December, 2008

The next public update of IE8 (for Windows Vista- and Windows XP-based operating systems as well as the Windows 7 Beta) includes improvements to Compatibility View that help end-users when they visit web sites that are not yet ready for IE8’s new, more standards-compliant defaults. This blog post describes the technical background and how this new functionality works. A Brief History of Standards, Interoperability, Compatibility, and IE8 As we improve the interoperability of Internet Explorer...

Cheers! The IE Team

Hi, my name is JP Gonzalez-Castellan and I’m the Accessibility Program Manager for IE8. The IE team has been working towards making IE8 the most accessible browser possible, and we wanted to detail some of the work we’ve done toward this end. In this post I will provide you with some background on Accessibility, I’ll cover new UI features (Caret Browsing, Find on Page, Adaptive Zoom , High DPI , etc) and also platform features (support for ARIA , support for IAccessibleEx , and support for additional...

Internet Explorer is releasing an out-of-band update available via Windows Update . Alternatively, you can receive this and all other Microsoft updates via the new Microsoft Update . I encourage you to upgrade to Microsoft Update if you haven’t already to ensure that you receive the latest updates for all Microsoft products. This update addresses one remote code execution vulnerability. The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Internet Explorer validates data binding...

As publishing and layout standards for web documents, HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1 define relatively few user experience requirements for browsers. One of them, however, mandates the ability for end users to switch among a set of mutually exclusive document styles defined by the author. This feature is known as alternate style sheets. Significantly, the end user must also be able to turn off all styling. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer did not expose this feature in the user interface until IE8 Beta...

The IE Cumulative Security Update for December 2008 is now available via Windows Update . Alternatively, you can receive this and all other Microsoft updates via the new Microsoft Update . I encourage you to upgrade to Microsoft Update if you haven’t already to ensure that you receive the latest updates for all Microsoft products. This update addresses four remote code execution vulnerabilities. The security update addresses these vulnerabilities by modifying the way that Internet Explorer validates...

After a great turnout this year, we are continuing our monthly online Expert Zone chats with the IE Team in 2009. Here is our schedule for the first half of next year: January 22 nd February 19 th March 19 th April 23 rd May 21 st June 18 th All our chats start at 10.00 PST/18.00 UTC. These chats are a great opportunity to have your questions answered and hear from members of the IE product team. In case you miss the chat, a transcript will be published afterward and available...

A few of the startups building browser Add-Ons have organized the first ever Add-On Con , to take place in Mountain View on Dec 11, 2008. We thought it was such a cool idea that we decided to co-sponsor the event (Mozilla is the other sponsor). We will be giving some sessions about extending Internet Explorer, and Mozilla and Google will be presenting about their respective web browsers. Many companies with successful Add-Ons will be sharing their stories and experiences, so it’s a great education...