Q: Are we likely to see a new build released before a Beta 2 release?

A: Also, we will be dropping Longhorn/Vista builds about every month although some times it may take a bit longer.

Q: Internet Explorer's webpage rendering speed is extreamly slow compare to other web browsers. Do you have any plan to reduce this rendering speed just like Opera?

A: For performance there are a coupel of things to check. The Antiphishing support in the first beta on XP SP2 may be having a slight side effect, this will be addressed later. You should also check you do not have any extensions installed that might be effecting performance. This is obviously somethign that we will continue to work on throughout the project.
Dave Massy [MSFT] (Moderator):

Q: will active desktop be added for the x64 release of ie7

A: No plans to supply Active Desktop.

Q: Does anyone else think the reload button should be on the left and not right of the address bar (or be movable)

A: Thanks for the feedback. We have concentrated on putting the infrastructure in place for Beta1 and moving forward, will make sure that we build a great user experience. Plans for beta1 do not reflect our commitment to great user experience.

Q: Will IE7 be available for Windows Server 2003 SP1 ?

A: Yes. We expect to have beta support for that version later in the project.

Q: Will a download manager be included in IE7 two of the competitors for IE being FireFox and Opera both have download managers built in the browser?

A: A download manager will not be included in the IE7 release.

Q: Wy are 64 and 32 bit IE versions in Vista?

A: We include both for backwards compatability, such as 32 bit plugins that might not be available.

Q: Have there been any issues with IE&7 through a proxy? I have mine on one system hitting 98%cpu. Stop service and all is good (XPSP2). Works fine on a vista box

A: havent seen this happening. Please file a bug with clear repro steps and we'll take a look.

Q: Do you have any idea when Beta 2 is coming?

A: We're working hard but can't talk dates yet.

Q: when can we expect a x64 release of ie7?

A: We are planning to include x64 support by the beta 2 release of the stand-alone IE7.

Q: any new on the "tabbed browsing" experience (e.g. menu bar outside of tabs)?

A: The experience in the first beta is pretty basic as we have been concentrating on getting the infrustructure in place so that we can build a great user experience on top of that. You'll certainly see an updated user experience as we get furhter along with the project.

Q: Is there support for installing IE7 alongside IE6, for easy site testing?

A: We currently dont have plans for installing IE7 alongside IE6.

Q: We are getting a monthly build of Vista (almostly monthly). So will we be getting a monthly build for IE7 too?

A: No, sorry! We are currently working on a plan to release a Beta 1 refresh prior to Beta 2, but we will not be able to provide monthly updates.

Q: Please allow me to move the toolbars (including the address bar)

A: Thanks for the feedback. As mentioned before, there are going to be changes to the UI for great user experience.

Q: Does anybody know the newsgroup addresses for IE7 beta and Windows Vista Beta

A: The news server is betanews.microsoft.com. There are two newsgroups. "ie" and "ie_on_xpsp2"

Q: Why cann't IE download a file direct to the selected folder, instead of putting it in the tempfolder first ?

A: because it has to look at the file and give user information about the file before asking them to make the decision to save or not.

Q: Can we set up more the one home page with tabs?

A: We're hoping to supply this later in the project. As I have said the first beta is a basic experience as we focused on infrastrutucture. We have lot of work to do

Q: What do you think about making tabs in IE7 movable, so we can change order of them?

A: Thanks for the feedback. We will be making changes for better user experience.

Q: Will IE7 has the ability to EASILY add plugins, so I can have my mouse gestures, adblock, session saver, etc with IE7? Tab-browsing only is not enough for me to move from other browsers.

A: IE 7 has an Add on manager that should allow you to easily add in your plugins

Q: I raised a suggestion (bug #4724) to improve the history in IE, which was closed as "Won't Fix". Is this because the history functionality is already being changed, or will we be left with the same history functionality as IE6?

A: The suggestion was looked over by the product team, but unfortunately is isn't something that we can address in this release.

Q: I dont see much change from IE6 and IE7 except UI, what do you think? Did you made many changes?

