Internet Explorer Chat (May 11, 2006)

Chat Topic: Internet Explorer
Chat Date: Thursday, May 11, 2006

Please Note: Portions of this Chat have been edited for clarity.

Participating Experts:
Max Stevens - Lead program manager responsible for the user interface of Internet Explorer.
Uche Enuha - Program manager on the User experience team working on Internet options, quick tabs, error pages and more...
Dave Massy – Senior Program Manager on Internet Explorer
Patrick Mann - Security test lead for IE
Phoebe Magruder - Test lead for Networking Wininet
Eric Lawrence – Program Manager for Networking
Scott Graff – Program Manager for compatibility
Tom Wylie –Test Lead for performance team
Sean Lyndersay- Lead Program Manager for RSS
Sharon Cohen – Program Manager for ActiveX controls

Useful IE Resources:
•IE Home Page http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie
•IE Team blog – http://blogs.msdn.com/ie
•IE Developer Center – http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie
•RSS team blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/

Christian (Moderator):
Hi everyone- welcome to today’s Internet Explorer chat. Your questions, comments and feedback are welcome.

Christian (Moderator):
1.This chat will last for one hour. During this hour, our Experts will respond to as many questions as they can. Please understand that there are some questions we cannot respond to due to lack of information or because the information is not yet public

Christian (Moderator):
2.We encourage you to submit questions for our Experts. To do so, type your questions in the send box, check the ‘Ask the Experts’ check box and click SEND. Questions sent directly to the Guest Chat room will not be answered by the Experts, but we encourage other community members to assist.

Christian (Moderator):
3.We ask that you stay on topic for the duration of the chat. This helps the Guests and Experts follow the conversation more easily. We invite you to ask off topic questions after this chat is over, but not during.

Christian (Moderator):
4.Please only submit your question once.

Christian (Moderator):
5.Please abide by the Chat Code of Conduct.

Introductions:

Christian (Moderator):
We are pleased to welcome our Internet Explorer Experts. I will have them introduce themselves now…

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi everybody, I'm Max Stevens, a lead PM in charge of the UI for IE. Welcome to today's chat!

Uche (Expert):
Hi, My name is Uche Enuha and i am a program Manager for the user experience team.

Patrick [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Patrick Mann - I work on security testing for IE.

Sean [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, My name is Sean Lyndersay, lead PM for RSS in IE and the Windows RSS Platform

Dave Massy (Moderator):
I'm Dave Massy a Program Manager on the IE team responsible for developer issues such as SDK documentation and the script engine.

Start of Chat:

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are you planning to further integrate the Research Panel into Internet Explorer 7? Currently, you have to open the Research Panel in order to use “Alt+Click”.A: Not at this time, no. The level of integration we have currently with the research pane will remain as is for 7. We'll consider more changes here for our next release.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I would like to know where IE7 plans on implementing encoding based image format detection, since IE6 seems to render my masked PNGs wrongA: Pharaoh, Can you be more specific? Alpha channel transparency for PNGs is now supported in IE7.

Uche (Expert):
Q: Hi Guys - my question is , I used to see favicons in IE. I don’t know what happened but they disappeared. Even under my favorites I can not see them. How do I fix this problem ? Thank you for your time
A: hey Murphy, did u delete your browsing history?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: when is the release of IE 7
A: Second half of 2006 is the most we can say about a final release date at the moment.

Uche (Expert):
A: cos that would cause u to loose your favicons

Christian (Moderator):

Just a Reminder- remember to check the “ask the experts” box before sending. Thanks!

Dave Massy (Moderator):

Q: Our server is under pressure since a few months because of this. I would appreciate any thoughts from the IE experts, thanks much.
A: RK_AI, I'm not sure what exactly you are referring to can you supply more details and a repro case?

Uche (Expert):
Q: can you give us an idea on when you think we'll see the Beta 3 release?
A: you should expect the beta 3 in the middle of this year

Uche (Expert):
Q: Do you have any donuts with you to eat?
A: unfortunately not at this point

Patrick [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would like to know what progress is being made in speeding up the time between vulnerability discovery and the time a path is created.
A: I know you won't like my answer Joe, but we need to balance a lot of conflicting interests in developing and releasing patches. We have a ton of versions/platforms/languages to test, we go through a compatibility test pass with partners to ensure we don't break their line of business apps - you get the picture. The 2 month cycle for security updates we are on seems to be a pretty good schedule for the majority of customers.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Dave Massy, my forum and CMS software only supports using the GIF extension images, so I cloaked the PNG images as GIF images by changing the extension... However, IE6 tries to load it as a GIF image and fails... Firefox and Opera view it correctly though.
A: For compatibility reasons we key off the extension type. Unfortunately many online solutions rely on extensions adn not mime types and we have to support that first. We tried to change this in XP SP2 but hit many issues where web solutions were broken.

