Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 7 provides improved navigation through tabbed browsing, web search right from the toolbar, advanced printing, easy discovery, reading and subscription to RSS feeds, and much more.
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Simplified User Experience–>The Internet Explorer 7 frame is reorganized to make it noticeably simpler, more streamlined, and less cluttered with unnecessary items. This maximizes the area of the screen devoted to the webpages that you want to see and makes performing the most common browsing tasks easy.
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Advanced Printing–>Automatically scales a printed webpage so that it’s not wider than the paper it will be printed on. Internet Explorer 7 also includes a multi-page print preview with live margins, resizing text to avoid document clipping, and an option to print only selected text.
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Toolbar Search Box–>Web searches using your favorite search provider can now be entered into a search box within the toolbar, eliminating the clutter of separate toolbars. You can easily choose a provider from the dropdown list or add more providers.
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Favorites Center–>Offers easy and fast access to Favorites, Tab Groups, Browsing History, and RSS Feed subscriptions. Expands when needed, and can be anchored in place for even easier access.
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RSS Feeds–>Automatically detects RSS feeds on sites by illuminating an icon on the toolbar. A single click on the icon allows you to preview and optionally subscribe to the site’s RSS feed, and then be automatically notified as content is updated. Read RSS feeds directly in the browser, scan for important stories, and filter your view with search terms or site-specific categories.
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Tabbed Browsinng–>View multiple sites in a single browser window. Easily switch from one site to another through tabs at the top of the browser frame.
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Quick Tabs–>Provides easy tab selection and navigation by displaying thumbnails of all open tabs in a single window.
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Tab Groups
Tabs can be grouped and saved into logical categories, allowing you to open multiple tabs with a single click. A Tab Group can easily be set as the Home Page Group so the entire Tab Group opens every time Internet Explorer is launched from the Start menu.
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Page Zoom–>Enlarge individual webpages, including both text and graphics, to either focus on specific content or to make content more accessible to those with vision limitations.
Internet Explorer 7 also provides security through a robust new architecture, security features that help defend against malicious software (also known as malware), and new ways to better protect against the theft of personal data from fraudulent websites, a practice known as phishing.
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ActiveX Opt-in–>Disables nearly all pre-installed ActiveX controls to prevent potentially vulnerable controls from being exposed to attack. You can easily enable or disable ActiveX controls as needed through the Information Bar and the Add-on Manager.
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Security Status Bar–>Enhances awareness of website security and privacy settings by displaying color-coded notifications next to the address bar. Internet Explorer 7 changes the Address Bar to green for websites bearing new High Assurance certificates, indicating the site owner has completed extensive identity verification checks. Phishing Filter notifications, certificate names, and the gold padlock icon are now also adjacent to the address bar for better visibility. Certificate and privacy detail information can easily be displayed with a single click on the Security Status Bar.
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Phishing Filter–>Proactively warns and helps protect you against potential or known fraudulent sites and blocks the site if appropriate. The opt-in filter is updated several times per hour using the latest security information from Microsoft and several industry partners.
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Cross-Domain Barriers–>Limits script on webpages from interacting with content from other domains or windows. This enhanced safeguard will further protect against malware by limiting the potential for malicious websites to manipulate flaws in other websites or cause you to download undesired content or software.
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Delete Browsing History–> Allows you to clean up cached pages, passwords, form data, cookies, and history, all from a single window.
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Address Bar Protection–>Every window, whether it’s a pop-up or standard window, will present an address bar to the user, helping to block malicious sites from emulating trusted sites.
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International Domain Name Anti-spoofing–>In addition to adding support for International Domain Names in URLs, Internet Explorer also notifies you when visually similar characters in the URL are not expressed in the same language, thus protecting you against sites that could otherwise appear as known, trustworthy sites.
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URL Handling Security–>Redesigned URL parsing ensures consistent processing and minimizes possible exploits. The new URL handler helps centralize critical data parsing and increases data consistency throughout the application.
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Fix My Settings–>To help protect you from browsing with unsafe settings, Internet Explorer 7 warns you with an Information Bar when current security settings may put you at risk. Within the Internet Control Panel, you will see certain critical items highlighted in red when they are unsafely configured. In addition to alerts warning you about unsafe settings, you will be reminded by the Information Bar as long as the settings remain unsafe. You can instantly reset Internet security settings to the “Medium-High” default level by clicking the “Fix My Settings” option in the Information Bar.
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Add-ons Disabled Mode–>
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To help troubleshoot difficulties launching Internet Explorer or reaching specific websites, you have the ability to start in “No Add-ons” mode, where only critical system Add-ons are enabled.
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Features Unique to Windows Vista
The following features are available only with Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista:
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Protected Mode–>Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system. Exploits and malicious software are restricted from writing to any location beyond Temporary Internet Files without explicit user consent.
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Parental Controls–>To help keep kids safer online, parents can control browsing behavior through the parental control settings built into Windows Vista. The child’s safety level can be monitored and changed remotely. The safety level carries over to many PC activities, such as playing games or browsing the Internet. A child’s browsing session can even be examined by a parent afterwards, and cannot be removed without the parent’s permission.
It also improved support for cascading style sheets, a rich RSS feeds platform, and robust tools for deploying and managing Internet Explorer 7 in large enterprise environments.
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CSS Improvements
Addresses many of the major inconsistencies that can cause web developers problems when producing visually rich, interactive webpages. Improved support for CSS 2.1, including selectors and fixed positioning, allow web developers to create more powerful effects without the use of script. -
Application Compatibility Toolkit
An application compatibility kit will be available for Internet Explorer 7, allowing IT pros and developers to understand any incompatibilities with their existing websites, applications, and deployments. -
Alpha Channel in PNG
Supports transparency within the PNG image format, resulting in better-looking websites that are simpler to build. -
Group Policy Improvements
Provides support for all aspects of Internet Explorer settings through Group Policy, greatly easing management across an enterprise. -
Internet Explorer Administration Kit
OEMs and deployment specialists can pre-package Internet Explorer with customized settings or additional programs for their users. -
Improved AJAX Support
Improves the implementation of the XMLHTTP Request as a native Javascript object for rich AJAX-style applications. While Internet Explorer 6 handled XMLHTTP requests with an ActiveX control, Internet Explorer 7 exposes XMLHTTP natively. This improves syntactical compatibility across different browsers and allows clients to configure and customize a security policy of their choice without compromising key AJAX scenarios. -
Open Search Extensions
In conjunction with Amazon.com, a set of RSS Simple List Extensions were submitted to the RSS community, and released under the Creative Commons license. Among other features, these extensions greatly simplify development of applications that interact with Open Search-compatible search providers. -
RSS Platform
Provides rich functionality for downloading, storing, and accessing RSS feeds across the entire operating system, and enables more users than ever before to embrace RSS. Once a feed is subscribed to in one application, that subscription, and all the associated content, will be made available across the operating system for any application that wishes to consume it. -
Platform Compatibility
Internet Explorer 7 is more compatible with top web features than ever before. Internet Explorer 7 will support many of the new standards on the web to make browsing the web a richer experience and easier to develop for. Further, every new feature in Internet Explorer 7 offers full control via Group Policy, making Internet Explorer administration of even the largest enterprises a breeze.
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