A: There is plenty of change. The first beta is focused on infrastructure so many of the changes are not so obvious at this stage. There is a great focus around security in IE7 some of which is obvious and some not so obvious. We also have some enhancements to HTML adn CSS on the way as well.
Jason Watters (Expert):

Q: Were is the Refresh Toolbar Button in IE7?

A: In the beta 1 build it is on the right end of the address bar. The stop button also shares that space in the beta 1 build. We have received a lot of great feedback on our UI and are working on UI improvements for Beta 2 and RTM.

Q: Can you please share status on 24-bit PNG support and fixing (read: removing) the underscore hack (CSS) such that it can be used to target IE6? (e.g., _padding: 0; /* only IE6 would see this */) Thank you to the whole team! Looking forward to Beta 2.

A: I am sorry, I need more info to answer your questions. I am not familiar with that particular issue. Can you provide me with a little more background/context

Q: Is nonstandard charcters going to be supported in IE7? For instance http://www.åre.se which works fine in Opera

A: I assume you are talking about International Domain Name support in IE7. Yes, we plan to support those.

Q: I dont see much change from IE6 and IE7 except UI, what do you think? Did you made many changes?

A: Yes, we have made a number of changes involving both the UI and on the back-end. Features such as the phishing tool that is currently built into the IE7 beta for Win XP SP2 make it much easier to identify potentially harmful sites and avoid possible identify theft. Our tabbed browsing makes surfing the net even by allowing you to view multiple web sites without losing valuable desktop real estate.

Q: Will we be seeing Parental Controls in IE 7 for XP SP2?

A: We are currently discussing this within the team.

Q: top three best features of the next release?

A: 1 - Security. Especially Protected mode in Windows Vista. 2 - Tabs and the great new User experience that you'll see in beta 2. 3 - Printing that really works instead of cutting off the right hand side of the page.
That's a personal list of the things I like

Q: Will there be a new build of Windows Vista during the this years PDC (2005)?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you plan to support XHTML in IE7? I hope you will not add support for application/xhtml+xml unless you truly treat it as XHTML is supposed to be treated (different DOM, events, CSS rules, all of it).

A: We are not going to get to full XHTML support in this release. As a result we will not accept the application/xhtml+xml as that would be tantamount to telling a lie and very unhelpful.

Q: I had to uninstall IE7 B1 because of a huge memory leak, what's being done to correct that?

A: The IE performance team is working hard to analyse performance issues such as CPU and memory usage. We are dedicated to fixing these isues and making IE7 a performant and competitive product for our customers. Any assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated. If you could provide details of the memory leak, we will investigate immediately.

Q: Will there be more customisations options for tabbed browsing? If so what could implemented?

A: We are still working on fit and finish for tabbed browsing. PLease keep an eye on the IE blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/.

Q: Vishu: But it does still put it in the temp folder, even after a select to download and given a location to save to, specially larger files take a lot of time to replace after completing.

A: because its the same codepath. this is good feedback.

Q: What is the latest build released to testers?

A: The latest build of stand-alone IE7 available to testers is the Beta 1 build (version 5112).

Q: will it be possible to "skin" the browser?

A: No sorry, we currently dont have any plans to implement such a functionality.

Q: Will IE7 meet the ACID2 test?

A: Chris Wilson

Q: Vishu: You say "because it has to look at the file and give user information about the file before asking them to make the decision to save or not". All it has too look at are HTTP response headers. Sorry, but this is not the answer. Can someone try again?

A: no it has to look at more than just the http headers.

Q: Will Microsoft's Offline E-Learning reader be likely to work with IE7 soon OR can IE7 and IE6 be used in parallel by any work around

A: We'll check into that app. You cannot use IE6 and IE7 in parrallel. The most common issue we are hitting with compatibility is that of the User Agent string being checked by sites that refuse IE7. See http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/09/01/459541.aspx

Q: is this chat under NDA or can we blog about it?

A: This chat is not under NDA. You may post to your blog.

Q: Why do you believe that Internet Explorer will still matter in the next 2 to three years with popular alternatives out there on the market, especially with the success of FireFox gaining a whopping 75 million users?