Uche (Expert):
Q: I might have deleted my browsing history. but how do I get them back ?
A: well if u visit the sites you went to then they will come back.

Uche (Expert):
Q: my question was to the experts...opps
A: what is your question?

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: loelke: I am using WinXP SP2. Explorer.exe has aproblem that reads "The insruction at 0x00000000 references memory at 0x00000000. the meory could not be wriiten." IE6 crashes constantly. I can't get IE7 to run at all. How do I correct this error
A: This is often due to a buggy plugin. Use the Manage Addons tool in the Internet Control panel to disable any third-party browser extensions.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question about RSS feeds: If I bring up a feed, then click on one of the stories, then navigate back to the RSS page, all of the stories are marked "as read". They turn from blue to gray, even tho I haven't read them all. Is this going to be fixed?
A: Yes, you should see some changes here in our beta 3, including an ability to control when a feed is marked as read or not.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Is there any effort being made to enhance the security of ActiveX in IE7?
A: Leon, take a look at the documentation at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/IETechCol/cols/dnexpie/activex_security.asp on further improvements to ActiveX in IE7

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question about RSS feeds: If I bring up a feed, then click on one of the stories, then navigate back to the RSS page, all of the stories are marked "as read". They turn from blue to gray, even though I haven't read them all. Is this going to be fixed?
A: Enhancing the UI around this to offer a "I haven't read these yet" is being considered.

Uche (Expert):
Q: will there be any difference in IE 7 Beta to what will be in the Vista release
A: we have new features due to the implementation of Vista like protected mode, parental controls, Alpha PNG....and the list goes on

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be any speed improvements in page layout, javascript, or the user interface before the final?
A: Performance remains an issue we'll be working on until the release.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Is it possible for IE7 to contain a quirks mode and a (semi)standardscompliant mode like Firefox does, so that older sites won't break?
A: IE already contains a quirks mode and has done since IE6 if the strict docutype declaration is not present at the top of the page.

Uche (Expert):
Q: Uche - I do revisit the sites like www.msn.com but still can not see the butterfly. or www.google.com... etc etc...
A: ummm, are u running the latest build of IE??

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: can u help me in activating my windows vista build 5342
A: Sorry this is an Internet Explorer experts chat and we don't have anyone to answer off topic questions.

Uche (Expert):
Q: can you talk about planned changes between the current Beta 2 and the next Beta 3?
A: we are mostly looking at fixing bugs. do you have any specific questions?

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will it be possible to move the buttons and menu's around more like in IE6? I don't want to have a lot of buttons next to my tabs. I preferred the way it was in IE7 beta 1.
A: Unfortunately, extensibility in IE7 is not where we want it to be. We don't expect there to be many changes between now and ship, though this is definitely an area we're investigating for our next release.

Uche (Expert):
Q: uche, i have IE 6 - sorry but don't know what you mean by latest build.. ?
A: i thought you were running IE7. i suggest you upgrade to IE7 as we have made many improvements

Patrick [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Secunia lists several old issues or vulnerabilities on their website related to IE6. I was wondering if the IE team would or are going to create a site that will discuses each issue(is it critical or UI design ), and what you would rate the issue.
A: We don't want to play favorites with any particular security vendor. You can be sure that we are aware of the secunia issues and we have them on our radar along with other security issues. MSRC puts out the public advisories on current security issues.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be an option to have daily downloads or some other method of delivery for the phishing filters. Our administrators want to disable this feature when we implement due to potential network traffic increases.
A: No, there's no plan to introduce a feature like this. The average phishing site is only up about 6 hours or so, so daily downloads wouldn't protect you.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: have there been any developments/changes to how the search box is going to be handled?
A: We haven't changed our plan on how we're dealing with the search box - the best resource here is to look through our blog if you have questions, http://blogs.msdn.com/ie

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any plan to implement a combined RSS feed reader for IE7, so I can see all my feeds in one window instead of opening each individually?
A: At present, we have no plans to build a combined reader for IE directly in IE7. Other clients of the Windows RSS platform will likely offer features like this.

