Internet Explorer 7 beta 2 preview

Microsoft heeft zojuist een previewversie vrijgegeven van Internet Explorer 7 beta 2 en is vanaf deze locatie als installatiepakket voor WIndows XP te downloaden. Internet Explorer 7 is de nieuwste tak van de met Windows standaard meegeleverde browser. In vergelijking met de 6-serie van IE zal deze branche een aantal nieuwe features bevatten, waaronder het browsen met behulp van tabs, verbeterde ondersteuning van het PNG-formaat en beveiligingen zoals antispoofing en antiphishingtechnologie om de gebruiker veiliger over het net te laten surfen. Daarnaast kunnen RSS-feeds verzameld worden en zal IE7 zich beter aan de webstandaards en -formaten houden. Meer informatie kan gevonden worden in dit nieuwsbericht. In de release notes van de previewversie zijn de known issues gepubliceerd, eveneens is in hetzelfde document de volgende lijst met veranderingen te vinden:

Functionality Removed and Changed in Internet Explorer Beta 2 Preview

• Scriptlets—Internet Explorer 7 disables Dynamic HTML (DHTML) scriptlets, by default. (Scriptlets were deprecated in Internet Explorer 5). They can be reenabled by system administrators, changing URLActions with the Internet Control Panel (INetCPl.) The INetCPL text should read "Allow Scriptlets." If your programs rely on scriptlets, we recommend that you use DHTML behaviors which are more efficient. Disabling scriptlets is part of our continued work to ensure that unsupported technology is deemphasized in Internet Explorer.
• ActiveX controls--ActiveX controls are disabled by default in Internet Explorer Version 7. The ActiveX Input TYPE=FILE control no longer submits a fully-qualified path; it now submits only a filename. The ActiveX control for XEnroll certificate enrollment was removed from Windows Vista and replaced with a new control.
• Channel Definition Format (CDF)--All CDF support was removed from Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview.
• DirectAnimation--All DLLs to support the Internet Explorer DirectAnimation component were removed in Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Update.
• XBM--Support for XBM, an imaging format designed for X-based systems, was deleted.
• SSL--Support for weak SSL ciphers was removed from Windows Vista and support for SSLv2 was disabled for all Internet Explorer 7 platforms
• Windowed Select--The Windowed Select Element was removed from Internet Explorer 7 because IE7 is not using the Windows API. This results in some cosmetic changes in padding. The animation associated with the popup is gone as well, and the popup simply pops up.
• BASE Element--Internet Explorer 7 strictly enforces the BASE element rule, as documented in the HTML 4.01 standard. We no longer allow BASE tags outside of the HEAD of the document. The standard specifies that the base element must appear within the head of the document, before any elements that refer to an external source.
• window.opener and window.close--Internet Explorer 7 no longer allows the window.opener trick to bypass the window.close prompt. Browser windows can't close themselves unless the windows were created in script. This security enhancement no longer allows browsing to a random site when the main browser window closes unexpectedly.
• WWW-Auth--Internet Explorer 7 changes the precedence rules for WWW-Auth. Previous releases of Internet Explorer used the first header encountered. Internet Explorer 7 uses the first header except when the header is Basic. We use Basic auth if no other authentication mechanism is present.
• HTTPOnly Cookies--HTTPOnly cookies can no longer be overwritten from scripts.
• _SEARCH--The _SEARCH sidebar is no longer supported in Internet Explorer 7. It can be reenabled using a URLAction.
• View Source--The view-source protocol no longer works in Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Update.
• Gopher Protocol--Support for the Gopher protocol was removed at the WinINET level. (Gopher support was turned off by default in Internet Explorer 6.)
• windowexternalImportExportFavorites--windowexternalImportExportFavorites has been removed in Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview.
• Telnet--The telnet protocol handler is no longer supported in Internet Explorer.
• SysImage URL Scheme--The SysImage URL Scheme has been removed from Internet Explorer.
• Status Bar Scripting--Script will no longer be able to set the status bar text through the window.status and window.defaultStatus methods by default in the Internet and Restricted Zones. This small step helps prevent attackers from leveraging those methods to spoof the status bar. To revert to previous behavior (allowing script to set the status bar through window.status and window.defaultStatus) select the “Security” tab from “Internet Options” in the Control Panel. Select “Custom level…” for the Internet (or Restricted sites) zone. Find “Allow status bar updates via script” and change the setting to “Enable”.