   #copyright

Internet Explorer

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Software

   Windows Internet Explorer

   Windows Internet Explorer Logo
   Main Wikipedia page using Internet Explorer 7 running Windows XP
   Developer: Microsoft
   Latest release: 7.0.5730.11 / October 18, 2006
   OS: Windows
   Mac OS X (up to version 5.2.3)
   Mac OS (up to version 5.1)
   Solaris and HP-UX (up to version 5.0)
   Use: Web browser
   License: Proprietary
   Website: Internet Explorer

   Windows Internet Explorer, previously Microsoft Internet Explorer,
   abbreviated IE, or MSIE, is a graphical web browser developed by
   Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of
   operating systems. It has been the most widely used web browser since
   1999.

   Though released in 1995 as part of the initial OEM release of Windows
   95, Internet Explorer was not included in the first retail, or
   shrink-wrap, release of Windows 95. The most recent release is version
   7.0, which is available as a free update for Windows XP with Service
   Pack 2, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1. It is also
   included in the upcoming Windows Vista operating system. Versions of
   Internet Explorer prior to 6.0 SP2 are also available as a separate
   download for versions of Windows prior to Windows XP. There is a
   version for Windows CE and Mobile called Pocket Internet Explorer.

   After the first release for Windows 95, additional versions of Internet
   Explorer were developed for other operating systems: Internet Explorer
   for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX (the latter for use through the
   X Window System on Solaris and HP-UX). Only the Windows version remains
   in active development; the Mac OS X version is no longer supported.

History

   Internet Explorer was originally derived primarily from Spyglass
   Mosaic, an early commercial web browser. In 1995, Microsoft licensed
   Spyglass Mosaic from Spyglass for a quarterly fee plus a percentage of
   Microsoft's revenues for the software. Although bearing a name similar
   to NCSA Mosaic, which was the first widely used browser, Spyglass
   Mosaic was relatively unknown in its day and used the NCSA Mosaic
   source code only sparingly.

   Internet Explorer was not widely used until the release of version 3,
   which was the first version developed without Spyglass sources
   (although still using Spyglass "technology", so the Spyglass licensing
   information remained in the program's documentation). Internet Explorer
   4 was the first version integrated into Windows Explorer and other core
   parts of Windows. The integration with Windows, however, was subject to
   numerous criticisms (see United States v. Microsoft).

   Internet Explorer 3 was the first major browser with CSS support.
   Released on August 13, 1996, it introduced support for ActiveX
   controls, Java applets, inline multimedia, and the PICS system for
   content metadata. These improvements were significant, compared to its
   main competitor at the time, Netscape Navigator. Version 3 also came
   bundled with Internet Mail and News, NetMeeting, and an early version
   of the Windows Address Book, and was itself included with Windows 95
   OSR 2. Version 3 proved to be the first popular version of Internet
   Explorer, which brought with it increased scrutiny. In the months
   following its release, a number of security and privacy vulnerabilities
   were found by researchers and hackers.

   Version 4, released in September 1997, deepened the level of
   integration between the web browser and the underlying operating
   system. Installing version 4 on a Windows 95 or windows NT 4 machine
   and choosing "windows desktop update" would result in the traditional
   Windows Explorer being replaced by a version more akin to a web browser
   interface, as well as the Windows desktop itself being web-enabled via
   Active Desktop. This option was no longer available with the installers
   for later versions of Internet Explorer but was not removed from the
   system if already installed. Internet Explorer 4 introduced support for
   Group Policy, allowing companies to configure and lock down many
   aspects of the browser's configuration. Internet Mail and News was
   replaced with Outlook Express, and Microsoft Chat and an improved
   NetMeeting were also included. This version also was included with
   Windows 98.

   Version 5, launched on March 18, 1999, and subsequently included with
   Windows 98 Second Edition and bundled with Office 2000, was another
   significant release that supported bi-directional text, ruby
   characters, XML, XSL and the ability to save web pages in MHTML format.
   (Windows 2000 included Internet Explorer 5.01 instead.) Version 5.5
   followed in July 2000, improving its print preview capabilities, CSS
   and HTML standards support, and developer APIs; this version was
   bundled with Windows Me.