Uche (Expert):
Q: what MSFT doing to make sure IE is going to be the best browsers around
A: please go to our blog http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/ where we have blogged about all the great work we've done

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: sorry...i'll try again...xp won't load any personal settings - shortcuts, desktops, etc. - once i moved several files from "C" to "D"...the $35 help chat didn't work last night so i'm trying you guys
A: Sorry mack, this is an IE chat only, with members from the IE team only.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: But I can remove buttons from the right hand side? And what about the favorites center? Can I move that?
A: Yes, you can remove buttons from the command bar at the right, but no, you cannot turn of the favorites center star or the add to favorites plus sign icon.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: The public betas of IE7 have introduced a few new possible CSS hacks, such as *+html{}. Are these likely to change before the final IE7 release?
A: See the team blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/03/23/559409.aspx where it was announced that IE7 is layout complete for CSS. Please give feedback through the mechanisms outlined at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/support/default.mspx so we can continue to improve IE in future versions.

Uche (Expert):
Q: "we are mostly looking at fixing bugs. do you have any specific questions?" -- so no major functionality or layout changes in the next Beta 3?
A: no

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: where do you download IE7......
A:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: do you expect the full IE 7 release to occur before the Vista launch in Nov?
A: At this time we can't say anything more specific than we expect to have a release in the second half of this year.

Uche (Expert):
Q: where do you download IE7......
A: go to install7.com

Patrick [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Patrick [MSFT] (Expert): Q: [1] I understand how hard it was, just was wondering if there was anything that could ease the pain :) Thanks
A: MSRC started publishing security advisories to give people advance information and workarounds. Check / out http://www.microsoft.com/technet security/advisory/default.mspx

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: In addition to Quirks and Standards modes, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Konqueror have also implemented an Almost Standards mode for certain doctypes to mimic some IE behavior. As this behavior is fixed in IE, will IE also offer an Almost Standards mode?
A: I'm not sure what a mode of operation to mimic what IE already does would accomplish :)

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there anyway to open a new tab in IE7 through HTML?
A: The user is in control of tabs. No, there's no way for HTML to target a new tab; whether a new window appears or a new tab opens is up to the user's preference.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be a Linux version of IE available in the future, I know that there used to be an IE for UNIX, but perhaps IE for Linux may be a good thing... Also, you have MainWin to help you do that...
A: There are no current plans for an IE version for Linux.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Before release, will IE7 calculate canvas/body width properly with frames in standard mode (standard mode improperly triggers horizontal scroll bars)?
A: Can you provide a repro case and enter it through the feedback mechanisms at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/support/default.mspx Without a repro I'm not sure I am familiar with that issue.

Sean [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there a way for websites to utilize the RSS platform in IE7/Windows Vista?
A: No, websites cannot access the RSS platform directly (i.e. there is no access to the RSS platform from webpage script). This is for security reasons (prevents sites from reading your feed list and/or adding feeds to your feed list).

Uche (Expert):
Q: loving you all. have a great day experts ! AIR KISSES and thanks Uche...
A: thanks!!! :)

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any plan to improve the find features in IE 7 to change ctrl+f to not have the popup, maybe a sidebar like the favorites center?
A: We don't plan on any significant changes for find beyond what you see in IE7 beta 2. Please let us know what you think!

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be a capability of doing downloaded phishing filters (that administrators can set the timeline) for IE8 or future releases? Right now we won't be able to implement this critical feature at all which is worse than only having daily updates.
A: We're always taking feature suggestions for future versions, thanks.

Sean [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: is it possible to have a websites read the RSS feeds stored in IE7/Vista RSS platform so that the RSS feeds can be distributed and stored on my website?
A: See previous answer. However, it is possible to create a local application that reads the feed list and distributes it up to a web service (like, NewsGator Online). See the following link for a video that demos how this could work: http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2006/05/05/591041.aspx

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Dave Massy: The Almost Standards mode is to mimic *bugs* that IE has in certain situations. My question is will an Almost Standards mode be introduced in IE as those bugs are fixed?
A: there is no plans to increase the number of modes between "quirks" and "Strict". I think a third mode would only lead to even more confusion than we have today and not really benefit developers.

Phoebe M [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What are going to be the main differences between the Vista and XP versions of IE 7?
A: The main differences are: Parental Controls; Protected Mode, slightly different UI that display with Glass UI that are on Vista.

