Vendetta

One of the new features that came with Windows XP way back in 2001 was a new version of the Internet Explorer browser in its sixth incarnation. Sadly not much has evolved for IE6 since then giving other browsers such as Opera and the Mozilla-derivates (Netscape, Firefox, …) the chance to catch up.

With the release of Vista comes a new version of Internet Explorer as well, quite originally called Internet Explorer 7. This version is now available in public beta for everyone (that has a legal version of windows, ahem) to try. I downloaded my copy early this week and installed it on my company laptop that, after receiving its third hard disk in under a year, just received a fresh Win XP Pro install.

First looks are important. The main window has been reorganized a bit with the back/forward, reload and stop buttons having been redesigned and put in other locations. The menu’s are switched off by default as well so the overall view does seem fresh and new at first glance – yet I switched on the menu’s again after about 10 minutes but I have to admit that I haven’t really used them at all, so probably going to disable them again later on.

The big hoot is obviously that, finally, IE7 comes with “Tabbed Browsing” – a feature often claimed to be invented by the open source community in its Mozilla forks but having actually paid money for Opera on Windows 3.11 late in the previous century I clearly remember using tabbed browsing back then, we’re talking Netscape 4 and Internet Explorer 2 days here people. While working for DHL I also used the Netscape 7 version of tabbed browsing so mostly I’ll compare features with that browser, my system is Mozilla Free at the moment and I don’t intend to change that. Opera is installed on another system mostly to test my CSS and to fool sites where the webmaster intentionally makes them “Firefox Only”.

Pro’s :

• The small empty tab at the top right of the tab-bar where you can quickly open a new tab with the mouse
• The Quick Tabs (CTRL-Q on your keyboard) that will show all open tabs at a glance and you can just select the one you want
• In the Favorites a small arrow appears next to a link. Click the link and it will open in the current tab, click the arrow and it will open in a new tab.
• It takes getting used to, but I can cycle thru tabs with CTRL-TAB
• ‘Open in new tab’ is at the same location as ‘Open in new window’ in IE6 (right click, 2 times cursor down, enter - yes I’m a keyboard nut)
• CTRL-Click defaults to open in a new tab instead of new window

Con’s :

• Unable to close a tab without activating it first (possible however on the Quick View page)
• Open tabs are not saved when the browser exits (cfr Opera), you have to select ‘Restore last tab group’ when starting the browser and right clicking on the first tab
• ‘Open in new window’ anchors cannot be redirected to open in tabs instead of windows

Except for tabbed browsing IE7 includes an RSS reader as well. I’ve used FeedReader until now but since I’ve got IE7 installed I haven’t really used it anymore

Pro’s :

• Only new items are displayed
• The ‘Feeds’ icon in the toolbar automatically becomes active when a website has feeds available, no need to go hunting in the page

Con’s :

• The default refresh setting is located in a not too obvious position (Right click an entry, Properties, click the “Default Options” button)
• No option to refresh an entire folder at once, you have to click each individual refresh icon

There are plenty of others obviously but I’m just listing what I’ve enjoyed, and scratched my head about, during a single week of using this second beta. Some other random points I’d like to mention

Pro’s :

• Pages actually seem to load and render fasten when compared to IE6.
• Its now possible to (in Opera style) to already show empty blocks for the images while loading so that the site does not completely redraw multiple times when loaded.
• Clear error messages when something goes boom

Con’s :

• Pages still load faster in Opera
• CSS handling is at the moment even worse then IE6, whereas there is expected to be a large improvement in CSS handling in IE7.
• The installer added various “sounds” to my “no sounds” user profile (control panel stuff)

Now I fully realize that this is a public beta and final code is 6 months away at least when Vista will ship so probably many of the con’s listed will be taken care of, or improved at the least. Yet this is a good start of where it’s supposed to be going and I can’t wait to see the final version in full action.

Links :
Internet Explorer Beta 2 Preview