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submitted by Sang on 01.31.2006 in Life, Links

You might remember my post about Internet Explorer 7 a while back. This post is a review of Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2.

1. New icon. The first thing I noticed after restarting my computer after installation is the new icon. Instead of the standard glossy e, Microsoft added a nice little halo around the e that’s similar to the Earthlink halo.
   
   
2. Toolbars. IE7 B2 now has a much nicer user interface. I was very impressed with its GUI to say the least. The one thing that I don’t like is that the toolbars seem a bit clogged on the right side. It’d be better, in my opinion, if Microsoft killed the Google Toolbar, and killed the toolbar below the Google Toolbar. I mean, the second toolbar is kinda useless because it’s just the main menu with icons.
   
   Screenshot (I can’t post it without screwing up the layout)
3. Navigation buttons. Another thing that I don’t think about the new Internet Explorer is that your standard navigation buttons (home, stop, refresh) are not in their usual order. In order to conserve space, Microsoft reduced the size of these icons and placed them in odd and not juxtaposition. Makes browsing a tad more inefficient, but whatever floats MS’s boat.
4. First page. The URL you see in the screenshot above is the page that you will see first when you start IE7 B2.
5. Exploring. I decided to explorer the web with Internet Explorer 7 by going to a very sexy site. The font rendering immediately caught my eye. I know my vision is not as great as it was a year ago, but the blurriness of the font can make anyone think they’re going blind. I believe this feature, called ClearType, is only for LCDs only. You can turn it of by going to Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced -> uncheck Use ClearType. You have to restart your browser for the new setting to take affect.
   
   
6. HTML. IE7 B2 most definitely changed its HTML rendering engine. In IE6, I remember that the mouseover on my navigation bar would produce a depressed button image like the one below, but IE7 does not support that anymore. Boo! The part that I wanted them to change is the hover over the side links. Notice how August is not the same color as the rest?
   
   
   
   
7. Throbber (loading icon). The throbber, the loading icon (I didn’t know it was called that either), is also changed to look similar to Firefox. Check out the comparison screenshots below.
   
   
   Internet Explorer 7 throbber
   
   
   Firefox throbber
8. Addons. Firefox calls them plugins. Internet Explorer 7 calls them addons. Whatever the name, IE7 now has a feature to add on mini programs to help enhance your browsing experience. I have not downloaded any of them, but it looks promising considering that you have to pay for some of them!
   
   
   
   
   Paying for addons

Overall, I think that Internet Explorer 7 has definitely improved in terms of design, user-friendliness, and browsing capabilities. So far, the only thing that I like about it is its new interface, but then again, Firefox is planning to boost its visuals, too. The rest has potential, but there’s still room for progress, especially its HTML rendering engine.

Wanna test out Internet Explorer 7 for yourself?

Related posts:

• MS Official:- Microsoft IE& Beta 2 Live Download
• What is RSS?
• How to Surf the Internet Without Internet Explorer!
• Firefox Hates Internet Explorer.
• Firefox Crop Circle

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