New Features of Internet Explorer 7 (1)

This article not only briefly describes the functions newly added or improved by IE 7 for operations and browser sites, but also describes the features and impacts of IE 7 by information professionals.

I. system requirements, installation and download
I strongly recommend that information professionals download IE 7 Beta 2 and install it on the test machine. In addition to trying out new features as a Web browser, you should also use this version to test the programs or websites you have developed to ensure that the products you have developed are compatible with IE 7.

As shown in the preceding example, you must first discuss the system requirements of the software. generally speaking, as long as the computer can execute Internet Explorer 6, its hardware can execute Internet Explorer 7, especially the software requirements for executing Internet Explorer 7. IE 7 will have four versions of different Windows platforms. Download the appropriate version based on the required platform:

• Install Service Pack 2 on Windows XP
• Windows XP Professional x64
• Install Service Pack 1 (including R2) on Windows Server 2003)
• Windows Server 2003 ia64 (Intel Itanium)

Regardless of the version of the above platform, the number of versions currently publicly downloaded is 7.0.5346.5, and this article is based on the Windows XP version of this version number. in addition, to install IE 7 in Windows XP, Windows XP must first pass the Windows Genuine Advantage verification program to install IE 7.

In addition, it should be noted that Microsoft has released the IE 7 test version before, and the computer must first remove the old test version before installing the new test version. if you cannot find the old IE 7 test version you want to remove in the "add or remove programs" dialog box, check the "display Update" on the dialog box 』. in addition, at the time of writing this article, Microsoft has released IE 7 Beta 2 for the other 12 languages, but most of them are Western European languages (such as the Australian, British, German, and Swiss editions ), although the official Chinese version is not yet included, I installed the English version on Windows XP in Chinese, and the execution is normal.
2. Improvement of Operation interfaces and website browsing

The operation interface of IE 7 adopts the visual style of Windows Vista. At first glance, it is different from that of IE 6. In particular, IE 7 disables the menu by default, replace it with a tool column (but it is easy to enable the menu ). in addition, the previous page of IE 7 shares the same browsing history with the next page tool button, the "move" button next to the address column will also change to the "Reorganization" button (and vice versa), which is different from the previous version of Internet Explorer.

New Interface of IE 7

Tabbed browsing has always been used by competitors to compare it with Internet Explorer (although IE 6 can have this feature through plug-ins, It is not ideal ), therefore, paging browsing has become a required feature of IE 7, and the development team has indeed added this feature to IE 7. there are also three functions related to pagination: if more than two pages are enabled, the Tab List and Quick Tabs buttons will appear on the left of the pagination Tab, and the former will List all the opened pagination headers, users can also switch pages. The latter will display all opened page views. In addition to switching, you can also disable pages; the third option is to add all opened pages to the Favorites Center, which is previously called "My Favorites 」.

Quick Tabs of IE 7

The Search column is also added by IE 7. The default is MSN Search as the Search provider. However, in addition to making it easy to change the preset Search provider, users can also access the Internet to join other Search providers, currently, Google, Yahoo! And other Web searches, including eBay, Amazon, ESPN, Microsoft.com, Wikipedia, and other theme searches (other search providers will be added in the future, you can directly search by column. in addition, you can directly enter keywords in the address column to search for data using a preset search engine.

IE 7 search Column
IE 7 improves the printing function. In addition to automatically adjusting the webpage width to avoid the webpage width being larger than the paper width, you can also adjust the print width during preview printing, and only the selected range can be printed.

The print preview of IE 7 RSS Feeds is also a new feature of IE 7. You can directly use IE 7 as an RSS reader. the RSS Feeds function is located in Favorites Center on IE 7, known as "My Favorites". The Favorites Center also contains the Browsing History ).

IE 6 can zoom in or out the font size, but IE 7 is improved to the zoom function on the right side of the Status column. This function can zoom in or out the webpage content. in addition, IE 7 can use ClearType technology to display webpage text, making webpage text smoother.
Iii. Enhanced Security

One of the key points of IE 7 is to enhance the security of browsing websites, so many methods or functions have been changed or added. the development team of IE 7 rethink the security policy of IE 7 from the malicious website threats and risks that the browser may face. moreover, Microsoft also began to adopt Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) internally. Therefore, the IE 7 Development Team also evaluated the risks that may occur on IE 7 websites, and try to eliminate or reduce security threats.