A: While our competitors do hold a noted share of the browsing market, we are sure that IE7 will always be relevant due to the integration between all of our products as well as new features. Some of the new features we are integrating into the next generation of IE are advanced security elements like our phishing tool. Also our adoption of industry standards such as tabbed browsing, not to mention the number of developers that specifically develop .NET certified pages that are designed specifically for IE. All in all, there will always be people who prefer certain browsers (there are still hundreds of thousands of people who choose AOL) but we are sure that by the time of release we will have a far more feature rich application than Firefox can offer. Thanks for your question and I hope this helps address some of your concerns!

Q: will IE7 be included in XP SP3?

A: Our current plan is to continue to ship IE6 on XPSP3, but IE7 will be supported on XPSP3.

Q: Will IE7 meet the ACID2 test?

A: Chris Wilson made a post in the IEBlog in July about this subject.

Q: Is the localized filename sorting implemented? The filenames aren't sorted properly in Norwegian culture.

A: Sorry, I'm not sure that I completely understand your question. Is this in regards to Windows Vista or IE7?

Q: Can you please share status on 24-bit PNG support and fixing (read: removing) the underscore hack (CSS) such that it can be used to target IE6? (e.g., _padding: 0; /* only IE6 would see this */) Thank you to the whole team! Looking forward to Beta 2.

A: Transparent PNGs are now natively supported in Beta 1 and will continue to be supported in Beta2 and the RC.

Q: Will IE7 meet the ACID2 test?

A: Chris Wilson, Lead Program Manager for IE Core said the following in the IEBlog in July:

"I’ve seen a lot of comments asking if we will pass the Acid2 browser test published by the Web Standards Project when IE7 ships. I’ll go ahead and relieve the suspense by saying we will not pass this test when IE7 ships. The original Acid Test tested only the CSS 1 box model, and actually became part of the W3C CSS1 Test Suite since it was a fairly narrow test – but the Acid 2 Test covers a wide set of functionality and standards, not just from CSS2.1 and HTML 4.01, selected by the authors as a “wish list” of features they’d like to have. It’s pointedly not a compliance test (from the Test Guide: “Acid2 does not guarantee conformance with any specification”). As a wish list, it is really important and useful to my team, but it isn’t even intended, in my understanding, as our priority list for IE7."

Q: One thing that I strongly dislike about IE 7 in its current incarnation, is that a user cannot move the address bar. This is an annoyance. Is there any plans to change this?

A: We are looking at an updated user experience to be delivered later in the project cycle. One thing we are concerned about is spoofing address bars as a serious security issue so it may be that we decide this should be fixed and always on in the browser so that users have a consistent place to look and check that they really are on the web site that they think they are on.

Q: What is being done to make activex work as a standard user?

A: What do you mean as a standard user? Do you mean as a user without admin privledges?

Q: Is the removal of IE 7 going to be made easier, I installed IE7 using a domain account, removed computer from domain and could not remove IE7?

A: That sounds like a bug that you should report if you haven't already.

Q: The phishing filter will be present in the next build of Windows Vista or we will have to wait until Beta 2?

A: I'm not 100% sure of the refresh schedule for the Vista beta builds, but it will be in the beta 2 build for sure.

Q: Do you realize that people can download IE 7 from a non ms web site? Do these people have permission to redistribute your download? http://www.soft32.com/download-Internet_Explorer-997-5.html

A: You should send an email to lhabuse@microsoft.com and we will have someone look into it.

Q: I want to hear an honest answer from the IE Team on this, why do "you" personally believe that FireFox has 75 million users and why do you think those possibly former users of IE got fed up with your browser?

A: Dude, They may have that number of downloads but that is very different from having that number of users Recent stats actually show Firefox growth has slowed and is even declining. We're looking forward to supplying a great user experience in IE7.

Q: Why does IE7 beta 1 stick a B in the user agent string? That breaks machine.config

A: See some recent documentation we published about this at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/aboutuseragent.asp>

Q: One very very handy feature I've seen in another browser (opera) allows the user to reload the page automatically every X seconds (user choice)..... Are microsoft implementing this in IE7? This is very useful in certain situations.