   Version 6 was released on August 27, 2001, a few weeks before Windows
   XP. This version included DHTML enhancements, content restricted inline
   frames, and better support of CSS level 1, DOM level 1 and SMIL 2.0.
   The MSXML engine was also updated to version 3.0. Other new features
   included a new version of the IEAK, Media bar, Windows Messenger
   integration, fault collection, automatic image resizing, P3P, and a new
   look-and-feel that was in line with the "Luna" visual style of Windows
   XP.

   On February 15, 2005, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced that the
   new version of its browser would be released at the RSA Conference 2005
   in San Francisco. The decision to update the browser occurred in the
   wake of a decline in the use of Internet Explorer for the first time.
   Microsoft also stated that Internet Explorer 7 is available only for
   Windows XP SP2 and later, including Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows
   Vista. The first beta version of the browser was released on July 27,
   2005 for technical testing, and a first public preview version of
   Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2 preview: Pre-Beta 2 version) was released
   on January 31, 2006. The final public version was released on October
   18, 2006. Version 7 is intended to defend users from phishing as well
   as deceptive or malicious software, and also features full user control
   of ActiveX, and better security framework. It includes important bug
   fixes, enhancements to support the web standards, improvements in HTML
   4.01/CSS 2, Tabbed Browsing, Tab preview and management, and web feeds
   reader. It is also to be noted this is the first version of Internet
   Explorer not to be based upon Spyglass technologies.

Features

   Internet Explorer has been designed to view the broadest range of web
   pages and to provide certain features within the operating system,
   including Microsoft Update. During the heydays of the historic browser
   wars, Internet Explorer superseded Netscape by supporting many of the
   progressive features of the time.

Component architecture

   The Component Object Model (COM) technology is used extensively in
   Internet Explorer. It allows third parties to add functionality via
   Browser Helper Objects (BHO); and allows websites to offer rich content
   via ActiveX. As these objects can have the same privileges as the
   browser itself (in certain situations), there is a concern over
   security. This issue was addressed in Internet Explorer 6.0 SV1, which
   provides an Add-on Manager for controlling ActiveX controls and Browser
   Helper Objects. Internet Explorer 7 provides a "No Add-Ons" version
   (Under Programs/Accessories/System Tools) to address this issue, as
   well.

Usability and accessibility

   Internet Explorer makes use of the accessibility framework provided in
   Windows. Internet Explorer is also a user interface for FTP, with
   operations similar to that of Windows Explorer (although this feature
   now requires a shell window to be opened as of version 7, rather than
   natively within the browser). VBA is not supported, but available via
   extension (iMacros).

   The ability to block popup windows was introduced with Internet
   Explorer 6.0, Service Pack 2.

   Tabbed browsing can be added to Internet Explorer 6 by installing
   Microsoft's MSN Search Toolbar, and is natively supported as of
   Internet Explorer 7.

Security framework

   Internet Explorer uses a zone-based security framework, which means
   that sites are grouped based upon certain conditions. It allows the
   restriction of broad areas of functionality, and also allows specific
   functions to be restricted.

   Patches and updates to the browser are released periodically and made
   available through the Windows Update service, as well as through
   Automatic Updates. Although security patches continue to be released
   for a range of platforms, most recent feature additions and security
   improvements are released for Windows XP only.

   Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 2 provides Download Monitoring and
   Install Monitoring allowing users the choice of whether or not to
   download and install executables, in two stages. This helps to prevent
   installation of malware. Executable files downloaded using Internet
   Explorer are marked by the operating system as being potentially
   unsafe, and will prompt the user to confirm they want to run the
   executable every time, until the user confirms the file is "safe".

