Posted on 10/18/2006 9:32:00 PM PDT by Eagle9
Microsoft on Wednesday launched the first major update to Internet Explorer in five years, and posted the new browser for Windows XP to a download site.
IE 7, which has was announced in February 2005 by chairman Bill Gates, has been touted by the company as a significant update in the areas of security and usability. The interface has been streamlined and tabs have been added to compete with rivals such as Mozilla's Firefox and Opera's flagship browser. On the security front, IE 7 adds anti-phishing defenses as well as additional features to control ActiveX controls, which historically have been a pain point for Microsoft's browser.
IE 7 for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 can be downloaded from here.
"It's here, it's final, and we're excited," said Margaret Cobb, the group product manager for the browser.
The most controversial aspect of IE 7 has been Microsoft's decision to push the update to all users who have Automatic Updates enabled. Although users can reject IE 7 -- and continue using their current edition of Internet Explorer -- Microsoft will begin rolling out the browser as a "High priority" update next month. In July, when Microsoft offered up a toolkit to indefinitely postpone IE 7's installation, it justified using Automatic Updates, a mechanism for providing patches to Windows, because of the new browser's security implications.
"We've told enterprise customers to be ready [for IE 7] by Nov. 1," said Cobb. "It won't begin Nov. 1, but they should be ready."
The IE 7 update will also not add to the burden of Microsoft's monthly security patch delivery, scheduled for Nov. 14, promised Cobb. "We won't do it on Patch Tuesday."
Microsoft will also throttle back IE 7's delivery to keep the server load under control, she added. "We're starting with English, and then moving to the localized versions as they come available. At first we'll run it very slow, to a low percentage of users." After assessing the impact, Microsoft will increase the amount of traffic from the servers. "I'll have a 10 a.m. call every day to go over the impact on support or services," said Cobb, who can then order downloads to be scaled back or increased.
It will take as long as three months to deliver IE 7 to all users worldwide. "As each localized language comes online, we'll wait a few weeks after posting it for download before delivering it through Automatic Updates."
Microsoft has made one change late in the game. After IE 7 has installed, it will tell the user which search engine is the current default -- grabbed from IE 5 or IE 6 -- and then ask if they want to make a new choice. The process is similar to, but not identical, to the choice that Windows Vista users will face when they upgrade from Windows XP.
"We added this after RC3," said Cobb. "We're letting users know what engine is the default, and asking them if they want to keep it or do they want to switch. We're also going to be supporting IE 7."
Beginning Thursday, Microsoft will open a free, toll-free support line for IE 7. The help desk will be manned Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. PDT, and on weekends from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT.
Internet Explorer's chief rival, Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox browser, is nearing the final release of version 2.0. Currently on Release Candidate 3 (RC3), Firefox 2.0 should make it out the door before the end of the month.
Users who want to block the download and installation of IE 7 through Automatic Updates, as well as the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites should steer here, where they can retrieve the Internet Explorer 7 Blocker Toolkit.
There, better. It definitely did a service, as it helped us put your statements into perspective when you claim security knowledge.
I'm obviously not misrepresenting anything, you've been lying and defending foreign hackers for months. and again here today. The record is crystal clear, you've even outright admitted your first lies glorifying Russian hackers were intentional. Don't blame me, you're caught like a bug in your own web of deceit.
Simply wrong. He replied to your claim that those servers were stripped of Linux. That link (which you claim is falsified, but redirects to the Tuttle site) goes to a site that runs on the same servers as you claim were stripped of Linux.
A little web primer for you GE. A web site and its servers are not the same thing. A web site can run on a server, then be moved to another, leaving the original server intact and running other web sites (or in this case a "new site" page). The claim of "Tuttle is no longer hosting its site on Linux" may have been correct, but you were not correct in stating Linux had been stripped from those servers.
Don't worry, such mistakes are common among those new to computers and this "Intraweb thingie." Keep your nose to the grindstone and you'll eventually learn enough to be able to keep up in these conversations.
No, you did, you clipped my quote to portray me as saying that all of the actions of the hackers were legal, when I was only talking about a perfectly legal firmware emulation. You purposely misrepresented my post.
OTOH, you bring up an interesting point. It might have been perfectly legal under Russian copyright law.
The main mistake I make is arguing any further with leftist liars that waste everyone's time and bandwidth with their endless defense of foreign hackers. I admitted I made a very minor mistake assuming Tuttle converted those servers instead of having someone else do it for them, but that is a minor mistake, not a lie.
You however are now on record admitting you outright lied, on purpose, for months, in an attempt to glorify Russian hackers, and then lied again, repeatedly today, claiming it wasn't on a thread about violating the intellectual property laws of American corporations, while still continuing your defense of their actions.