Uche (Expert):
Q: when the full release of IE7 does come, will it be an auto-update?
A: at this time, there is no definite answer to this question, please stay tuned

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: when the full release of IE7 does come, will it be an auto-update?
A: We are still working out the plan for how the final version of IE 7 will be deployed.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Thanks...the new browser is looking great....
A: thanks!

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Moving the search-box into a side-panel doesn't sound like a lot of work to me?
A: Thanks Alex, we'll consider revising this feature in future versions. We have gotten a lot of feedback around making our find feature a little easier to use.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Have there been changes to how activex instances are maintained in memory in IE for 6 and 7? Activex objects are completely released now it seems like ONLY IF you completely close IE. Not the case before. Looks like a serious bug to me.
A: RK, That is not the case unless the control is holding onto a resource and refusing to release it. Can you supply a repro so we can investigate as I've never seen a control such as Flash refuse to go away when you navigate away from the page.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: loelke: I am using WinXP SP2. Explorer.exe has a problem that reads "The instruction at 0x00000000 references memory at 0x00000000. The memory could not be written." IE6 crashes constantly. I can't get IE7 to run at all. How do I correct this error? What i
A: This is often due to a buggy plugin. Use the Manage Addons tool in the Internet Control panel to disable any third-party browser extensions.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any plans to allow sorting feeds other than alphabetically?
A: No, no plans to sort other then alphabetically in IE7. If we were to expand the possibilities here, what characteristics would you like to sort by?

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: im using IE beta 1. I like it very much... thanks. Is beta 2 out of PREVIEW status yet? If so ill try that too
A: IE 7 Beta 2 for XPSP2, Server 2003 SP1, and x64 Professional was released on 4/25 and is available from http://www.microsoft.com/ie. We strongly encourage you to uninstall the build you have via ARP (for Beta 1 you need to check the "Show updates" box to see it at the bottom), download Beta 2 and give it a run.

Phoebe M [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will Parental controls eventually be available in IE7 for XP SP2?
A: No, parental controls will not be available in IE7 on any downlevel platform. This is a Windows Vista feature.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Did you guys know that [you] did a fantastic job with the recent Digest Auth changes? -- WTG
A: Which changes are you referring to?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: RE: Q [38] https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?SiteID=136&FeedbackID=54419 ... has a few test cases attached.
A: thanks cooperpx. I don't knwo if we'll get to this in IE7 at this time as we have plenty of issues to work on to get to full release. I'll follow up with that part of the team though to see.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Thanks much for your reply. I am sorry but what is a 'repro'? Is there somewhere I can send it to? Thanks.
A: repro is short of reproduce, or reproduction. It's basically steps that you took to reproduce a problem.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is anyone able to answer the question poised above?
A: Loelke, please repost your question, we don't show it as active in our tool anymore.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Some things like mixtures of integer and percentage values in rgb() are accepted in IE, but should be illegal according to the current CSS standards. Will IE ever have picky issues like this fixed, or are they considered not worthwhile fixes?
A: Hi Nanobot, Limiting these formats can easily break existing web content so we have no immediate plans to change this at this time.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: It has been stated previously that IE7 will be mainly a security update and not an attempt to implement many of the W3C standards. Is it possible that IE7 will have updates to rectify this, or can one expect a future version of IE to accomplish this?
A: I'm not sure where you got that information, but it's not correct. There was a lot of work done around standards compliance, as we've discussed on the blog. http://blogs.msdn.com/ie. Stay tuned to the blog for discussion of the work we'll be doing in future releases as well.

Sean [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I had a problem where none of my feeds were being refreshed. After some digging, I found the "scheduled task" under control panel, and it wasn't running. Other people were having the same problem. Any plans to move the "refresh event" into the browser?
A: (1) We've had some issues with the scheduled tasks not running that we've fixed (we've added some self-healing code to handle some esoteric cases where the task fails to run).

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: After I installed IE7 (just two minutes ago :P ), WAnsis/NSISdl was unable to connect to the internet to download... It says connection nonexistant? Its there, and its a cable internet connection... NSISdl used IE controls to download...
A: Is this a plugin for the Nullsoft install system? What APIs does it use? My private tools written in NSIS use URLDownloadtoFile from WinINET and these still work correctly with IE7 installed.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Greetings, can you explain specifically what was done in IE7 for Closures and or memory leaks?
A: the develoepr that specifically worked on this is not available for this chat and I do not specifically know what was done to fix the closures issue in IE7. We are really interested to understand these issues though so if you can repro any issues please submit them through the feedback mechanism http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/support/default.mspx

Christian (Moderator):
Just a heads-up on time here, we’re almost halfway through today’s chat. Thanks.