Group

   Internet Explorer is fully configurable using Group Policy.
   Administrators of Windows Server domains can apply and enforce a
   variety of settings that affect the user interface (such as disabling
   menu items and individual configuration options), as well as underlying
   security features such as downloading of files, zone configuration,
   per-site settings, ActiveX control behaviour, and others. Policy
   settings can be configured on a per-user and per-machine basis.

Standards support

   Internet Explorer, using the Trident layout engine, almost fully
   supports HTML 4.01, CSS Level 1, XML 1.0 and DOM Level 1, with minor
   implementation gaps. It partially supports CSS Level 2 and DOM Level 2,
   with some implementation gaps and conformance issues. XML support
   brings with it support for XHTML, however Microsoft has buried this
   support since IE 5.0 making it difficult to access. Like other browsers
   it can consume XHTML when served as MIME type “text/html”. It can also
   consume XHTML as XML when served as MIME types “application/xml” and
   “text/xml”, however this requires a small XSLT measure to re-enable the
   XHTML as XML support. It pretends to not comprehend XHTML when vended
   in the preferred type as “application/xhtml+xml” and instead treats it
   as an unfamiliar file type for download.

   Internet Explorer uses DOCTYPE sniffing to choose between " quirks
   mode" (renders similarly to older versions of MSIE) and standards mode
   (renders closer to W3C's specifications) for HTML and CSS rendering on
   screen (for printing Internet Explorer always uses standards mode). It
   fully supports XSLT 1.0 or the December 1998 Working Draft of XSL,
   depending on the version of MSXML (a dynamic link library) available.
   It also provides its own dialect of ECMAScript called JScript.

Proprietary extensions

   Internet Explorer has introduced an array of proprietary extensions to
   many of the standards, including HTML, CSS and the DOM. This has
   resulted in a number of web pages that can only be viewed properly
   using Internet Explorer.

Version 7

   Version 7.0 of Internet Explorer has been renamed Windows Internet
   Explorer, as part of Microsoft's rebranding of component names that are
   included with Windows. It is available as part of Windows Vista, and as
   a separate download via Microsoft Update for Windows XP with Service
   Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. Internet Explorer 7 can
   also be downloaded directly from Microsoft's website. Large amounts of
   the underlying architecture, including the rendering engine and
   security framework, have been completely overhauled. Partly as a result
   of security enhancements, the browser will be a stand-alone
   application, rather than integrated with the Windows shell, and it will
   no longer be capable of acting as a file browser. The first security
   advisory was posted only one day after the day of release., but it
   turned out to be a security problem in Outlook Express, not in Internet
   Explorer 7.

   IE7 in Windows Vista incorporates additional security measures, most
   significantly "Protected Mode", whereby the browser runs in a sandbox
   with even lower rights than a limited user account. As such, it can
   only write to the Temporary Internet Files folder and cannot install
   start-up programs or change any configuration of the operating system
   without communicating through a broker process. This is expected to
   increase the security of the system considerably. The Windows XP
   version of Internet Explorer 7 will not include "Protected Mode"
   operation, as it relies on technologies not found on systems before
   Vista. It also supports the Parental Controls and Network Diagnostics
   features which are unique to Vista. Internet Explorer 7 has only been
   released for Windows XP and later operating systems.