A: No Sorry! We currently dont have any plans to implement this functionality. Thanks for your input!

Q: Will IE7 updates introduce language translation?

A: Not sure if this answers your question or not, but IE7 will be fully localized to all the same languages the Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 are localized to. We will also provide support for MUI and LIP languages on those platforms.

Q: I read and hear how web developers complain that Microsoft is not doing enough to support and integrate appropriate standards in Internet Explorer, whats your answer to this?

A: We are working very hard to address web developers pain points in this release. Take a look at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/07/29/445242.aspx that describes the work we are undertaking here.

Q: Will an RSS aggregator/reader be built-in as the newsreader was in Outlook Express?

A: IE7 has an RSS aggregator already implemented, however it is still in beta and doesn't work 100% yet.

Q: Why isn't the guest chat ever included in the transcripts? I feel jiped from earlier chat sessions

A: We generally only post the Expert Chat, however the experts may post the guest chat in the future.

Q: Will future releases of IE 7.0 include the ability to open tabs back to the last web site (IE, you accidently close a tab and want to reopen it where it was before the close).

A: Thanks for the feedback. We are always trying to improve the user experience and will take a look at this suggestion.

Q: Why does IE7 tab strip by default contain a clunky looking blank tab? Seems like a strange way to implement a reserved space for new tabs, is this just a beta 1 bug?

A: We're not done with the UI in beta 1 . I think you'll like what you see in the second beta and that is when we'll really appreciate the feedback.

Q: When is the beta of IE7 for Windows Server 2003 going to be available?

A: Sorry! Can't talk dates yet. We are planning to implement support for Server 2003 SP1 by beta2.

Q: In the next five to ten years, where does the Internet Explorer Team see itself, the Internet and the role of the browser?

A: Where we see ourselves individually in the next decade or so I can't comment on as I'm not in a position to speak for anyone other than myself. However, the internet has grown from a niche to a true global marketplace. Designers and developers are continually adding network and internet access features to a growing variety of devices from the home to the workplace and even to your appliances and vehicles. We forsee internet access ultimately becoming a standard of life like radio and television here in America. To address the 3rd part of your question, we see ourselves at the forefront of this new era of communication and are already working to help bring access to the world. As more and more of our products from our Office suite to games and utilities all start using more online features, we are developing IE with this in mind. Thanks for your help in the beta program and I hope I've been helpful in answering your questions!

Q: How big is the install package for IE7?

A: The stand-alone package of IE7 is currently around 10mb.

Q: When will IE7 Be released as RC1 + 2

A: Probably after we get to the second beta

Q: Will we see any localized builds of IE7 during this beta?

A: We are planning to release English, German, and Japanese for Beta 2.

Q: how can you activate windows w/o internet access? we're behind a corporate firewall and activation is failing...

A: Activation is internet-only for Beta 1, but my understanding is that phone activation will likely be active in Beta 2.

Please note that this is a chat room for the Internet Explorer 7 Beta, so please limit your questions to that subject. Thanks!

Q: IE7 beta 1 seems kind of buggy, it continually starts sucking over 40MB ram just viewing simple web pages, then when I 'close' it, the thing still sticks around as a task I have to manually kill Is this a known bug?

A: I'm nto sure we have a specific issue on this. Are there specific websites where this happens? It's certainly worth checking if you have any extensions installed that may be affecting perf and memory usage. getting feedback on compatibility is really useful at this time.

Q: Are there a lot of changes improvements for using mshtml.dll. And if so, when can we expect documentation for that?

A: We will be reviewing and updating our documentation in the near future to make sure we are addressing our customer needs. Any feedback you can provide on where we should focus our efforts would be greatly appreciated.

Q: FYI I have been looking for 3+ weeks for Vista and IE7 on betaplace, I would like to suggest a link from there to the Connect site. I just found the download 30 minutes ago thanks to the betaplace support alias

A: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I will follow up with the Tech Beta team on this.