Sean [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Could a "refresh all feeds" be added to the Feeds tab?
A: (this is also an answer to part 2 of the previous question). Unfortunately, we don't have this feature. We're looking it being able to get it in for IE7, but we probably won't have time. It's top of the list for the next release.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can the RSS feeds in IE7 have custom styles (CSS) applied to them by the user, or is the design set?
A: For IE7, the plan is to not support custom style sheets for the display of the feeds. Our reading view will have a set style.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: [62] For the most part IE7 has been completely busted with Digest Auth constantly challenging for account and password. Recent changes to Digest Auth has made it possible to use multiple sites using the same Realm... awesome for us web app isvs
A: It's not clear if you're saying these scenarios are still broken, or if they were resolved by Beta2? Are you saying passwords are being sent automatically across multiple hostnames when the realm string is the same?

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: Are you guys working with third party providers to improve the quality and number of addons availble for IE 7?
A: We are definitely working with third party site, extension, BHO, and application vendors that build on IE concerning IE7 compatibility issues and other issues found during the testing of IE 7. We have a new add-ons site that was released along with IE 7 Beta 2 at http://www.ieaddons.com/default.aspx?cid=home&scid=0 which has information on add-ons that work with IE 6 & IE 7. There is a process and verification that happens in order to get published on this list as well to ensure quality.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: scott... after i remove Beta 1 , I will have IE6 back, correct? Then go to the link you provided and get BETA 2 for XP SP2 and install... I will then have BETA2?

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: are there any plans to make the location of the address bar and search box configurable in IE7?
A: I mentioned previously in response to an earlier question that we know we've made a lot of tradeoffs and that there's a lot of improvement we can make for customization in IE. For 7, the level of customization available is unfortunately not going to change greatly between beta2 and when we ship. We're looking at this for our next release though.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: scott... after i remove Beta 1 , I will have IE6 back, correct? Then go to the link you provided and get BETA 2 for XP SP2 and install... I will then have BETA2?
A: Yes; uninstall older builds of IE7 to go back to IE6, then install the IE7 Beta2 build. thanks!

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: scott... after i remove Beta 1 , I will have IE6 back, correct? Then go to the link you provided and get BETA 2 for XP SP2 and install... I will then have BETA2?
A: Yup. you will be returned to IE 6 and from there you can download and install Beta 2.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Our control is pluginhostctrl - enables netscape plug-ins to work inside IE - http://www.mozilla.org/projects/plugins/plugin-host-control.html - we are stuck with a netscape plug-in that loads into IE via pluginhostctrl. THanks.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Why are there so many HTML-errors in the code for your internal pages (like the New Tab-page)? I know the pages aren't meant for use outside of IE, but it would still be a nice proof that you're working on standards-support.
A: We've got a lot of work to do to get IE7 ready for final release and this probably won't be a very high priority issue for us but thanks for pointing it out. we are committed to implementing a platform for browsing standards content as is clearly shown by the progress in IE7 that doesn't mean that we will stop browsing other content though much of which already exists on the web today.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: RE Q [71], Hi Eric. Everything, is groovy with Digest Auth in IE7. Moreso than IE6. To answer your question succinctly, Digest Auth was broken with IE7 until this past Beta 2 release.
A: Good to know. It should behave the same as IE6. Have you noticed differences?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Can we expect support for alternate stylesheets in the version of IE following IE7? It's a conformance requirement for CSS 2.1 and already supported by Firefox, Opera, and Konqueror.
A: This is something that may have to wait for the next version of IE when we expect to continue to improve our CSS support.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there any plans to keep the order of youtr favorites when exporting and importing? (This is verry annoying with huge favorites lists) It is even more annoying since I am doing a clean install of Vista and need my favorites from my XP machine.
A: Unfortunately no, we'll always alphabetically sort your favourites during export/import.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: will IE7 be the best browser for 2006
A: Yes! :)

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: Why does the Microsoft Connect site display strangely on every browser except IE6?
A: What do you mean by "display strangely"? I've been using Connect.microsoft.com with IE 7 and haven't noticed anything unusual.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: It is my repro - I am following up on the activex memory management in IE 6 and 7 question.
A: Can you submit the repro? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/support/default.mspx has the feedback mechanisms so you can submit it.

