Oh look - IE7 is released

development (This post is more than 2 years old.)

Good news! IE7 is now available.

So. Um. Hey Microsoft? You guys just let me know when I can download IE7 and not break my IE6. Because - well - I'm a web developer. Have you guys heard of them? We make web sites.

Anyway - one of the things we have to do - and have been doing now for almost ten years - is develop on different browsers. You know the routine. You write your HTML and then see how it looks in Firefox (Heard of them? They make a cool browser as well.) and then IE. If I can't run multiple versions of IE, it will be difficult to see how my sites look for all of my customers.

So I'm sure you get the idea. I need to be able to run my IE6 and IE7 at the same time.

So yeah - as I said - just drop me a line. I mean, I can't seriously imagine you expect me to install a completely different copy of Windows just to run IE. That would just be insane.

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Archived Comments

Comment 1 by Scott P posted on 10/19/2006 at 8:33 AM

The part that I have issues with is the drastically different UI. I run an IT department and helpdesk for a smaller college, I've put the new verison on a few our more advanced internet (non-devs/non-IT) users. They all hated it and wanted it removed. I show them firefox with a few extensions loaded and the loved it. Point of story, I think that in my area I will see more non-tech users on firefox/opera because of the changes that were made to the UI.

The rest was sent by Microsoft to IT Administrators.

Call-to-Action for IT Administrators

To prepare for the release of IE7 in October and subsequent distribution through Automatic Updates, customers should:

1.
Use the IE7 Readiness Toolkit to prepare for the release of IE7

2.
Test and resolve any issues with their Web sites and applications using the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 (ACT 5.0).

3.
Determine if their organization is ready for IE7 or needs to delay deployment. Find information on deploying the nonexpiring IE7 Blocker Toolkit on our Web site.
About the Automatic Updates Delivery Process
To help minimize disruption, automatic delivery of IE7 includes the following provisions:

1.
Automatic Updates will notify users that an upgrade to Internet Explorer is available prior to starting installation.

2.
IE7 will not install until a user who is a local administrator accepts the update. (Users may also choose to decline installation or ask to be reminded to install later.)

3.
Microsoft has made available the IE7 Blocker Toolkit, which allows IT administrators to prevent users from receiving IE7 as a high-priority update from Automatic Updates and the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites.

4.
Users will be able to roll back to Internet Explorer 6 by removing IE7 through the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs utility.

Find additional details and screenshots of the notification process on our Web site.

Comment 2 by greg h posted on 10/19/2006 at 8:54 AM

Ray,

You know that Microsoft is not insane ... they just want to drive you insane!

Yes, they do want you to install a completely different copy of Windows just to run IE.

And the best way that I have found to do this is with is with either Microsoft's own Virtual PC or VMWare. Then you can have multiple images running on the same machine with different versions of IE.

Both are now FREE.
www.microsoft.com/windows/v...
www.vmware.com/products/fre...

Lot's of other good things you can do with virtualization. e.g. on my machine, all of betas now go into virtual machines only.

g

Comment 3 by Mark Flewellen posted on 10/19/2006 at 9:17 AM

Hi Ray, I went to this website http://browsers.evolt.org/ to get different versions of browsers. At the moment I run IE7, IE6 and IE5, no need to install IE6 or IE5 they are stand alone executables, they are not the full versions from what I gather but for viewing CSS layouts they are perfect, the IE6 file is about 10mb, and IE5 about 7mb, drop them in any directory and run them.

Comment 4 by Raymond Camden posted on 10/19/2006 at 3:23 PM

Greg: I do not deny the using a virtual OS is good - but to me - it seems insane if you just want to run IE6 because you have IE7 on your box. It definitely makes sense for other larger testing - but just to run a browser?

Mark: I am aware that you can run different IE versions - but this is normally done via hacks. I've done this before and ended up screwing things up on my machine (probably my fault though). Point is - I shouldn't need to do a hack. I wouldn't mind downloading IE7 from an alternate location (MS could call it the Web Developers Edition or some such).

Comment 5 by Philippe posted on 10/19/2006 at 3:49 PM

Install IE7, then all the old version you want:
http://tredosoft.com/Multip...

Comment 6 by Raymond Camden posted on 10/19/2006 at 5:07 PM

Phillippe - the point is that MS should be doing this. Not others. It's not like this is a new idea. It's not like web dev is a new career. Know what I mean?

Comment 7 by TJ Downes posted on 10/19/2006 at 6:18 PM

Ive spent a few months testing IE 7. It's the worst release in a long time. I guess MS wanted to lose the latest browser war.