Q: When Will We have the next build to test? -- it seems that this build has been bugged as far as we can go and we are waiting to see what has been fixed.

A: While I can't give any specifics, rest assured, it's on it's way. Also, now that the initial surge of bugs and feature requests have been filed, we are getting a lot more technical bugs so the program is still quite active and helpful!

Q: Why don't you limit the number of users in these kinds of chat rooms? There are too many messages flying around and too many people!!

A: We have a large beta and try to accomodate as many people as possible.

Q: Are you planning to release IE7 for Mac platform, if yes, when?

A: No.

Q: Will IE7 be supported on the MAC?

A: No, we no longer support IE for Apple.

Q: Can Windows Vista beta 1 support WinFS beta 1?

A: We will be releasing German and Japanese in addition to English for Beta 2.

Q: Will IE7 featuring the download manager?

A: We wanted to get to this in IE7 but I don't think we will as other work is getting priority. There will certainly be lots of work for us still to get to in IE8

Q: is it possible for IE7 tab browsing being implemented into Windows Explorer?

A: No, Sorry!

Q: Is it possible to see the status on submitted bugs against Vista? I submitted a bug that affects the app I develop, so it would be nice to know what's up with it (and others I will be submitting)

A: Bug report status is shown up on the Microsoft Connect http://connect.microsoft.com website. It is possible that your report hasn't been addressed yet. You can also post to the newsgroups we monitor and participate in those as well.

Q: Are there plans for an IE7 IEAK? If so will IE6 managment and deployment be through the same tool, or will I have to use legacy IEAK6 for Windows 2000 and older clients and IEAK 7 for XP/WS2003/R2?

A: There are plans for an IE7 IEAK. Additional detils are still being finalized.

Q: I can't not install IE7 beta1 in a non-English version Windows XP SP2, how about beta2?

A: We will be releasing English, German, and Japanese for IE7 beta 2.

Q: Won't usability be a problem for unexperienced users if you follow the minimalistic UI route?

A: Numerous usability studies have shown that a simpler user interface is easier for unexperienced users to grasp, which is why we've been focusing the GUI for IE7 towards a more minimalistic route, while still keeping much of the advanced functionality you've come to expect from the Internet Explorer browser. Please note, also, that the GUI for IE7 right now is not "set in stone", and may change as this beta program progresses.

Q: Will Internet Explorer 7 support custom themes or styles?

A: No, sorry! No current plans for doing that.

Q: What is the most innovative work done in IE7?

A: Of all the work we are doing I'd have to say Protected Mode see http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/06/09/427410.aspx for a blog post on this. This work is pioneering in terms of security and needs the security infrastrcture in Windwos Vista so unfortunately this is a Vista only feature. There's plenty of other great security work that will apply to IE7 on XP SP2 though see http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/08/03/447207.aspx

Q: Are you adding any tools for web developers?

A: We're looking at this. Stay tuned over the coming weeks.

Q: Will there be an own MUI pack for the IE7 in the final release or is it enough to have the Windows XP MUI pack installed?

A: We will need to provide the IE7 MUI resources for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 SP1 MUI users. We are still working on the final distribution plan for the stand-alone IE7 MUI resources.

Q: What are the specific area's do you want testers to focus on in B1?

A: I would love to see everyone in the beta program focusing on usability issues. If there are some problems that cause a lack of functionality or a loss of data, crashes, hangs, etc. Those are the nasty ones. Things like performance enhancements, look and feel, external issues from outside develoeprs (ibm.com/hp.com having small fonts, yahoo mail not recognizing IE as a current browser, etc, etc) and the like are firstly, VERY well documented already ( ) and secondly, things that are already planned to be worked out further down the road as we near completion. I love the enthusiasm of everyone on the Beta program but it can be a little overwhelming when I have 55 copies of the same bug about a web site that hasn't added our beta to it's list of "supported browsers"... Thanks for your question!

Q: What are you future plans for CSS support

A: See http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/07/29/445242.aspx for details of the great work we are doign to improve CSS in IE7

Q: In IE7 when closing if you have more than one tab can you put up an Alert saying you have multiple tabs open, etc?