Release history

     * On January 31, 2006, Microsoft released a public preview build (
       Beta 2 preview: Pre-Beta 2 version) of Internet Explorer 7 for
       Windows XP Service Pack 2 (not for Windows Server 2003 SP 1) on
       their web site. It stated that more public preview builds (possibly
       Beta 2 in April) of Internet Explorer 7 will be released in first
       half of 2006, and final version will be released in second half of
       2006. The pre beta build was refreshed on March 20, 2006 to build
       7.0.5335.5. A real Beta 2 Build was released on April 24, 2006 to
       build 7.0.5346.5. In addition, at the MIX'06 conference, Bill Gates
       said that Microsoft is already working on the next two versions of
       IE after version 7.
     * On June 29, 2006, Microsoft released Beta 3 (Build 7.0.5450.4) of
       Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2, Windows XP x64 Edition and
       Windows Server 2003 SP1. It features minor UI cleanups, re-ordering
       of tabs by drag and drop, as well as noticeable performance
       improvements.
     * On August 24, 2006, the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of Internet
       Explorer 7 (Build 7.0.5700.6) was released for Windows XP SP2,
       Windows XP x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1. This was the
       last pre-release version of IE7 before the final release.
     * On September 28, 2006, 3Sharp, a privately held technical services
       firm, published the results of a study, commissioned by Microsoft,
       evaluating eight anti-phishing solutions in which Internet Explorer
       7 (Beta 3) came out on top. The study evaluated the ability to
       block phish, to warn about phish, and to allow good sites.
     * On October 18, 2006 the final version was released on
       microsoft.com, and was distributed as a high-priority update via
       Automatic Updates (AU) on November 1. AU notifies users when IE7 is
       ready to install and shows a welcome screen that presents key
       features and choices to “Install”, “Don’t Install”, or “Ask Me
       Later”.

New features and changes

     * For better security, Internet Explorer is no longer integrated with
       the Windows Explorer shell. Local files typed in IE7 are opened
       using the Windows Explorer shell and websites typed in Windows
       Explorer shell are opened using the default web browser.
     * Protected Mode (available in Windows Vista only), whereby the
       browser runs in a sandbox with even lower rights than a limited
       user account. As such, it can only write to the Temporary Internet
       Files folder and cannot install start-up programs or change any
       configuration of the operating system without communicating through
       a broker process. IE7 Protected Mode relays on UAC
     * Version 7 supports tabbed browsing, a popular feature in competing
       web browsers. Also new is a feature called "Quick Tabs", which
       displays a thumbnail preview of opened tabs. Since the release of
       Beta 3 onwards, the user has been able to manually rearrange the
       tabs by dragging and dropping them as desired.
     * Version 7 adds support for internationalized domain names (IDN)
       with included anti-spoofing protection. If the user visits a
       website whose name is in a foreign language (non-Latin characters),
       it will be displayed in punycode if the user does not have support
       for the language installed. Also, non-Latin characters can, with
       certain restrictions, be mixed with Latin characters. In the latter
       case, punycode is used if support for the non-Latin script is not
       installed. This helps prevent phishing scams, where some characters
       are replaced with a similar looking character from a different
       alphabet.
     * A search box has been added to the top-right corner. The default
       search engine is inherited from Internet Explorer 6's settings,
       which various search engine toolbars override to provide search
       capabilities on the address bar, but additional providers may be
       added (Google, Altavista, Yahoo!, Windows Live Search, Wikipedia,
       etc). Microsoft supplies a list of common providers. The search box
       uses A9.com's OpenSearch technology to import search providers. By
       using an open standard, Microsoft made it easier for websites to
       include their pre-defined search queries in the search box. Also
       available is a comprehensive list of popular search providers that
       can be added to the search box. With the release of Windows
       Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft updated its list of common providers
       with a tool that enables users to manually create and add a search
       provider to the search box.
     * Support for per-pixel alpha channel transparency in PNG images has
       been added.
     * A fully integrated feed reader is included, so that users can read
       web feeds (RSS or Atom) without a separate RSS reader. Features
       include automatic feed discovery and the ability to retrieve feed
       updates even when the web browser isn't running. The web feeds
       feature set is also available to third-party developers through
       API's, so that the list of subscribed feeds (as well as their
       current contents) can be used.
     * ActiveX Opt-In blocks ActiveX Control unless it allowed to be
       installed. This feature improves security from unverifiable and
       vulnerable controls. ActiveX controls can be chosen to be installed
       on Information Bar. User can turn on and off ActiveX Control by
       using Add-on Manager.
     * A number of improvements to CSS, DOM, and HTML support have been
       made. Microsoft's stated goal with version 7 was to fix the most
       significant bugs and areas which caused the most trouble for
       developers, and then improved coverage of the standards would come
       later.
     * The well-known problem of having the right-hand portion of a web
       page cut off when the page is printed has been fixed. Page content
       can also be "shrunk" to fit more text on a single page. The
       revamped "Print Preview" interface will also let users drag the
       page margins around and see the results immediately.
     * A Page Zoom selector has been added to the bottom-right corner of
       the user interface. Unlike the "Text size" feature, this will zoom
       the complete contents of the web page, allowing for easier reading
       on larger displays. Fonts are rendered at higher resolution.
     * ClearType can be enabled or disabled separately from the rest of
       the operating system.
     * The new Phishing Filter offers protection against phishing scams
       and other websites that may be considered dangerous for a user to
       enter their personal information into. When enabled, every website
       the user visits is checked against a master list of known phishing
       sites. If a site is listed, the user is informed. In light of the
       privacy implications of this feature, it is not enabled
       automatically; the user is asked when they start Internet Explorer
       7 if they want it enabled. Microsoft is working in conjunction with
       companies that specialize in identifying phishing schemes to ensure
       the list of known sites is accurate and quickly updated.
     * The address bar and status bar appear in all windows including
       popups which helps to block malicious sites from disguising them as
       trusted sites. Also the address bar features a colour code to
       visually indicate the trustworthiness of the page. The address bar
       turns red when a page, with invalid security certificate, is
       accessed. In case of sites not using any encryption, the address
       bar is white. And if the page uses high security certificate, the
       bar turns green.
     * Modal windows such as dialog boxes are shown only when the tab that
       has generated them is selected (in such situations, the tab colour
       becomes orange).
     * The address bar no-longer allows JavaScript to be executed on blank
       pages (about:blank). This feature is still supported on other pages
       though, which enables bookmarklets to work properly. A reason for
       the change has not been given.
     * The status bar no-longer allows custom text to be entered (e.g.:
       "Formatting C:\ 10% Complete |||||||") and will always show the URL
       of any link hovered over, for security.
     * "Delete Browsing History" cleans the complete browsing history in a
       single step. Previously this was a multistage process requiring
       users to delete browser cache, history, cookies, saved form data
       and passwords in a series of different steps. This is useful for
       improving privacy and security in a multiuser environment, such as
       an Internet café.
     * Contextual Go/Refresh button. When any URL is typed into the
       address bar, the button changes from "Refresh" to "Go" and when
       "Go" (or keyboard Enter) is hit, the button changes from "Go" to
       "Refresh". In this way the space taken by the toolbars is
       minimized.
     * The "back" and "forward" menus have been combined into one menu
       which shows the users current position in their history with a bold
       entry. In most cases, the current page will be at the top, with a
       list of pages to go "back" to, but if the user has just gone back
       one or more pages, there will be additional items above the current
       page to which they can navigate forwards.
     * Fix My Settings checks at startup or when a setting is changed, if
       the current settings are unsafe it notifies the user. The user can
       also press a button in order to fix the settings to a safe state.
     * Old protocols and technologies removed: Gopher, TELNET, Scriptlets,
       DirectAnimation, XBM, Channels (.CDF files) also known as ' Active
       Desktop Items', etc. The DHTML Editing Control is being removed
       from IE7 for Windows Vista to reduce surface area for security
       attacks.
     * No Add-ons allows IE7 to launch without the installed extensions.
     * The menu bar can be hidden to allow more space for webpages.
     * Improved text selection.
     * IE7 cipher strength: 256-bit (Only for Vista, IE7 for XP only
       supports 128-bit)
     * New Group Policy's Administrative Templates (.adm files) for IE7
       are loaded automatically onto the Domain Controller when a Group
       Policy is opened from a workstation where IE7 has been installed.
       These new administrative templates allow for controlling the
       Anti-Phishing filter state, for example.
     * Reset Internet Explorer settings is useful if your browser is in an
       unusable state: deletes all temporary files, disables browser
       add-ons, and resets all the changed settings.