Comment 8 by Sid Wing posted on 10/19/2006 at 7:34 PM

Having been forced to test IE7 and (o btw) Vista, I have found HUG quirks with both... As for the running of multiple IE's - DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER! With the necessary hacks in place it will run... But it will be iffy at best as far as usefulness/reliability is concerned... O... and a word of warning, DO NOT try to run Vista in "dual boot" mode... it WILL trash the file permissions on your XP partition.

Comment 9 by Sid Wing posted on 10/19/2006 at 7:35 PM

LOL - Make that HUGE!(not HUG) - although I might wish to HUG MS... around the neck... very hard... with my HANDS...

Comment 10 by Steve posted on 10/19/2006 at 7:53 PM

All,

I have to say that this is by far the best IE released. I happen to be one of those rare people that doesn't really care for FireFox (although version 2 looks promising). You can say what you want, but I have been using the beta for the past 6 months and have had very few problems especially after Beta 2. In two weeks everyone with auto update turned on will have IE 6 replaced. Microsoft has been stating this for quite some time and if you have chosen to ignore them, then shame on you.

Comment 11 by Ben Forta posted on 10/19/2006 at 7:54 PM

I have it running on my Win64 box, and biggest issue I have is the performance - or the lack thereof. Load and w-a-i-t. Open a tab and w-a-i-t. Click to close a tab and w-a-i-t. Ugh!

--- Ben

Comment 12 by Marlon posted on 10/19/2006 at 8:00 PM

We've had multiple issues at my workplace. Everything from IE saying a site's not available when it loads in Opera and Firefox, to regular non-javascript forms not sending content to the server, to regular ol css rendering issues (some sites that render fine in IE6 and FF suck in IE7)

Comment 13 by TJ Downes posted on 10/19/2006 at 9:59 PM

I recommend the easiest and IMHO the cheapest route:

browsercam.com

I can run my PC in whatever configuration i want and never have to worry about what browsers I can test for. With the BrowserCam remote access subscription I choose what OS and browsers I want to connect to. Using VNC, you have 15 minute remote sessions as many times as you want per month for $40. It's like having an army of PCs at your disposal.

Comment 14 by Dan Sorensen posted on 10/19/2006 at 10:18 PM

IE 7 beta 2 worked great for me. (But I still love Firefox + Web Developer extension!!) IE 7.0, however has been really slow and prone to crashing, and I'm not sure why quite yet.

Marlon: IE 7 renders pages much like Firefox/Safari. The rendering problems usually occur when it is mis-identified as the quirky IE 6 through obsolete CSS hacks and browser detection schemes. The problem is primarily on the server side. The official IE blog has quite a bit of detail on how to correct this.

Comment 15 by Shaji posted on 10/20/2006 at 12:17 AM

Go to ie7.com. :-)

Comment 16 by Mike Kear posted on 10/20/2006 at 12:41 AM

Thanks Shaji. That's very amusing. Yes all switch to Firefox.

Except that web developers have to make sure the sites work well for ALL the users that might come to the web site, and can't go trying to order them about, make them switch their browsers.

Despite everything you might hope, the simple fact of life we all have to live with is that the majority of users will be using Internet Explorer in one or other format for the forseeable future. A web site owner who ignores IE users or tries to force them to change their browser is doomed to failure.

Comment 17 by Andrew posted on 10/20/2006 at 3:23 AM

Today I upgraded to IE7 at work and think it's okay. Granted, it's vastly different from IE6, but I believe that over time people will get used to it...they always do. What developers must realize is that we don't control what software platform people choose. In a lot of companies that choice is left up to the IT department. What developers must do is plan for developing applications that run on a variety of platforms because it is the users that are the keep us in business. Accept Microsoft, even with all its faults, because until another OS takes away their market share, Microsoft will continue to dominate the market.

Comment 18 by Ketan posted on 10/20/2006 at 5:28 AM

Tell me about it man! At work we are launching a brand new site design, and guess what? The CSS is not compatabile with IE7!! So, now we need to recode the freaking CSS to work in IE7. Does MS really think up of new and frustrating ways to complicate our (developers) lives?

Comment 19 by Sid Wing posted on 10/20/2006 at 5:18 PM

Ketan - Yes... Isn't that like a Major Division at MS? The Developer Frustration Division? I swear it must be...

Comment 20 by Cary Gordon posted on 10/21/2006 at 5:58 AM

Well, if you are in the business of QAing stuff in all the browsers (or even a pretty good subset), virtualization just to run a browser makes sense.

Things have settled down a bit, but for a while we were running VMs with about eight OS versions and revisions, and a few versions of IE.