Frequently Asked Questions for the IE7 Beta 2 Preview

Hi, I'm Al Billings. I'm a project manager on the Internet Explorer team. I haven't posted before but you have probably seen comments from me from time to time on the blog. I'm involved in the regular work with it. Today, we have been getting a lot of questions in comments on our blog posts in response to the release of the IE7 Beta 2 Preview. I wanted to try to wrap most of these up in one post so people don't have to hunt for answers to common questions.

Questions

1. Where can I read more details on what is in the IE7 Beta 2 Preview?
   
   We will be doing a series of blog posts in the upcoming days highlighting the new features in the IE7 Beta 2 Preview with quite a bit of detail. These will answer a lot of questions about how the new features work.
   
   The Internet Explorer Developer Center contains additional information for this preview release, including a series of articles on Security and Compatibility in IE7.
   
   In addition to these, we have release notes for the preview available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/releasenotes/ which detail the changes at a high level, list known issues and discuss installation and uninstallation of the preview release.
   
   
2. What operating systems does the preview work on?
   
   This release is only for Windows XP Service Pack 2 for x86 processors as detailed on the Beta 2 Direct Page. Other versions of Windows are not supported for this preview. We expect to offer IE7 for x64 and Windows 2003 Server SP1 in a future preview.
   
   The preview has also only been released for English but can be installed on localized versions of Windows.
   
   
3. If I installed IE7 Beta 1, can I just install the Beta 2 Preview on top of it?
   
   No, the Beta 2 Preview will not let you install on top of Beta 1. If you are currently running the first Beta, it must be uninstalled first. Beta 1 can be removed by accessing Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Show Updates and finding it in the list there. Once you uninstall it, you can install the Beta 2 Preview.
   
   
4. Can I run the preview and IE6 at the same time?
   
   No, the preview is a system upgrade that replaces IE6 on your computer with the preview code.
   
   As Chris Wilson pointed out, "'IE' is actually a collection of system components - networking, browser hosting, core HTML rendering, printing, etc. When we install a new version of IE, we're installing it for all applications that use these system components - including the tiny iexplore.exe itself." Because of this, we do not support the various hacks that allow side by side running of IE6 and the IE7 Beta 2 Preview. Running with these could cause issues with the stability of a system.
   
   
5. I can't seem to get Windows Genuine Advantage to work for installation. What can I do?
   
   Please go to http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/ww/windows/default.mspx and try the steps listed there.
   Our installer for the preview used WGA and this cannot be bypassed. The Windows Genuine Advantage team wants to be sure that Windows users can install their software so they really do want to know about any issues that you may run into using WGA.
   
   
6. How do I uninstall the preview?
   
   To uninstall Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview and return to Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP
   1. Click “Start,” and then click “Control Panel.”
   2. Click “Add or Remove Programs.”
   3. Check “Show Updates” at the top of the dialog box.
   4. Scroll down the list to “Windows XP – Software Updates,” select “Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2Preview,” and then click "Change/Remove."
   If "Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview" does not exist, run %windir%\$NtUninstallie7bet2p$\spuninst\spuninst.exe. You need to have "view hidden folders" enabled. %windir% is your Windows installation directory, which is normally 'C:\Windows' on most systems.
   
   
7. I am getting an error stating that msfeeds.dll cannot be found. What do I do?
   
   Some anti-spyware and anti-virus software is known to interfere with IE7’s ability to install. We do not recommend disabling these programs and if the steps below don’t help you, we recommend that you wait until a future release in which we hope to have addressed the problem. Please don’t hesitate to send feedback (via newsgroups, email, or the feedback reporting tool) and let us know which software programs are causing this problem so we can be sure to follow up with them.
   
   The most common cause is permissions being set to read only for certain entries in the Windows registry. This has been discussed in microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general newsgroup (accessible through the web here) by Stephen Anacker. He gave this workaround for the problem:
   
   This happened because the permissions on a registry key has been changed. On install we archive all the keys which involves both reading and writing to the keys. Some application has changed the permissions on the .tif and .tiff registry keys to not allow administrator full control over the key. What we need to do is change the permissions to allow the administrator to right and archive the key. This is the workaround, it involves changing registry keys so do this at your own risk.
   1. Reboot your system to make sure any changes made by previous installation attempts are completely rolled back
   2. Go to Start then "Run" type "regedit" in the run box and enter.
   3. In regedit expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the left pane and the scroll down to the entry ".tif"
   4. Right click on the entry in the left pane, select "permissions..."
   5. In the permissions box select the "administrators" group.
   6. Click on the "Advanced" button at the lower right.
   7. Select administrators and click edit.
   8. In the next dialogue check to allow box for "full control".
   9. Repeat this with the .tiff key
   10. Save and close.
   11. Install IE7
   
   
8. Where can I report issues or give feedback?
   
   We want to hear your feedback on this release. Jason Watters posted a blog entry on how to send us feedback here. Jason says:
   
   You can post any questions or problems you have to the microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general newsgroup, either through a newsgroup reader or on the Microsoft Discussion Groups site.
   
   We also have two ways for you to submit detailed bug reports to us if the newsgroup isn’t your style. The first way to report issues directly to us is by sending email to IETell@microsoft.com. To better equip us to investigate your issue, please include a detailed description of the problem and steps to reproduce the problem (e.g. for site issues, a URL to the website and if possible a screenshot of rendering issues). General machine configuration and installed toolbars or extensions can also be useful as well, and (if you know) whether the problem occurs in IE 6.0.
   
   Also, please send your report from a valid email address so we can follow up with you if needed. We can’t commit to responding to each and every email we get, but all issues reported will be examined by the IE team in an effort to improve IE7.
   
   The second way to report issues directly to us is the Microsoft Beta Client Tool, which is a client-side tool you will need to install. Although it may look specific to Windows Vista, it can be used for submitting IE7 bugs. On the first page of the tool, just make sure you choose "This install ‘is an Internet Explorer 7 update on Windows XP’" and set Area to ‘Internet Explorer’.

I hope that this has been helpful to people in answering questions.

 - Al Billings