Author Topic: IE 7.0 Beta 2: Any takers? (Read 11845 times)

lanux128 · « **on:** March 21, 2006, 10:07 PM »

Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 2 Preview is available now for technical evaluation. according to soft32.com, some of the new features:

Internet Explorer Review
The latest version of the world’s most popular Web browser has been released for technical evaluation, feedback, and testing by software and Web site developers.

What offers:
· Dynamic security protection through a simplified architecture that defends against malware, and new dynamic ways to protect against personal data theft from fraudulent Web sites (a practice known as “phishing”).
· Improved design to make everyday tasks easier and faster, with better navigation through tabbed browsing; inline search right from the toolbar; shrink-to-fit Web page printing; and a streamlined, redesigned user interface (currently in its early stages in Beta 1).
· New tools to take you directly to the information you want through support for Web feeds (RSS) that includes automatic discovery of web feeds (RSS) on Web pages, basic Web Feed (RSS) reading capabilities, and basic support for saving Web feeds (RSS) as a new kind of favorite.
· Platform enhancements for developers to improve compatibility and manageability, including improved support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) as well as transparent PNG support.

so, any takers...? or is it too little, too late...

Cpilot · « **Reply #1 on:** March 21, 2006, 10:58 PM »

I've been using it for about a month, WinXP SP2.
I like it.

nontroppo · « **Reply #2 on:** March 22, 2006, 10:21 AM »

so, any takers...? or is it too little, too late...
-lanux128 (March 21, 2006, 10:07 PM)

{beware: browser criticism ahead - wear hard hat!

}

Well as far as web standards go, much too little too late. Thay have basically hacked and patched up an old dinosaur of code. The rendering engine (the core of a web browser) still fails to support HTTP/1.1 properly, fails to support XHTML properly, fails to support CSS2 properly, fails to support the DOM properly. They have added no new technologies since 2001. There is a litany of misrendering of web standards[1]. They did fix some bugs that have been untouched for 5 years!!!

Security is better; indeed that is so, but it could hardly of been made worse...

UI - a cold calculation to add the minimum number of features copied from other products to keep enough people on-board. Nothing innovative.

----
[1] Standards help users greatly as well as developers BTW before we get into that avenue.

Darwin · « **Reply #3 on:** March 22, 2006, 12:26 PM »

I installed the beta last week and it screwed up my system so badly I had to restore a drive image from the week before that. 'Nuff said.

allen · « **Reply #4 on:** March 22, 2006, 07:55 PM »

Well as far as web standards go, much too little too late.
-nontroppo (March 22, 2006, 10:21 AM)

I completely agree. It's functionally superior to previous versions, but at the end of the day the general attitude seems to be that they don't have to create a superior browser, people will use it anyway. And for a large chunk of the population, this is still unfortunately true . . . which continues to make life difficult for us developers.

That said, I was refreshed you didn't mention their pitiful ACID2 results -- while seeing a browser pull it off, I get sick of all the ACID, ACID, ACID clammoring. A benchmark, not a priority -- and by no means the true measure of a browser--not yet, anyway.

lanux128 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2006, 08:51 PM »

...but at the end of the day the general attitude seems to be that they don't have to create a superior browser, people will use it anyway.
-allen (March 22, 2006, 07:55 PM)

yes, i agree. previously there was no urgency in monitoring current trends/technologies/dangers on the web. i'll bet that they may have even disbanded their IE unit. Only with users, especially corporate ones, clamouring for more protection against spyware & its ilk, did MS revived the IE project.

after using for just over 24hrs, i'll guess i'll just stick to firefox for personal browsing but i still have to support users who are have IE on their PC by default. As a plus point, at least they changed the UI quite radically, now it'll will be easier (fingers crossed) to persuade users to switch browsers.

thomthowolf · « **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2006, 09:01 PM »

I think that Bill already has enough of my money, and so, apparently, does he. This is a truly pitiful effort. I will continue to use Firefox.

nontroppo · « **Reply #7 on:** March 23, 2006, 07:43 AM »

I get sick of all the ACID, ACID, ACID clammoring. A benchmark, not a priority -- and by no means the true measure of a browser--not yet, anyway.
-allen (March 22, 2006, 07:55 PM)

I have mixed feelings on Acid2 myself. Yes, it has been misrepresented in what it is supposed to achieve, and supporting it will not make cross-browser dev headaches go away completely. But it really does test a series a fundamental building blocks that have never been properly addressed. Of course web devs have been hacking round browser bugs since the WWW was born. The IE 7 team has tried to fix all the glaring bugs in existing things it breaks (which is good[1]), and simply cannot address the changes Acid2 requires. Neither can Mozilla till the gecko core gets a serious reworking. It took Opera a year to implement its fixes.

Though the test itself looks "dumb", the techniques behind it aren't - solid positioning, min/max-width/height, generated content, CSS tables and others would make a clear difference in what web developers can achieve, and what users would experience. That is important for accesibility and many other things...

----
[1] I DO welcome IE7 - anything that is less of a buggy mess that IE6 was is warmly greeted!

lanux128 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 16, 2006, 10:07 PM »

testing ie7 without installing -> here.
now i might take it for a spin...

