Several techniques protect against malware attacks, including new URL-handling protections that stop the exploitation of malformed URLs and buffer overflows from executing code without a user's knowledge. The new browser also offers cross-domain script protection that allows scripts to interact only with content from the same domain in which they originate. (This also helps protect against phishing attacks.) There are also new ActiveX protections, as well as other security features, such as protections against RSS-borne dangers, including accepting only completely valid RSS feeds.

Most powerful of all new security tools is Protected Mode, available only on IE7 in Windows Vista. Protected Mode shields the operating system from actions taken by Internet Explorer or any Internet Explorer add-ins. That means that even if malware breaks Internet Explorer's security features, it shouldn't be able to do harm to your PC, because Protected Mode in essence locks Internet Explorer inside a safe box.

A look at the competition

There's only one real competitor to IE -- Firefox. The total market share of Opera and Safari don't even amount to rounding errors, so there's no need to consider them. Firefox, though, has started to gain traction.