preview.
On January 31st 2006, Microsoft released a public preview build (Beta 2 preview: Pre-Beta 2 version) of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (not for Windows Server 2003 SP 1) on their web site. It stated that more public preview builds (possibly Beta 2 in April) of Internet Explorer 7 will be released in first half of 2006, and final version will be released in second half of 2006. The pre beta build was refreshed on March 20, 2006 to build 7.0.5335.5. In addition, at the MIX'06 conference, Bill Gates said that Microsoft is already working on the next two versions of IE after version 7. Source: Wikipedia
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