[link from shellcity.net]

Edited by Carol Haynes - Don't do this unless you want a completely messed up system (See below)

Edited by lanux128 - i striked-out the sentences, so that it serves as a warning...

kimmchii · « **Reply #9 on:** April 16, 2006, 10:15 PM »

testing ie7 without installing -> here.
now i might take it for a spin...

[link from shellcity.net]

-lanux128 (April 16, 2006, 10:07 PM)

whao great info Thanks .

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #10 on:** April 17, 2006, 05:26 AM »

Tried this and it has some odd effects running in this manner:

1) Pop up blocking seems to be on (even when it says it is switched off) and consequently it is not easy to set the proferences on the first page to load when you run it.

2) Printing doesn't seem to work

3) IE Toolbars seem to be a little messed up

4) Advanced options in Internet Options are missing.

All in all it doesn't feel quite right.

Is it like this if you install it properly?

kimmchii · « **Reply #11 on:** April 17, 2006, 05:53 AM »

Tried this and it has some odd effects running in this manner:

All in all it doesn't feel quite right.

Is it like this if you install it properly?
-Carol Haynes (April 17, 2006, 05:26 AM)

i have other issues, homepage wont change, it keeps going back to MSN, zoom doesnt work.

when i did a proper install last time, everything was good.

edit:
4) Advanced options in Internet Options are missing. == same here.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #12 on:** April 17, 2006, 07:16 AM »

DO NOT DO THIS

It has FUBARed my system completely ...

IE 6 no longer works properly
I can't fix IE6
Windows Media Player is dead (Internal error on startup)

Whole system is a complete mess.

I have tried reapplying WinXPSP2 patch (which is recommended for a misconfigured IE setup) and it doesn't work.

Having made a huge mess I tried installing IE7 beta to see if I could fix the messed IE6 settings but even that will not install at all. It completes the process but says it has failed. (Errors in a log somewhere but I can't find them).

Now going to try and run windows repair!

Darwin · « **Reply #13 on:** April 17, 2006, 02:19 PM »

OK I'm an ass... I should have posted a warning about this but thought it was just me: the installaion that I referred to above (March 22) was done via the instructinos linked to above supposedly allowing one to run IE 6 and 7 side by side. I had to restore an older Acronis TrueImage to get everything operational again.

Sorry, Carol, looks like I could have saved you the trouble.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #14 on:** April 17, 2006, 03:00 PM »

Seven hours later I have a system that works (sort of again) but it has some strange anomalies (like Firefox now sucks up to 85% of CPU time even when I just scroll a window). This happens even when I run the system with a 'bare' startup set (ie. all startup items disabled and only MS services enabled). Anyone any ideas what is going on?

This really did some serious damage - every time I tried to repair my Windows installation from my XPSP2 disc it failed. I finally got a system back after using an XPSP1 disc instead and then applying the SP2 update again.

I think I may take the opportunity to recover useful bits and pieces, deactivate software I need to (Adobe in particular) and then reinstall windows from scratch!! Could have done without it at the moment though!

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #15 on:** April 17, 2006, 04:41 PM »

This is how I feel now ...

lanux128 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 17, 2006, 08:17 PM »

oh shoot, what have i done! i'm sorry all this happened

i'm having intermittent problems like kimmchii but nothing major.

it seems like i've jumped the gun, it looked like a great idea at that time.
my profound apologies to Carol, Darwin, kimmchii and anyone else who had tried the above and had their systems screwed-up. Down with beta-testing IE7

Update: on the original website, there are other users who followed this tip and now are having problems... sorry everyone...

Cpilot · « **Reply #17 on:** April 17, 2006, 08:38 PM »

Down with beta-testing IE7

Well it seems to me that this tweak is the problem not IE7. As I said above I downloaded and installed the beta and have been running it since March. With absolutely no problem.
Tabs work great, it loads quickly, I got the google search bar installed and it runs with no problems.
It has been stable and working great on my WinXP SP2.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #18 on:** April 17, 2006, 08:41 PM »

Don't worry lanux128, not your fault - I was daft enough to try it.

The stupid thing is that I have VMWare installed and I could just as easily have tried it there with no potential conflicts!

lanux128 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 17, 2006, 08:56 PM »

Well it seems to me that this tweak is the problem not IE7. As I said above I downloaded and installed the beta and have been running it since March. With absolutely no problem.
Tabs work great, it loads quickly, I got the google search bar installed and it runs with no problems.
It has been stable and working great on my WinXP SP2.
-Cpilot (April 17, 2006, 08:38 PM)

yes, beta-testing was not the problem. got carried away a bit.

@Carol: maybe a test environment like Sandboxie would saved us all this trouble. anyway, going to check up on VMWare.

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8058/sandboxiewindow22hg.png

IE 7.0 Beta 2: Any takers?

Darwin · « **Reply #20 on:** April 18, 2006, 12:38 AM »

lanux128 - ditto what Carol said... I tried the hack before this thread was posted (I *think* having read about it in one of the blogs on pcmag online - can't be sure now, though). Like Carol, I could easily have avoided this situation (sandboxie), yet ploughed ahead anyway. My own fault!