With IE7, the default security level has been raised from medium, the IE6 default, to medium-high. Not only that, but there are now no lower security levels than medium -- the medium-low and low settings have been eliminated entirely.

If you lower some of your security settings, you'll get a reminder in the Information Bar that you have low security settings -- and that warning stays there forever until you change your security settings back again. There's simply no way to turn it off. Not only that, but every time that you restart your browser, you'll receive a full-screen warning that your settings are not secure.

At some point, you'll most likely give in. To restore your settings to the recommended level, click the Information Bar and select Fix Settings for Me from the menu that appears.

This is, needless to say, exceedingly annoying, and seems part and parcel of a continuing push by Microsoft to protect users from themselves, even if it means being intrusive. The much-maligned User Account Control (UAC) feature of Windows Vista is another example of this trend.

The anti-phishing tool