Within the last hour, CNET News.com has revealed that Microsoft
will release a beta of Internet Explorer 7 this Summer. Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates announced the new browser version at the RSA
Conference 2005 in San Francisco. The beta will be available to
users with Windows XP Service Pack 2. Previously Microsoft has said
that Internet Explorer updates would only be delivered with Windows
upgrades, leading many to anticipate that there would be no IE7
until the release of Longhorn next year. Therefore, Microsoft's
announcement of a new IE release decoupled from a Windows revision
can be seen as a policy reversal. Analysts suggest that competition
from rivals such as Mozilla Firefox may have acted as the catalyst
for this change. A Reuters article on eWeek says that IE7 will have
"new anti-spyware features".
A Microsoft press release on security has this to say about IE7:
"Building on those advancements, Gates announced Internet Explorer
7.0, designed to add new levels of security to Windows XP SP2 while
maintaining the level of extensibility and compatibility that
customers have come to expect. Internet Explorer 7.0 will also
provide even stronger defenses against phishing, malicious software
and spyware. The beta release is scheduled to be available this
summer."
Meanwhile, a Q&A about the "Ever-Changing Security Landscape"
adds: "We're very excited to announce at the RSA Conference today
that this summer we'll release a beta of Internet Explorer 7.0 for
Windows XP with Service Pack 2, which will have even more
enhancements to security and privacy protections. These
enhancements align very closely with the three core tenets of
Microsoft's security approach that I mentioned earlier. Internet
Explorer 7.0 will be the most secure browser we've ever released,
building on and surpassing the success of the SP2-enhanced Internet
Explorer 6.0. We don't plan to ship it until it meets our quality
bar, which we've set pretty high."
Over at the official IEBlog, some guy called Dean says IE7 shows
that Microsoft is listening to its customers. The new version will
"build on the work we did in Windows XP SP2 and (among other
things) go further to defend users from phishing as well as
deceptive or malicious software." Regarding the ship date, he says,
"We're going to release a beta and listen, then refresh the beta
and listen some more. We'll ship when the product is ready." He
also implies that there may be a Windows 2000 version.
download it here 
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx
