News
New Beta of IE7 for XP Coming in Q1
- By Stuart J. Johnston
- December 07, 2005
Microsoft plans to ship the second beta test version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP early next year.
“We’ll post an updated pre-release build of IE7 for Windows XP publicly – no MSDN [Microsoft Developer Network] membership required – during the first calendar quarter of 2006,” stated a post to Microsoft’s IEBlog on Tuesday. It was attributed to IE product unit manager Dean Hachamovitch.
The company shipped the first beta of IE 7 in late July when it shipped the initial beta of Windows Vista. (See “Windows Vista Beta Begins,” July 28.)
Internet Explorer 7.0 will include the tabbed browsing feature already present in several rival browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Netscape.
(See, “Internet Explorer 7.0 to Include Tabbed Browsing,” May 17.) Microsoft also plans security enhancements and tight integration with RSS.
The Windows XP version of Internet Explorer stands apart from a similar but separate version of IE being developed for Vista. Microsoft has not said when the Beta 2 version of Windows Vista will be made available.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.