A: That is a pretty good suggestion! I'd recommend you submit that as a bug using the Microsoft Beta Client so that the suggestion is actionable for us. (Meaning we can actually track it and work on it.)

Q: well, i sure feel very alooooooone out here... can i at least find out when the beta testers will get ie7/vista? any eta on start of beta?

A: Right now we can't give out a specific date, but it is coming soon. Hang in there. In the future we are targeting OS releases about once a month. IE7 for XPSP2 will be release less often between now and beta 2.

Q: Will we see a new build of IE7 during PDC 2005?

A: We are not planning to provide a new build of stand-alone IE7 at PDC. There will be a new Vista build.

Q: If you type a path in IE7 you open a new explorer.... Why not tabbed Windows Explorer? Drag and drop to the tabs etc.....

A: Thanks for your input, but we have plans for implementing that.

Q: Are there plans for tuning javascrpt and dhtml performance in IE7?

A: The IEperf team is comitted to driving IE to be the most performant browser. Javascript and dhtml performance are two of several avenues we are investigating in this ongoing effort.

Q: What are your plans for RSS? It doesn't seem to really be working yet.

A: The first beta has a coupel of minor issues but we are very very excited by RSS see http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/ for blog of the RSS part of the team.

Q: Will Vista ship with IE7 or IE8?

A: It will ship with IE7.

Q: Jason Watters: "We are planning to release English, German, and Japanese for Beta 2." Why MS always choose that languages for betatesting? Just curious.

A: That is a good question that I unfortunately do not know the answer to.

Q: Are any extras planned concerning Tabbed-browsing (like Maxthon's), mouse gestures, double-click to close, etc. ?

A: We already have some features integrated with the tabs like center/scroll wheel clicking to close tabs and we are indeed planning quite a few more. At this point I can't comment on specifics, but more features are coming.

Q: What is Microsoft doing to encourage developers to start developing for 64 versions of IE? So far there has been a high lack in support for components such as Flash Player and active x controls?

A: This is somethign we are hoping to raise awareness about in the future. I think it is going to become a big issue as 64 bit processors become more common. If anyone is writing an extension for IE please start to build a 64 bit version as well

Q: Will installation of IE7 be optional when loading Vista?

A: No.

Q: Could there be an option to have the tabs on the bottom? Currently when switching applications using the taskbar, I have to move to the bottom - to switch tabs, I have to go to the top of the screen. Long ways for the mouse ...

A: Thanks for the input. We dont have any plans to implement this right now.

Q: Can we get an IE 7 t-shirt ?

A: Maybe if the IE team sends us some goodies to send to beta customers and keeping in mind international export resctrictions.

Q: Will IE7 still drop the status bar whenever you make a new window?

A: The status bar shoudl be there. Do you not see it?

Q: Is Windows Update working with IE7 yet? The first thing I tried after installing IE7 was to connect to Windows Update, and it seemed to hang IE7.

A: Windows Update with IE7 should be fixed now. If you find any issues, please let us know.

Q: Q: Will IE 7.0 fix the major HTTP compression errors that we see in IE 6.0?

A: We are making some HTTP compression improvements in IE7

Q: Is it possible to disable anti-phishing stuff ?

A: Yes. Under the tools menu there is a Phishing filter menu.
James Adams [MS] (Expert):

Q: When was beta 1 released? And why wouldn't this be found here? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/default.mspx

A: The beta program for IE7 was launched on the 27th of July as an invitation-only technical beta program. Since it is invitation only, posting it at that URL would have confused more users who would have expected to just be able to download the beta version from the public Microsoft Internet Explorer website. Also, by posting it as part of the Microsoft Connect site, we were able to integrate the beta program with our own development tools, allowing a more streamlined beta process overall.

Q: Will be a Outlook Express 7? Is The same team that is responsible for IE is responsible for OE?

A: No the OE team is entirely separate to the IE team and is working on an updated version for Windows Vista.

Q: When will we see build for Windows XP x64?

A: Windows XP for x64 has already been shipped. Both for Pro and Server.

