Just say yes to Internet Explorer 7

19.10.2006
It's been a long time coming, but Internet Explorer 7 is here at last. If you're dying to get your hands on the new browser, you can go download it right now, but there's really no need -- IE7 will soon come knocking on your door.

In November, Microsoft plans to make IE7 an Automatic Update to Windows XP. That means that if you have Automatic Updates configured to download automatically, the new browser will download behind the scenes and then ask for your permission to be installed. If you have Automatic Updates turned off or configured to notify you but not download automatically, you'll see an Automatic Updates screen offering to download and install IE7.

When the new browser comes knocking, should you let it in? Oh, yes.

IE7 is a considerable improvement over IE6, and with new features such as tabbed browsing, RSS support, improved security, and an integrated search box, it's well worth the upgrade. IE6 was an inferior competitor to Mozilla's Firefox, but IE7 is the equal of Firefox 1.5, and in some ways better.

That's not to say, though, that everyone will be happy with this new version of IE. If you're a power user, much as you'll welcome these new features, you can be excused if you feel that Microsoft has partially abandoned you. For while this is a far superior browser to IE6, it's also less customizable -- a disturbing trend for those who live to tweak.

Tabbed browsing