The final version of IE7 will probably be available this month. Microsoft plans to distribute IE7 as an automatic update in November or December. This cuts both ways. On the one hand, IE7 brings more security; on the other hand it could cause compatibility problems. Depending on the kind of users you have, it might be necessary to inform them first about the changes. If you need more time, you should consider disabling the automatic installation of IE7.

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You’ve probably heard it; Internet Explorer 7 RC1 is now available. It seems the whole blogosphere is talking about this at the moment. So I can’t help myself and contribute a word or two about it, too.

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If I remember it right, then the next version of Outlook will come with an integrated RSS reader. Perhaps there are users in your company who need a feed reader already now. If you use Outlook as a mail client, then Inclue, a free feed reader supporting RSS, ATOM and OPML, is an interesting option.

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I never understood how Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration for Windows Server 2003 improves security. It is always a risk to surf the Internet on a productive server. I guess there are not many sysops out there who do this. Sometimes, however, you want to download a driver or an update on a server. Usually you do this from reliable sources, and then Internet Explorer just keeps bugging you to add the site to the Trusted sites zone. What sense does this make? If you don’t trust the site you shouldn’t access it at all, especially not from a server. What extra security will it bring if I add it to a list of trusted sites?

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Almost all news sites are reporting it Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 is now available for download. I just had quick look at it. The first thing I check with a new web browser is its zooming function. There are so many web sites out there that use tiny fonts. It is the best way to ruin one’s eyes. You won’t believe it, but the zooming function of IE6 was the major reason why I changed first to Opera and then to Firefox. Now, it seems, IE finally got a good zooming function too. One can now enlarge the fonts of a page by pressing CTRL plus turning the mouse wheel. That also worked before with IE6, but not with all web pages. Well, I know, IE7 has some more new features. The most comprehensive reviews I saw, so far, are the ones from Paul Thurrott: [1] [2].

The title of this blog post might be a bit misleading. SiteBar is not really a social bookmark service like del.icio.us or furl.net. SiteBar is an excellent online bookmark manager which you can also download and install on your own server. All you need is a LAMP system which means that it will run in most webhosting environments. I am discussing this tool here because it’s quite useful for system administrators.

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Two years ago I blogged about a similar subject in my German blog. I discussed the advantages of Internet Explorer (IE) over Mozilla and other web browsers in a corporate environment. I concluded that IE is by far the better choice. Recently we deployed about 250 new computers and so I considered this question again. Now, Firefox is the main rival of IE. The decision was not so easy this time, but IE won again in the end.

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