IE 7

[gw] Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 was launched today for downloads. My initial review. . .

It took about 8 minutes to install. . . a little bit too long
It requires a valid Windows XP SP2 version, and a reboot.
Design: They've included all the new Vista icons of course to start you getting used to the more gradient, 3D design.

Command bar: There's a new command bar, that personally I think is quite annoying. You cannot move the command center to any other level, except for the level where all the tabs are. The only useful button I think on the command center, is the RSS feed. It automatically detects if the page you are browsing is RSS-enabled. To get back to RSS feeds however, you'll need to click on the STAR to get to your favorites, and click feeds. You can't go through the classic Favorites dropdown where all your other bookmarks are stored.

View: New to IE is a feature called Quick Tab (Ctrl+Q). It allows you to view a thumbnail of all your tabs in that window. To create a new tab, you can now only requires a single mouse click in the empty tab next to the last tab you're viewing.

Search toolbar: Similar to firefox, Microsoft added a quick search option, and the abilitiy to add more search providers. I'm surprised they included google, but it's there. As well as MTV, Wikipedia, and USA Today.

Google toolbar: Still works in IE 7 and successful in preventing unwanted popups.

Overview: All in all, good job Microsoft. My only complaint is the ability to move the command center to wherever you want and make sure you duplicate all your commands in the classic toolbar dropdown.

You can download it on the main windows ie page