Those are outright despicable acts, and you are now forever linked to them. I am signing off now, before one of you losers pings the moderator like normal and tries to get the thread deleted over the endless bickering. This one needs to stay as a perfect example of how many lies you will spin, over months, to defend foreign hackers. If anyone wishes to discuss this issue further, please use the private response system. God Bless to All, even the atheists.
I challenge you to find a post where you admitted you were wrong about something.
That's absolutely the best description I've ever read of it. Thanks. I'm glad I don't have to deal with it.
Amazingly, you finally have actually admitted to being incorrect to something in post 316. You're still trying to twist the semantics around it, but you admitted a mistake. I know that's a big step for you. Keep it up and you may someday graduate to the human race.
Please read the atcile and read the site mr taylor was complaining about..
The minor mistake you made was making a wholly unsupported claim (Linux wiped from systems) without even bothering to do a quick check to see if it were true. Anyone knowledgeable in networking and the case would take less than a minute to find out everything.
The main mistake you made was attempting to defend this false position through every trick, counterattack, lie and misdirection you could think of, instead of initially saying you were wrong and retracting your statement.
You however are now on record admitting you outright lied, on purpose, for months, in an attempt to glorify Russian hackers
Do you feel like you pulled of some big coup today? I told you the truth a long time ago, and why I did it, which was not to glorify Russian hackers (actually, if anything it glorified an American one).
and then lied again, repeatedly today, claiming it wasn't on a thread about violating the intellectual property laws of American corporations
I just showed how you twisted my post to come to that conclusion, and you persist. BTW, exactly what intellectual propery laws have the corporations enacted?
If anyone wishes to discuss this issue further, please use the private response system.
Tired of getting beaten up by the facts in public?
Nevermind, I retract that one, since a good chunk of our current IP laws were practically written by the corporations anyway and passed with their bribes contributions to our politicians, at the expense of the American people, and in opposition to precedent and the word and intent of the Constitution.
So, yes, they are pretty much "the intellectual property laws of American corporations".
Iposted the current netcraft for the site mr taylor was complaining about, that link still runs on Linux..
You were claiming he was Russian again today, in post #268, "Like nmap and the infamous Russian hacker Fyodor".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1722039/posts?page=268#268
Here you are on October 10th, still perpetuating the lie you admit you made up months ago, all as part of your endless effort to defend criminal Russian hackers.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1710675/posts?page=229#229
Gold Eagle Out
Sarcasm is wasted on the stupid, and you again pulled a statement of mine clearly out of context, since the next sentence states that he's an American.
That's what one of my colleagues said after I sent an internal notice my experience. He too installed it, and got IE7 to crash every time. And we both have fairly generic, vanilla flavor installations of XP Pro. But having worked at a major software company, I'll let you in on a little secret. The software companies test their software in the simplest, out of the box configurations of the operating system. Which isn't so much of a problem with OSes such as Solaris or AIX (HP-UX is a different story), but Windblows? you can see all the hoopla. And on Thursday I thought that after all those years of complaints, MS had learnt something. No. Still no responses to my and many others' complaints on the bulletin board hosted by this very company!
I don't care, as I went back to IE6, but as I reported, I'm having problems with it now, always opening new windows, opening blank windows, problems not uncommon if you google Web or Groups, but with no answers on the MS website, or from our own promoter of this company here, who only engages in exchanges of insults. It's all marketing and lobbying on forums such as this!
Unfortunately, I cannot entirely switch to Firefox, as I support applications that our users run on IE (or whatever, but IE is the base you just can't dismiss.) So I'll have to ask our sysadmins to "repair Internet Explorer", which means reinstalling it from a CD. Now, why would one have to "repair" an executable binary file? If it were corrupted it wouldn't run at all. But it runs, and it runs badly which means some configuration file is corrupted. Well, what file, what configuration? Microsoft won't tell you. Absurd! If you've been around long enough you'd know that both UNIX and OpenVMS configurations are all accessible to users and system administrators and that a concept such as "repairing" a single executable hadn't existed until Bill and Melinda Gates (bless their baby, their lakeside mansion, and their selfless efforts to save the world from itself) invented it!
I use ADSL and saw no real difference in speed between IE 6 & 7 based on my very short test drive for 7. Firefox does run somewhat faster. I think Adblock Plus with Filterset.G Updater helps.
Dear God let it be forever ping...
For some reason my netscape isn't opening up today. I heard on TV that Microsoft was sending out a new Explorer browser in its automatic updates this week. Could the new MS browser have something in it that blocks Netscape? Please help I am very low tech.
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