One of the pluses that Mozilla's Firefox has on Internet Explorer 7 is the wide array of add-ons that enable users to personalize the open source browser. With the IE Add-ons website, Microsoft is trying to catch up.

With the launch of IE7, I have started to use it extensively at work. And I have little complaints so far. Internet Explorer 7 is a far superior browser compared to its direct predecessor. Does it still have issues? Of course. Standards support is its largest fault, but with Molly E. Holzschlag, standards evangelist joining the IE team, things are likely to improve in this area. And I turned the phishing filter off, so I had no problems with high CPU usage.

However, I only use the standard version of IE7. When I did install add-ons, and I only tried out two, then the browser kept crushing every hour. Reinstalling IE7 did not help. Only after redeploying Windows did I manage to get rid of the problems. I won't tell you what the two add-ons are. It will just be gratuitous bad publicity. But I am curious if the add-ons hosted by Microsoft create similar problems.

Microsoft has updated the initial IE add-ons website and has integrated with Windows Marketplace. "Browser add-ons can help personalize the way you use the Internet. The add-ons available here have been carefully screened by Microsoft and rated by users to help you select the ones that suit your needs and preferences. Start exploring them today," is Microsoft's invitation.

Along with upgrade versions for Windows Vista you will also be able to download Internet Explorer 7 add-ons, some free, but for others you will have to pay, depending on the following categories: Home, Security, Time Savers, Browsers and Entertainment.