what's new in Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1

We are excited to announce the public availability of the Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). With this release, we're strongly encouraging web developers, enthusiasts, and IT professionals to finalize their testing and ready their environments for the final availability of Internet Explorer 7. We are confident that websites and applications that are optimized with this build will be compatible with the final version when it is released later this year. For an easy path to compatibility, we encourage technical audiences to download the free Readiness Toolkit.

Internet Explorer 7 RC1 is available for download on Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003 systems. This build is available today in English, and all localized versions of Internet Explorer 7 RC1 will be available in September, including Arabic, Finnish, German, and Japanese; French and Spanish versions will also be available for the first time in September.

The Internet Explorer 7 RC1 build includes improvements in performance, stability, security, and application compatibility. With this build, Microsoft has also made enhancements to the fit and finish of the user interface, completed CSS platform changes, added language support, and included an auto-uninstall feature in Setup, which automatically uninstalls prior betas of Internet Explorer 7, making installing the new build even easier.

As previously announced, to help our customers become more secure and up to date, Microsoft will also distribute Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates soon after the final version is released for Windows XP later this year.

Be sure to download Internet Explorer 7 RC1 today and keep the feedback coming as we get ready for the final release later this year.

Thanks again to all of you who downloaded the previous beta versions and provided us with valuable feedback to help improve the web experience.

The Internet Explorer team