According to Infoworld, Microsoft showed off the work it has done since Beta 1 of Internet Explorer 7 this week.
At the Hack in the Box Security Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Microsoft showed the latest build of IE7 Beta 2 to attendees to try and gain feedback. "People had a lot of good suggestions, and asked a lot of good questions," said Tony Chor, group program manager at Microsoft"s Internet Explorer team.
The Beta 2 version of IE7, currently under internal dogfood testing at Microsoft, will likely be ready by the end of the year, said Chor.
One new feature on the Web browser is it runs in higher security "Protected Mode" by default, set at a lower user privilege. Similar to UAP in Longhorn. In protected mode, all downloads and other packages are automatically dropped in the "temporary Internet files" folder, so malware can"t be deposited on the hard disk. Windows treat the files as dangerous and they"re given no privileges to move about.
Microsoft will license its "Protected Mode" innovation to other developers for free to help spread its use, and increase security, said Chor.
For businesses, Microsoft added a "Compatibility Mode" that works when a person is using the company"s intranet and allows them to drop files wherever they want to on their PCs.