Q: I noticed that I can't open my Yahoo Mailbox with IE 7 are you going to make it work with Yahoo?

A: This is likely an issue with Yahoo not recognizing the new IE7 UserAgent String. Check out this post from the IE blog for a workaround: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/09/01/459541.aspx

We are actively working on identifying these types of issues and working with web sites and developers to resolve them.

Q: Will IE7 (for XP) ship with .Net framework 2?

A: No it will not include and .NET Framework stuff and it has no dependencies on the .NET Framework.

Q: Will Microsoft Update be support by a 64-bit version of IE7 or will we have to continue to use a 32-bit version?

A: That is a Microsoft Update question that we can't address here.

Q: Quotes: "Our chat today is about Longhorn Beta" also "We would like to invite all Microsoft Windows Vista and IE7 technical beta". So please don't discard Vista questions with ("this is a chat room for the Internet Explorer 7 Beta". Thanks.

A: We are under the Longhorn Beta chat but this chat is specifically for IE7. We want to isolate this so that we the IE team can focus on the issues concerning this product. If we had an open discussion about all of the beta, we'd have to have a lot more developers in here as well as it'd be much more difficult to address your issues and questions. When you first signed on, the topic specified was IE7 and sorry for any confusion or irritation from this but we need to keep it focused as best we can.

Q: Jason, the localized sorting was initially Vista, but I later asked a question regarding IE7 and Vista sorting differently

A: This chat is intended to be specific to IE7 and not Vista so I don't have an answer for you on the first question. I'll try to find your other question.

Q: Regarding the top three features from Dave, where is RSS support? Is this not a best feature?

A: There are so many great new features it is difficult to choose. RSS is really important and definitely is up amongst the top features

Q: SamW: I think he meant will we get an IE7 build for XP x64?

A: Yes, by beta 2 we will have this.

Q: why aren't vista and ie 7 newsgroups provided via webnews. my isp blocks nntp port so i can't access nntp newsgroups

A: Unfortunately I don't know the answer to this but I will follow up with the Tech Beta team.

Q: In Windows XP SP2, the IE Accessibility option "Ignore colors on this web page" and "Use my colors" was broken (it uses default colors always). A QFE was released to fix it, but as of IE7 Beta 1, the problem was still evident. Are you going to fix this?

A: I'll check but all the QFEs applied to IE6 shoudl be rolling through to IE7.

Q: If the FireFox offered to merge with IE Team, would you guys do it?

A: Due to different development styles, completely different architecture and such, I don't think that would be a really workable situation. But maybe if they were willing to bring the punch and pie.

Q: Are Microsoft focusing a lot more on security in Vista and IE7 to prevent the mass amount of updates that we have encountered with win 2k and winxp and ie6

A: Yes, Microsoft and IE are dedicated to proding a secure cumputing experience for our corporate and home customers and to reducing the amount of time our customers have to spend on security updates.

Q: If there was a way to search for previously submitted bugs from the MS Beta Client, you'd get fewer duplicates. It is sometimes too difficult to switch between connect.microsoft.com and the Beta client.

A: This isn't something the MBC will do, but you do have a good point. We would like to have better MBC and MS Connect integration in the future.

Q: Would an expert please consider answering my IPv6 questions regarding IE7 please?

A: can you repeat the question?

Q: How will IE7 improve on Standards so that coding issues ex. display errors between IE and Firefox be addressed?

A: Please see http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/07/29/445242.aspx for our work on standards in this release. The team is working really hard on this.

Q: How does the rebranding of IE7 as Windows only affect Pocket PC Mobile devices and embedded OS's?

A: It doesn't affect it at all. Pocket PC and embedded are both Windows versions.

Q: Q. My company/team got the invitation to participate in beta 1; when we went to download the disk image we got a message saying that it was closed. We really need to test our software with it. What's the best way to get the beta at this point?

A: You can send mail to lhbeta@microsoft.com for access problems to the Connect website.

Q: Will IE7 include a new user interface, style or even new buttons?

A: Yes, the UI for IE7 is quite different from previous versions of IE. Please use the beta and let us know what you like and dislike about the new UI/style/buttons.

Q: will their be support in .NET for IE7 so applications written in .NET can use IE7 functions fully?

A: .NET apps can use IE functions today using interop. In the forthcoming release of .NET has some great enhancements to make this easier as well.

Q: is there any plans to release a version of IE7 beta for Windows Server 2003?

A: Yes, by our beta 2 release.

Q: For Vista wouldn't you require to change the rendering engine to emit Avalon?

A: The IE7 rendering engine is built on legacy codee so does not require Avalon. Future versions of IE may use some of the new rendering technolgies developed by Avalon

Q: This may be related to the "memory leak" question raised earlier, but are there plans afoot to squash leaks instigated by circular references? See http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2005/02/javascript_memo.html for context. Thanks!

A: See http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/06/21/431376.aspx for some great advice aroudn this.

Q: In early builds of Longhorn, IE had a Download Manager, however the current IE7 beta does not. Will a Download Manager make its way back in?

A: Download Manager will not be included in the IE7 release.

Q: Still have not heard anything regarding RSS support. Do you plan to expand RSS support in future releases? If so, please elaborate.

A: Hi, take a look at http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/ for details on RSS support. We are really excited about this.

Q: Vishu, I asked whether IE7 would be able to access IPv6 web pages without using literal addresses with brackets, or would they be needed. Additionally, what differences are there between IE6 and IE7 for IPv6?

A: they will be needed.

Q: Jason, will the new build be made available to current beta testers of Windows Vista?

A: Yes. If/when we release a beta 1 refresh build it will go to current tech beta customers through the same distribution mechanism that you get beta builds of Vista through.

Q: Will Internet Explorer 7 be released this year?

A: Sorry, no comments on schedule specifics. :-)

Q: Will the version of IE 7 for XP SP2 be any different compared to Windows Vista's IE7?

A: The two versions will be predominantly the same with a few areas where we can take advantage of Windows Vista specific funcitonality such as Protected Mode http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/06/09/427410.aspx which was known as "Low Rights" until a recent name change.

Q: Where did the "GO" button go? I can't see it on my system.

A: The go button has been replaced with a space-saving context sensitive button connected at the right to the address bar. It's an arrow for "Go", while a page is loading it turns into a "stop" sign and after a page is loaded it becomes a "refresh" icon. We are trying to make it so that you don't have to continually mouse to different areas for a related set of functions. Hope this helps!

Q: will there be another IE chat session for IE in beta 2?

A: Yes, we will definitely have more IE chat sessions through the beta cycle. We are also working on putting together some IE feature focus events, also arranged through the beta program.

Q: Will IE7 include Java?

A: No.

Q: when I do javascript:window.open in IE7, will it open a new window or tab? or will it depend on whether i specify a window size? or is it configurable? or will there be javascript:tab.open()??

A: Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/tab_impact.asp

Q: iam repeting my previous question, will ie7 include grammar checking while typing.

A: The grammar-checking engine is currently a feature of the Office Suite. Since we cannot guarantee that every installation of IE7 will be on a computer that also has Office installed, it is not feasible at this time for IE7 to utilize that feature.

Q: Dave, thanks! I have read the article regarding the workaround. I'm wondering if IE7 will be able to squash this out-of-the-box instead. Appreciate the response and support.

A: We are working on it

Q: build for X64.. meaning IE7 build for x64, not OS x64..;-)

A: Yes x64 for XP is planned to be supported.

Q: Did you do any compatibility testing with any AT apps?

A: Yes, we are working with a number of Assistive Technology vendors through the beta program.

Q: That link http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/aboutuseragent.asp does not appear to work.

A: I was able to just now click the link in your question and it came up fine for me.

Q: The invitation to this chat said "Windows Vista". Will there be a real Vista chat sometime?

A: We have found that it is better to keep the topic of conversation narrow. Also, we like to pair up the experts with the topic and it's hard to get experts for the whol OS all at once.

Q: Any update on Win2000 support for IE7?

A: IE7 will not be supported on the Windows 2000 platform.