Information professionals should be reminded that these security enhancement practices or functions may be incompatible with the original environment, such as website servers, ActiveX controls, and even network environments, therefore, information professionals should test IE in detail. the following lists important security enhancement functions of IE 7.

Pay attention to security from installation
Different from other software installations, IE 7 will pay attention to computer security from the installation phase. before IE 7 is installed, the installation program of IE 7 runs the Windows malware removal tool to clear known malware from the system, this prevents some malware that may use IE to mess up with IE 7. if the computer has downloaded the latest version of Windows malware removal tool through Windows Update, the IE 7 installation program will be directly re-executed; or the installation program of IE 7 will download the latest version of Windows malware removal tool and execute it.

In addition, the installation program of IE 7 can automatically download the latest IE patch file to keep IE 7 secure. this will prevent the system from being insecure because the user forgets to download and fix the file after installing IE 7.

The installation program of IE 7 will download the latest IE patch file before installation

IT personnel should note that the installation program of IE 7 uses the Windows Update Agent component to download and install files, if a Windows Update Server (such as Windows Server Update Services) has been set up in the internal network and the client is used to Update the Server internally, the installation program of IE 7 will also use the internal Update Server, and only download the relevant repair files.

TLS Transport Layer Security

HTTPS protects transmitted data in an encrypted manner to prevent data from being Snoop or tampering. HTTPS uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer, Secure communication Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security, transport Layer Security) to protect data. the default HTTPS Security Protocol of IE 7 will discard SSLv2 with weak security, and use TLSv1 with high security (IE 6 needs to be manually changed), that is, by default, users of IE 7 will use SSLv3 or TLSv1 to process HTTPS online.
In this regard, users' browsing operations are usually not changed. However, if the website server does not support TLS or SSL well, it will lead to online failure. therefore, IT personnel who maintain the website server must pay attention to the HPPTS support situation on the website server, and use IE 7 to connect to the server over HTTPS, to test compatibility (Vista's IE 7 has been found unable to connect to the HTTPS server ).
ActiveX Control

To ensure security, almost all ActiveX controls are disabled. You must enable the functions of ActiveX controls on your own. therefore, if the website uses ActiveX controls, you must also note that ActiveX controls are disabled by default. in addition to re-viewing the security of ActiveX controls, IT personnel must also prompt or guide users to enable ActiveX controls.
Plug-ins

Powerful IE 7 plug-ins such as ActiveX controls, although enhanced web browsing and IE functions, it may not affect IE Security slightly. therefore, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 6 enhance the security management and use of plug-ins, and enable or disable the Execution Mode of plug-ins, only important system plug-ins can be executed in this mode.

URL Parsing

IE 7 has re-designed the URL resolution method and re-compiled the program code to avoid security issues. this technology is called CURI in Microsoft, which can also solve the security problem of cross-domain URLs. if the network or program uses a non-standard URL syntax, compatibility problems may occur.

Online fishing Filtering

To prevent users from going phishing, IE 7 provides a pre-filtering function for phishing, if a user browses a known or possibly illegal website (for example, an illegal website with a domain name similar to a legal website), the user will terminate the connection with the network. illegal website information related to online fishing will be updated to IE 7 on the client, which is provided by Microsoft and relevant vendors in the industry.

Set the Internet fishing filtering Check Method for IE 7

The Internet fishing filtering check of IE 7 is divided into two types: automatic and manual. The automatic check allows IE 7 to be connected to the website immediately, at this time, the Status column of IE 7 will also display the chart that is filtering the online fishing. if IE 7 compares the results of Microsoft Server Information Based on the URL and considers that the user is browsing a known online fishing website, not only will the Security Status column next to the address column warn users with red text, but the Internet Explorer 7 window will also display alerts, but users are still allowed to continue browsing the site.