Criticism

Security

   Much criticism of Internet Explorer is related to concerns about
   security: Much of the spyware, adware, and computer viruses across the
   Internet are made possible by exploitable bugs and flaws in the
   security architecture of Internet Explorer, sometimes requiring nothing
   more than viewing of a malicious web page in order to install
   themselves. This is known as a " drive-by download": an attempt to
   trick the user into installing malicious software by misrepresenting
   the software's true purpose in the description section of an ActiveX
   security alert.

   While Internet Explorer is not alone in having exploitable
   vulnerabilities, its ubiquity has resulted in many more affected
   computers when vulnerabilities are found. Microsoft has not responded
   as quickly as competitors in fixing security holes and making patches
   available. Not only are there more security holes discovered in
   Internet Explorer, but these vulnerabilities tend to remain unpatched
   for a much longer time, in some cases giving malicious web site
   operators months to exploit them before Microsoft releases a patch.
   Several companies maintain databases of known security vulnerabilities
   that exist in Internet Explorer, for which no fixes have been published
   by Microsoft. As of November 27, 2006, Secunia reports 3 unpatched
   vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, of which the most severe
   vulnerability is rated "moderately critical". In contrast, Mozilla
   Firefox, the main competitor to Internet Explorer, is reported to have
   1 unpatched security vulnerability, rated "less critical." Opera,
   another competitor to Internet Explorer, is also reported to have no
   unpatched security vulnerabilities.

   In May 2006, PC World rated Internet Explorer 6 the eighth worst tech
   product of all time.

Standards support

   Other criticisms, mostly coming from technically proficient users and
   developers of websites and browser-based software applications, concern
   Internet Explorer's support of open standards, because the browser
   often uses proprietary extensions to achieve similar functionality.

   Internet Explorer supports, to some degree, a number of standardized
   technologies, but has numerous implementation gaps and conformance
   failures—some minor, some not—that have led to criticism from an
   increasing number of developers. The increase is attributable, in large
   part, to the fact that competing browsers that offer relatively
   thorough, standards-compliant implementations are becoming more widely
   used.

   Internet Explorer's ubiquity, in spite of its inferiority in this area,
   frustrates developers who want to write standards-compliant,
   cross-browser code and the advanced functionality it provides, because
   they are often stuck coding pages around Internet Explorer's bugs,
   proprietary featureset, and missing standards support instead.

   Web developers must work with the least advanced technology across all
   browsers they wish to support, and Internet Explorer is often
   criticized for being technically obsolete. These include poor CSS
   support and no native XHTML support: both of which remain serious
   problems in Internet Explorer 7. For another long-standing concrete
   example, see Internet Explorer's poor PNG transparency support, which
   remained unfixed until Internet Explorer 7.

Market adoption

Usage share

   Usage share of Internet Explorer, 1996–2006
   Enlarge
   Usage share of Internet Explorer, 1996–2006

   The adoption rate of Internet Explorer seems to be closely related to
   that of Microsoft Windows, as it is the default web browser that comes
   with Windows. Since the integration of Internet Explorer 2.0 with
   Windows 95 OSR 1 in 1996, and especially after version 4.0's release,
   the adoption was greatly accelerated: from below 20% in 1996 to about
   40% in 1998 and over 80% in 2000. This effect, however, has recently
   been dubbed the "Microsoft monoculture", by analogy to the problems
   associated with lack of biodiversity in an ecosystem. By 2002, Internet
   Explorer had almost completely superseded its main rival Netscape and
   dominated the market.

   After having fought and won the browser wars of the late 1990s,
   Internet Explorer began to see its usage share shrink. Having attained
   a peak of about 96% in 2002, it has since been in a small steady
   decline, likely due to the adoption of Mozilla Firefox, which
   statistics indicate is currently the most significant competition.
   Nevertheless, Internet Explorer remains the dominant web browser, with
   a global usage share of around 85% (based on statistics reference).
   Usage is higher in Asia and lower in Europe. For example, the share is
   around 94% in Japan, and around 56% in Germany.