Uche (Expert):
Q: Max: Next release meaning v8?
A: meaning next release

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Microsoft Connect, via IE 7, sometimes will not allow me to log in, is this a known problem? I have no reproduction steps, it just happens occasionally. If I wait a few hours, it usually lets me in.
A: We haven't heard this issue before. Perhaps the site was particularly busy when you're not allowed in?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Forgive me for asking if it's widely known, but did IE7 adjust the way PNG's and gamma work? (I've had to remove gama chunks from pngs to allow for gradients to end and match up with a background.)
A: Can you point us to an example? we aren't expecting any gamma changes to PNG support in IE7.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What do you think about Google's complaints on your search-box? In my opinion Google is just whining, since the default provider can be changed with a few clicks. And I hate Google, by the way ;)
A: We think we've offered a good set of search extensibility for IE7 and we look forward to all search providers integrating with IE.

Uche (Expert):
Q: What do you think about Google's complaints on your search-box? In my opinion Google is just whining, since the default provider can be changed with a few clicks. And I hate Google, by the way ;)
A: thanks for sharing your opinion. as for any complaints, all we care about is that our customers are happy with what we create :)

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: would u get fired if u said no to q 82?
A: I would just have more work to do if I said no :)

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: before i go... i just uninstalled BETA1 rom APR and before it wants to remove it is telling me that a buch of hotfixes adn programs will not work properly... will that all be fixed once i reboot and go bak to IE6... then to BETA2
A: Yes. this is basically a regular warning that we present since these apps may depend on IE files. If you remove IE 7 and reinstall it, you will essentially be putting the files back in place and those apps wont' know the difference.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: i love the opensearch implemation but is there any plan to make which search provider you currently have selected to be more noticable, for instance have an icon next to the search box so you don't have to open the drop down menu to view the current one?
A: You should be seeing the name of the search provider in gray text in the actual search box itself. As soon as you start typing in the search box, it'll be removed.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: From my testing, it appears that the only changes to DOM support in IE7 were adding minWidth, maxWidth, and maxHeight to Element.style (minHeight was already there in IE6) and XMLHttpRequest changes. Where there other changes I overlooked?
A: For IE7 the main platform focus was addressing key CSS pain points that developers were feeling. This included fixing nearly every issue on www.positioniseverything.net . Improvements to DOM and JScript are definitely on our list for future versions. We'd appreciate any feedback on what you think we shoudl address first and why so we can prioritise that work.

Phoebe M [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: before i go... i just uninstalled BETA1 rom APR and before it wants to remove it is telling me that a buch of hotfixes adn programs will not work properly... will that all be fixed once i reboot and go bak to IE6... then to BETA2
A: Your programs will still work properly, however you should visit Windows update again once your install is complete and you have rebooted the system.

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: Scott Graff, the MS Connect site banner is very messed up, the images are broken to pieces and there are many blanks in the website that are filled with content in IE6... MS Connect is one of the few sites that does this...
A: Hmmmm... I'm looking at it right now with IE 7 Beta 2 and I don't see any of what you describe. Can you send me screen shots in email - Sgraff@microsoft.com?

Uche (Expert):
Q: Why haven't you made an "upgrade" option during the installation?
A: we want to make sure we start from a known state so we can reproduce issues that might occur more easily

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why haven't you made an "upgrade" option during the installation?
A: Starting from a known good state of IE6 is the best way to ensure that we get a consistent experience with good reproducibility of issues. Hence our insistence on uninstalling old ie7 builds before installing the latest.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What additional extendibility is planned before and after release, if any, for Internet Explorer 7?
A: IE is very extensible, although we need to improve our documentation here to better demonstrate this. I wrote about this topic a while back here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/09/06/461675.aspx. For future versions of IE, we're looking at enhancements and we look forward to suggestions.

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: @Microsoft employees: Microsoft's whole site doesn't always display the MS logo on anything except the main page on any browser except IE6
A: I'm not seeing that either and we haven't seem bug reports on these specific issues (this one or the connect issue). Sounds like there is more going on here then just these sites rendering funny on anything but IE 6. Can you repro this on other machines?

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: RE Q [79] Yes Eric, Digest Auth received some changes in IE7 and they were not by chance. Basically, it now works better and follows the behavior of how Basic Auth is managed. Who ever did the work, I'm most pleased!
A: Great, I'm glad to hear it.

