Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview

The IE 7 installation sequence offers users a chance to run Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool. It also requires a reboot and verification that you have a genuine Windows license.

When you first launch IE 7 after installation, the app asks you to make some basic configuration decisions.

IE 7's tabbed-browsing capability is well-implemented, if long overdue.

A settings dialog lets you specify various details of IE 7's tabbed-browsing behavior.

The Quick Tabs view shows thumbnails of all your open tabs to help you organize them.

You can add all your open tabs as a group to your Favorites.

Your home page can actually be multiple pages, each of which will open in its own tab.

This close-up view shows IE 7's streamlined tool bars - no traditional-style menus are visible. The search box is at the upper right.

IE 7 lets you add multiple search providers and select any of them - not just MSN - as your default.

IE 7's Find function works just like the one in IE 6 - there's no incremental-search capability.

The bottom-right corner of the IE window lets you adjust the zoom factor for both text and images on the page. You can also hold Control and turn the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

This toolbar icon lights up and lets you pull down a menu when it detects an RSS (or Atom) feed is available on a page.

IE 7's built-in feed viewer lets you stay abreast of your RSS feeds.

Finally, IE gives you a one-step way to delete various aspects of your browsing history.

For secure Web sites, IE 7 provides a more prominent lock icon that you can click on for additional detail.

If you encounter a suspected phishing Web site, the browser's address bar turns yellow, and you can click to see this explanatory text. The site shown here is a Microsoft demonstration site.

If you encounter a known phishing Web site, the browser's address bar turns red, and you can click to see this warning.

Domain names can contain non-ASCII characters - a boon for international users, particularly those who don't use the Latin alphabet. But IDNs (internationalized domain names) also pose a security risk because they can be used to mimic similar-looking domain names. So IE7 displays an information bar any time you load a page whose name contains characters outside of your normal character set.

This image from the World Wide Web Consortium shows IE 7's alpha-channel transparency in action. The gradient bars change transparency from one end to the other, allowing more of the patterned background to show through.

IE 7's print preview feature is dramatically improved.

IE 7 still has problems rendering the comment form on PC Magazine's online discussion forums.

This is what the pcmag.com comment form should look like (as rendered by Firefox).