New Internet Explorer

There is a new Internet Explorer available. It’s called Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3, which is a pre-final release, but it appears to be quite stable and full featured. The download page specifies that it is available for XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), XP Profesional x64 and Windows Server 2003 x64, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and Windows Server 2003 ia64. I’ve been testing it out on my XP Home machine for a little while now and I like it (though I still prefer Firefox). And you know how much I’ve hated IE in the past. This one brings IE much closer to web standards compliance in most areas that I can see. It makes web pages look and behave as they’re supposed to look and behave—and it’s much more secure. It’s a pretty slick browser.

Where you might run into trouble is with web sites that were designed specifically for Internet Explorer 6. A few web developers still do that, unfortunately. Thanks to the growing popularity of Firefox and Opera, developing web sites for IE only has, increasingly, been phased out. Both of my utility companies used to be IE only sites and they finally changed about a year ago. I’ve tested IE 7 with my bank, electric company, gas company, and Amazon—everything worked fine for me. If you do business with an online entity that still caters exclusively to IE 6 (and earlier), then you might have a problem with IE 7—but, by the end of the year that’s what Microsoft will be rolling out with new computers, so the companies, who haven’t already, are probably scrambling to accommodate.

The new IE 7 also offers tab browsing and something called SmartType. You can turn both off in the Internet Options if you don’t like them. (Tabs really are a hate-em or love-em feature.) SmartType is turned on by default and is supposed to make print a little darker and cleaner to read with less eye strain. I think that’s also a hate it or love it feature. I don’t particularly like it for most web sites—though there are a couple that seem to benefit from it. Some folks find it works better on their monitors, especially the newer LCD monitors. Others have complained that the type is fuzzy. I noticed, too, that when SmartType is turned on it keeps the CPU (processor) usage sky high. It makes some web pages extremely jerky when scrolling. If SmartType doesn’t work for you, you can also turn it off in the Internet Options by going to Internet Options -> Advanced tab and scroll down to the Multimedia section where you can deselect the little SmartType box.

Here are a couple of reviews with pros and cons:
WindowsITPro review
CNET review

For what it’s worth, I’d recommend it, if you are a die-hard IE fan/user. (Since roughly 70% of this site’s viewers use IE, it’s probably pointless to put in another pitch for Firefox?) As always, if you decide to take the plunge, read the fine print first.