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: I'll try Scott, but I can't promise you I'll get thru the huge system filter...
A: OK. If that doesn't work, file a bug through connect and make sure you include some screen shots.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Dave Massy: Well I think top priorities should be Dom Level 3 Core and the standard event model. (I don't need a response to this)
A: Standard event mode being DOM level 2 or DOM level 3 events. Unfortunately there are compatibility issues between the two that probably need to be investigated.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: MS states that its product development is based on customer demands. Is it generally regarded that web devs demand standards compliance as much as possible, or do you still believe there is justification in branching away from or ahead of the standards?
A: IE has a lot of "customers" including web developers and normal users who like to surf the web. Some web developers demand standards compliance, and some demand that their pages continue to work exactly the same from version to version of IE. It's always a balance.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: RE Q [74] Hi Dave! Here's a link to have ya'll know what I'm talking of. http://www.i-marco.nl/weblog/pivot/entry.php?id=186
A: thanks I'll take a look at that. from a quick read I'm not clear on what the issue is.

Patrick [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: not sure if you're the right experts, but can you give a quick summary of the benefits of using the Developer toolbar and the IEAK for IE7?
A: You can find good articles on IEAK and the developer toolbar on the IE blog:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/21/536353.aspx, http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/search.aspx?q=developer+toolbar&p=1

Christian (Moderator):
There's about 15 minutes left for today's chat.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I've noticed that toolbars don't always play nice with IE7 (location changes or become hidden when opening new tabs or browser windows). How's this being addressed?
A: If you encounter any toolbars that behave in strange ways like this in a reproducible fashion, please tell us! Go to our connect site and file the bug...

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I have a valid XP-prokey that came with my laptop, don´t think key is oem thou. Laptop broke, I figured I use the key on a newbuilt computer. Doesn´t seem to work with my cd, I can´t use my Compaq-cd for installation, can I?
A: Sorry i don't think there is anyone here who can answer that quesiton. This chat is focused on Internet Explorer and we are not able to answer quesitons on other topics.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Ok, but doesn´t oem-keys say " smth like "xxxx-oem-xxx-xxxx"? Could be anyway?
A: Keys from hardware manufacturers are almost always OEM keys. They need not contain the letters OEM.

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: Scott, its apparently working in IE7b2 now... Strange place... But are you aware of the MS Connect site image glitches?
A: No I'm not aware of any image glitches with the connect site. I use it almost daily with IE 7 and haven't noticed anything unusual about the site.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Keep up the good work, and keep killing those bugs
A: Thanks Joe

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: ok Scott... I am now on BETA 2. very nice... but I do have a question.. can i still use the GOOGLE tool bar like i was on BETA 1. I like that bar as well as IE's ?
A: Sure, you can use the Google toolbar. There may be a few bugs in the current version of the toolbar that cause problems like making the "open in new tab" menu item to go away, but other than that, it should work fine.

Sean [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How will the RSS-centre work? When I've subscribed to a feed, and browsing the web, and the feeds is updated, what will happen? Will I get a notification or a sound or anything? And what about Firefox's 'Live Bookmarks'-feature, will that be implemented?
A: After you've subscribed to a feed, the RSS platform will update them in the background. Once a feed is updated, the entry in the feeds section of the Favorites Center will be bolded. There is no sound or notification. We designed the feature to be as low-impact as possible for the user. We wanted to avoid overwhelming users with pop-ups and sounds. It is possible, however, for a developer to build an app that generates notifications when feeds are updated, using the RSS platform. For your second question, we have not implemented our support for RSS in the same way that Firefox did with the Live Bookmarks feature -- we took an approach that treats a single feed like a web page, which we think is a more useful for more types of feeds that the Live Bookmarks approach. However, we do understand that there are feeds (primarily feeds with only headlines) for which the Firefox approach is nice to have, so we will be looking into implementing something like that in the future, if there is customer demand for it.

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: ok Scott... I am now on BETA 2. very nice... but I do have a question.. can i still use the GOOGLE tool bar like i was on BETA 1. I like that bar as well as IE's ?
A: Yes you can.

Uche (Expert):
Q: If you were stranded on a desert island with only one kind of junk food to survive on for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: donuts!!!:)

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: not sure if you're the right experts, but can you give a quick summary of the benefits of using the Developer toolbar and the IEAK for IE7?
A: You can find good articles on IEAK and the developer toolbar on the IE blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/21/536353.aspx, http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/search.aspx?q=developer+toolbar&p=1

Uche (Expert):
Q: What is one feature that is in the works that you are excited about?
A: can i give more than one?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Also, apparently any wiki doesn't show up properly in IE7... The link to log into a wiki does not work and its being viewed on the left side instead of the right... For example: http://mrg.breadstickcentral.com/ has the problem...
A: There are certainly Wikis that do show properly in IE7. At a glance this looks like it could be a case of the site relying on hacks for IE6 that no longer work in IE7 as the issue that was being hacked has been addressed. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/IETechCol/cols/dnexpie/ie7_css_compat.asp has details of the issues and the readiness toolkit at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=64421 can help wrbsites prepare for IE7.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Some times when I close IE it give an error message say that IE couldn't read memory at 0x7c853, I cann't remember the exact address, This occured in both IE 6 and 7 What is that ?
A: This is usually caused by a buggy plugin like a browser helper object. Try running IE in No Add-ons mode from START | PROGRAMS | ACCESSORIES | S

Uche (Expert):
Q: I wanted to take the time to thank you all, you're doing a great job and a lot of people (at least I) are loving the new look! :) Please do these chats more often!
A: Thanks Rous, we will be having another chat in June...stay tuned

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Q: [97] ... if a png has a gradient (say top to bottom) it won't have a predictable "last pixel" ... so you have no idea what background color to use "underneath" the gradient png.
A: thanks cooper we'll take a look.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: when i click 'inbox' in live mail main window using IE6 (6.0.2900.2180) IE crashes every time, can u help me
A: This may be caused by a missing patch or a buggy IE plugin. Have you tried installing Beta 2 of IE7 to see if the problem is still around?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Where can I get the time/date for the next chat? I want it added to my Outlook 2003 Calender.
A: See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/default.mspx for the schedule of upcoming chats. IE chats usually take place on teh second Thursday of each month.

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I boughtMCE 2005 with a motherboard and CPU buty when I innstalled it there were no IE files and I could not connect with the Internet. Has anyone seen this before?
A: No, I've never seen anything like that. When you say "there were no IE files", what specifically do you mean? If you choose Start | Set Programs And Defaults, have you chosen IE as your default browser?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Need More IE chats and Xp chats.
A: IE chats are every month. See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/default.mspxfor a full chat schedule. Also see the IE team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie to keep in touch with progress on IE.

Scott Graff (Expert):
Q: Scott, I guess in any browser except the IE series has the problem with MS Connect now... Although the problem was there yesterday.. Are you aware of the image glitches in any NON-IE based browser?
A: not that I'm aware of.

Christian (Moderator):
We have about 5 minutes left for today’s chat. If you have any last minute questions, please submit them asap. The Experts will answer as many questions as they can in the time remaining. Thanks!

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I am wondering if there is any plans for Microsoft to enhance the “contenteditable” feature in IE so that it emits proper XHTML. We use the control in our product extensively, and are having a lot of difficulties with the HTML that it is emitting
A: We'll certainly be looking into that in the future as we look at full support for XHTML. It's too early to comment on specific plans at the moment though.

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Is there any documentation on the "contenteditable" feature changes/improvements in IE 7?
A: I'm not aware of any changes here in IE7. Have you noticed anything specific?

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Does Markus Mielke remind you of Rainier Wolfcastle (from the simpsons)? :)
A: :)

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: i am getting error msg NTLDR is compressed, tried to use disc to system recovery ....same error ......wont allow safe mode either
A: I'm afraid the IE team can't help you with Windows boot issues. http://support.microsoft.com offers the best information on how to get help.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I have problems with msnzone games not loading at all now and Pogo games not fitting correctly in the new pop up window when it open. Any fixs for these issues?
A: Please file these bugs on the connect site and we'll investigate!

Uche (Expert):
Q: Thank you everyone. Much appreciated.
A: thanks!!

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will IE7 allow customizable themes to be created for it (much like Firefox's themes)?
A: IE7 will not offer additional theming support beyond that provided by Windows.

Uche (Expert):
Q: Thank you all, have a great day. I hope to join the next IE7 chat, with a few more questions. :)
A: glad to hear it, we will be having our next chat in June, please check the blog for more details http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/ cheers!!!

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Experts, thank you very much for this chat, I really liked it. I'll try to be there next month!
A: Thanks for coming!

EricLaw [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: one last question, where can we get the transcript of this chat?
A: The transcript will be announced at our blog... http://blogs.msdn.com/ie. It usually takes a few days to clean up the transcript for readability.

Christian (Moderator):
Well that wraps things up for our Internet Explorer chat. Thanks to our guests for participating and asking so many great questions, and also thanks to our Experts for being here to answer them. Have a great day everyone!

Uche (Expert):
thanks all

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