14 DAY TRIAL // Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista is one of the aspects of the operating system applauded as a strong enough reason to justify upgrading to Microsoft's most secure Windows platform to date. Essentially, the same browser is available on Windows XP SP2 and on Windows Server 2003; however, similarities stop when the Vista User Account Control comes into play. At a certain time, Microsoft even separated the two versions of the browser by a "+", but that practice was dropped before the October launch. In combination with the UAC, IE7 in Vista is designed to run in Protected Mode. This means that IE7 is associated only with the most basic privileges, and can write just to selected areas of the disk.
Now, one big problem with Internet Explorer ? and Microsoft did acknowledge this issue ? is related to standards support and interoperability. This is why the Redmond company has hired Molly E. Holzschlag, former Group Lead for WaSP and an expert involved with W3C back in January. Now, it may be already too late for IE7, but maybe Internet Explorer 8, planned for late 2008, early 2009 will indeed benefit from what Holzschlag has to offer.
Still, Microsoft claims that IE7 brings to the table: "improved platform for web development and manageability - Internet Explorer 7 offers better support for cascading style sheets (CSS), a rich RSS feeds platform, and robust tools for deploying and managing Internet Explorer 7 in enterprise environments."
Now the part about better support for cascading style sheets (CSS) must have made the hearts of web developers everywhere jump. But alas, better support in IE7, is only a promise. The fact of the matter is that you can completely kill the browser with a line of HTML code. Nothing more complicated than: *{"position:relative"} (without all the inverted comas). Now, you don't have to be a top web developer to recognize a few HTML tags and a CSS declaration. This will essentially create a text box. Nothing more nothing less. Is this all it takes to kill IE7? Well yes, just follow this link, courtesy of Commandline, and if the browser doesn't crash immediately try opening a new tab.