Industry adoption

   ActiveX is used by many public websites and web applications, including
   eBay. Similarly, Browser Helper Objects are also used by many search
   engine companies and third parties for creating add-ons that access
   their services, for example, search engine toolbars. Because of the use
   of COM, it is possible to include web-browsing functionality in
   third-party applications. Hence, there are a number of Internet
   Explorer shells, and a number of content-centric applications like
   RealPlayer also use Internet Explorer's web browsing module for viewing
   web pages within the applications.

"Standalone" Internet Explorer

   While it is not officially possible to keep multiple versions of
   Internet Explorer on the same machine, some hackers (Joe Maddalone,
   Ryan Parman, et al.) successfully separated several versions of
   Internet Explorer making them standalone applications. These were
   referred as "standalone" IEs and included versions 3.0 to 5.5.
     * Multiple IEs In Windows Web Design — The web developer Joe
       Maddalone who found the solution.
     * Skyzyx.com - Standalone Internet Explorer — The web developer Ryan
       Parman who made the customized browsers files available.
     * Multiple Explorers — Downloads of all the versions

   Microsoft has discontinued standalone installers for Internet Explorer
   to the general public. However, there are unofficial procedures for
   downloading the complete install package. Internet Explorer standalone
   hacks exploit a known workaround to DLL hell, which was introduced in
   Windows 2000, called DLL redirection.
     * Standalone Install Procedure for IE6 SP1

   Unlike previous versions of Internet Explorer, running Internet
   Explorer 7.0 requires the presence of some keys in the Windows registry
   before starting. This is due to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-054 as
   mentioned in IEBlog.
     * Jon Galloway's batch script for running IE7 — Supports the latest
       IE7 RC1.
     * A standalone launch program for IE7 — Supports the latest IE7 RC1.

   Yousif has provided a program available here which automates
   installation of standalone versions of Internet Explorer from 3.0 to
   6.0. This allows you to install version 7 as the "default" version of
   Internet Explorer.

   Manfred Staudinger has created an online guide/article detailing how to
   enable cookies and MS proprietary Conditional Comments, Here.

Removal

   The idea of removing Internet Explorer from a Windows system was first
   proposed during the United States v. Microsoft case. Critics felt that
   users should have the right to uninstall Internet Explorer freely just
   like any other application software. One of Microsoft's arguments
   during the trial was that removing Internet Explorer from Windows may
   result in system instability.

   The Australian computer scientist Shane Brooks demonstrated that
   Windows 98 could in fact run with Internet Explorer removed. Brooks
   went on to develop software designed to customize Windows versions by
   removing "undesired components", which is known as 98lite. He later
   created XPLite to support NT based operating systems. Both of these
   pieces of software can remove IE after the installation of the
   operating system. However, both of these pieces of software work, in
   part, by installing obsolete versions of components (such as Windows
   Explorer) required by the operating system to function.

   There are a few popular methods for removing IE from a copy of the
   Windows install disc so it never touches the user's hard drive. A
   method developed by Fred Vorck involves the manual removal of IE from
   installation discs. nLite, on the other hand, is an automated program
   that allows users to exclude IE and many other Windows components from
   installation as desired. In some older versions of Windows and in
   Windows Fundamentals there is an option to install Internet Explorer.

   Removing Internet Explorer does have a number of consequences. Some
   applications that depend on libraries installed by IE may fail to
   function, or have unexpected behaviors. Intuit's Quicken is a typical
   example, which depends heavily upon the HTML rendering components
   installed by the browser. The Windows help and support system will also
   not function due to the heavy reliance on HTML help files and
   components of IE. It is also not possible to run Microsoft's Windows
   Update with any other browser due to the service's implementation of an
   ActiveX control, which no other browser supports. Another possibility
   is to use AutoPatcher, an unofficial and unauthorised update manager,
   which does not require the use of a web browser at all.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
