Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 Released
Microsoft has released IE7 beta 1 to MSDN subscribers and a number of beta testers (of which I'm neither). There's been some outlash that Microsoft should have released it to a larger group but I'm doubtful that would have made any difference in the success of this release.
It is clearly not aimed at us web developers looking for CSS support rivalling that of Firefox or Safari. Whether it will get added into beta 2 or the final version remains to be seen.
Probably the largest difference from before is alpha PNG support. This feature alone will ease some headaches. Otherwise, this browser seems mostly cosmetic with the addition of RSS integration, tabbed browsing, and a simplified UI that looks similar to Firefox.
For those of you looking to try it out, it'll undoubtedly hit the torrent sites but my money is on waiting until beta 2.
If you're really interested in checking it out anyways, there's a quick way to get it running and can actually get around the Windows Genuine Advantage install. First step is to run the installer which will unpack all the files into a temporary directory, likely residing in the root of your C: drive.
Before clicking on next (which will run the WGA), hop into that temp folder and copy the contents into a new folder. Then create an empty file in the folder called IEXPLORE.exe.local. Then run iexplore.exe to launch IE7.
While I haven't tested it, it may be possible to run IE7 on Windows 2000 using this approach (if anybody wants to confirm this). Right off the bat, some functionality like the RSS integration doesn't work but at the very least you'll be able to test the rendering engine and experience tabbed browsing.
Update: Use of the this technique can cause issues with future IE installations.
Conversation
Sounds cool, at least it's out and is being tested, but I think I'll wait for a 'retail' version before messing up my IE (not that it gets much use).
I got to tell you i loaded it.
I was greatly disapointed. Here is my experience in installing it.
Download it, start the exe to install on a virtual machine, I am not loading it up on to my real machine. First thing it wants to do is go see if I have a genuine version of windows. Great I do not mind that but since I am behind a proxy server I wonder how it is going to find it's way out since I haven't told it where to go also I haven;t given it a user name and password. Somehow it found a way out or something after setup I looked and it had a proxy server IP address internal. The wrong one so I haven't quite figured out what is going on there but I found it quite unusual.
Anyway I get it installed and rebooted. I fire it up. My First impressions, 10 second look at the interface I see yeah it has tabs, big deal I don't like tabbed browsing anyway. There is an XML button and another new button with the printer button right between them. I figure this is the new rss support. So I click the xml button, it is enabled, nothing. I click it again... nothng. The Other button is greyed out. Well I am guessing I need to be at a site with a feed. So I go to msdn since I know they have feeds and it is microsofts feed. The other button is now enabled as well. I ckick the xml button, nothing, I click it again, nothing. I click this other new buttons and it drops down another menu asking me if I want to show new content on the site. I click it and basically it takes me to the rss feed and applies a stylesheet to it. That's it this is all?
Ok so now I decide I am going to go check and see what they did to fix the rendering engine. I have been working on a new design on a site and I havent added in the IE hacks yet. The site is perfect xhtml compliant, everything including the style sheet validates, I haven't added a line of Javascript or anything yet. I open the site, shrink the browser down and the whole site falls apart like it does in IE. There is no min-width support on div tags, I had to go ahead and put in some IE hacks to see how they responded and well that all basically works the same. Basically I looked at IE Beta 1 and said great they copied Firefoxes interface, and did nothing else. I closed it down in disgust and not planning on firing it up again at least until beta 2 I will try then again but I do not have high hopes.
Cannot wait to test IE7. Really excited.
It works with the iexplore.exe local file... With broken menus and layout, but the tabs are there.
Using WinXP just make sure to turn off all other plugins to your IE6.
User agent detection gets it as IE7. Deleted the damn thing though, have no use for it right now.
I am looking forward to it's release if for nothing else than the fact that it will move things forward a bit. Not particularly in the way that it will have anything new, but it will have the same stuff that is out now which will make the makers of good browsers thing up new - new stuff.
Basically I am looking forward to seeing what the people who do it better than IE do to continue being better.
I'm so much more excited about the Mozilla Deer Park Alpha 2 because it has support for a lot of really cool stuff.
Like CSS3 columns, although using the in-house "-moz-column-count", quotes nesting and counters in css-generated content.
I think IE7 is getting WAY to much attention.
Jens (and any others that may be getting excited), I have just one thing to say to you: don't get your hopes up.
I quote:"While I haven't tested it, it may be possible to run IE7 on Windows 2000 using this approach (if anybody wants to confirm this)."
This is not possible because when running iexplorer.exe it still says that the OS (in this case: WIN 2000) you are running is not suitable for the IE7 application.
I tried running it on Win2000 as well but the error I ran into was different in that I didn't have the right version of advapi32.dll. So, yeah, it's pretty much a no-go.
You are linked to in my coverage of IE7. I agree with you - this is like Garner said of the full Vista beta - don't waste your time because MS will make uncertain changes - wait for the next beta. See my comments here:
http://www.theopensourcery.com/wordp1/index.php?p=285
For installing this IE7beta on windows XP, this is .
a handy comment
more clumsy link, should be: go
Perhaps copying the advapi32.dll from XP would get it working in Windows 2000?
I'm looking for a download of explorer 7 beta. Can you help me?
I found it here. I'm downloading as I post this. So I'm not sure if its really IE 7 beta. Almost 95% Sure it is.
http://files.9down.com:8080/IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.rar
thx!
was that a virus posted by Ray? ^^^
Doesnt seem to be a virus but its friggin slow :(
Best dl rate is 0.7 kb/sec and i got 1 Mbit
Hey im downloadin it right now but were is that temp file???? and it's too slow. But ill wait.
ahh forget it its taking too long!
I'm fine downloading it at 30k!!!! download "download manager" it helps with that kinda shitty uploader by opening multiple channels...
ill try this, but im already downloading the supposable real beta, but we will see if is the true one or not.
i found a link it works great from what i have:
http://files.9down.com:8080/IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.rar
its me again. i take that back these 2 links abouve dont work worth crap, sop dont download it! it is not working for me. it shows that its not even a program file just part of an ie not the installer!
its me again. i take that back these 2 links abouve dont work worth crap, so dont download it! from :http://files.9down.com:8080/IE7-WindowsXP-x86-enu.rar
it is not working for me. it shows that its not even a program file just part of an ie not the installer!
does any one know where a good link to ie 7 beta is?
none of the links work
I found a couple of versions on e-mule, still downloading them.. they download a little faster than the two links above.. but still slow (when will people learn that broadband is the only way to go)
when i find a full working version i will keep you guys uptodate with a link to them.
Cheers
Tried the hack explained in the blog post on top... Was disapointed with the browser... Then realised my IE6 was screwed up... can<t get it back to act normally, it always tries to open links in a new window (like a new tab... but in IE6...)... A complete mess. Don't try this at home... or at work!>
Just an theory
Firefox 3.6.13 happens to be launched this week.
Has any one worked with it? Any opinions?
I apologize if this is the incorrect forum!
Many thanks