Internet Explorer 7

Windows Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) (codenamed Rincon) is a version of Internet Explorer, a web browser for Windows. It was released by Microsoft on October 18, 2006. It was the first major update to the browser since 2001. It does not support versions of Windows earlier than Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
It is the last version of Internet Explorer to support Windows XP x64 Edition RTM and Windows Server 2003 SP1. Some portions of the underlying architecture, including the rendering engine and security framework, have been improved. New features include tabbed browsing, page zooming, an integrated search box, a feed reader, better internationalization, and improved support for web standards, although it does not pass the Acid2 or Acid3 tests. Security enhancements include a phishing filter, 256-bit stronger encryption, and a "Delete browsing history" button to easily clear private data. It is also the first version of Internet Explorer which is branded and marketed under the name 'Windows', instead of 'Microsoft'.
Support for Internet Explorer 7 ended on October 10, 2023 alongside the end of support for Windows Embedded Compact 2013. Support for Internet Explorer 7 on other Windows versions ended on January 12, 2016 when Microsoft began requiring customers to use the latest version of Internet Explorer available for each Windows version.
On February 15, 2005 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced that Microsoft was planning a new version of Internet Explorer. Both he and Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of the Internet Explorer team, cited needed security improvements as the primary reason for the new version.
The first beta of IE7 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. On the same day, Yahoo! provided a post-beta version of Internet Explorer 7 bundled with Yahoo! Toolbar and other Yahoo!-specific customizations.
In late 2007 both Internet Explorer 6 and 7 received updates. Most PC manufacturers, however, have pre-installed Internet Explorer 7 (as well as 8) on new XP PC's, especially netbooks.
On October 8, 2007, Microsoft removed the Windows Genuine Advantage component of IE7, allowing it to be downloaded and installed by those without a genuine copy of Windows.
Within a year after IE7's release (end of 2006 to end of 2007) support calls to Microsoft had decreased 10-20%.
On December 16, 2008, a security flaw was found in Internet Explorer 7 which can be exploited so that crackers can steal users' passwords. The following day, a patch was issued to fix the flaw, estimated to have affected around 10,000 websites.
As of May 2012, estimates of IE7's global market share were 1.5-5%.
With this version, Internet Explorer was renamed from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Windows Internet Explorer as part of Microsoft's rebranding of components that are included with Windows.
Internet Explorer 7 introduces the Windows RSS Platform with which it is tightly integrated and can subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds, synchronize and update them on a schedule and display them with its built-in style sheet.
Version 7 is intended to defend users from phishing as well as deceptive or malicious software, and it also features full user control of ActiveX and better security framework, including not being integrated as much with Windows as previous versions, thereby increasing security. Unlike previous versions, the Internet Explorer ActiveX control is not hosted in the Windows Explorer process, but rather it runs in its own process. It also includes bug fixes, enhancements to its support for web standards, tabbed browsing with tab preview and management, a multiple-engine search box, a web feeds reader, Internationalized Domain Name support (IDN), and antiphishing filter. On October 5, 2007, Microsoft removed the 'genuine software' validation before install, which means that all versions of Windows, whether able to pass validation or not, are able to install the browser. The integrated search box supports OpenSearch.
Internet Explorer operates in a special "Protected Mode", that runs the browser in a security sandbox that has no WRITE access to the rest of the operating system or file system. When running in Protected Mode, IE7 is a low integrity process; it cannot gain write access to files and registry keys outside of the low-integrity portions of a user's profile. This feature aims to mitigate problems whereby newly discovered flaws in the browser (or in Add-Ons hosted inside it) allowed crackers to subversively install software on the user's computer (typically spyware).
Microsoft has addressed security issues in two distinct ways: User Account Control, which forces a user to confirm any action that could affect the stability or security of the system even when logged in as an administrator, and "Protected-mode IE", which runs the web browser process with much lower permissions than the user.
The first vulnerability exclusive to Internet Explorer 7 was posted after 6 days.
Internet Explorer 7 is a component of Windows Embedded Compact 7 and Windows Embedded Compact 2013 and follows the same lifecycle, thus it will continue to be supported until October 10, 2023.
Some users have criticised the phishing filter for being too easy to circumvent. One successful method of bypassing Internet Explorer's Phishing Filter has been reported by redirecting a blacklisted web page to another, non-blacklisted page, using a server-side redirect. Until the new page is blocked as well, the attack can remain active.
This flaw means that phishers can keep links from previous emails functioning by simply moving to a new server when their original web page is blacklisted and adding a redirect.
This has been criticised as doubly serious as the presence of a phishing filter may lull users into a false sense of security when the filter can be bypassed.
Phishing filter went on to be developed into and renamed Safety Filter and then SmartScreen by Microsoft, during the development of Internet Explorer 8.
Internet Explorer 7 adds support for per-pixel alpha transparency in PNG, as well as minor improvements to HTML, CSS and DOM support. Microsoft's stated goal with version 7 was to fix the most significant bugs and areas which caused the most trouble for developers, however full compatibility with standards was postponed.
Internet Explorer 7 additionally features an update to the WinInet API. The new version has better support for IPv6, and handles hexadecimal literals in the IPv6 address. It also includes better support for Gzip and deflate compression, so that communication with a web server can be compressed and thus will require less data to be transferred. Internet Explorer Protected Mode support in WinInet is also exclusive.
Although Internet Explorer 7 is more compliant than previous versions, according to all figures it remains the least standards-compliant compared to other major browsers of the period. It does not pass the Acid2 or the Acid3 tests, two test cases designed by the Web Standards Project to verify CSS compliance.
In a 2008 MSNBC article, Tim Berners-Lee said that lack of support in Internet Explorer was responsible for holding back the widespread adoption by webmasters of several new open technology standards, specifically scalable vector graphics (SVG), supported elsewhere since 2001, but only available in Internet Explorer using a 3rd party plugin (until the release of Internet Explorer 9).
IE7 requires at least: