Windows Internet Explorer 8 Expert Zone Chat (June 19, 2008)

Chat Topic: Windows Internet Explorer 8 Expert Zone Chat
Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity.

Introductions:

Daniel (Moderator):
Hello everyone- thanks for coming to your Internet Explorer 8 chat this morning. Let's get started! But first, I'd like to have our Experts introduce themselves::

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, I’m Allison and I work on the Technical Beta Program.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, my name is John Hrvatin and I'm the program manager for the IE8 Developer Tools.

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi! My name is Kristen and I work on the IE Feedback and Release team.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Matt, Program Manager for Extensibility and Protected Mode.

Matt H [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, my name is Matt (the other Matt) and I work on Enterprise deployments and Security issues.

Cyra (Expert):
Hello, Cyra Richardson here. Lead Program Manager for the Service Integration Team (Activities and Web Slices)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Chris Wilson. I'm the Platform Architect for IE.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Hi! I am Harel Williams and I am a PM on Layout/Rendering.

Doug [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What kind of cake did you send to the Firefox devs?
A: not exactly sure, but it was reportedly delicious.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Disabling Flash by default (i.e. removing the * in addons manager) seems to make ie8 very slow on sites that use Flash. Is this know perf issue?
A: It is not a known perf issue, but we will investigate it. Thanks!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Considering the competing browser teams' (gecko/webkit/opera) pace of development and the gap between competing browsers feature set and IE's, are you actually closing in onthe competition or is the gap widening ?
A: I think we all have different "shapes" of our feature sets. I think there are areas we're ahead (security, editing), and areas that others are leading today (e.g. graphics). I think we're carefully choosing areas and catching up, and surpassing in some areas (e.g. CSS2.1) that we're been behiind in previously.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Did you ever consider a Firefox-like extension mechanism (JS + XML) instead of native component, especially since the former seems to encourage plugin dev. and is less error-prone.
A: Thanks for the suggestion! We always appreciate feature ideas.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can we have better accessibility options for IE8, namely the ability to browse the web with the keyboard (other than with the Tab key)? Typing link names would be a good option...
A: I think the feature you are referring to is caret browsing. Thanks for the suggestion! We'll definitely take it back to our team for discussion.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why does Internet Explorer copy the files after the download is complete? Moving would be much faster when the temporary internet files folder is on the same volume as the download target folder.
A: Because IE takes precautions against malicious files being downloaded, it first moves a file into a low rights folder and applies the mark of the web. This is essential to avoid scenarios such as "carpet bombing." More information on the mark of the web can be found on MSDN

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Before dusting of Trident to restart development on IE, did you consider joining forces with one of the competing render engines' (gecko/webkit) development teams (I'm sure they would have welcomed the help)? if so: why choose Trident and if not: why not ?
A: We certainly discussed it internally; however, we are responsible for our users' security and experience in the end, and I think other rendering engines would not have wanted us making some hard decisions there for them. In addition, by that time we'd done a lot of deep security review, and concluded that we understood and were in pretty good shape.

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any new feature/improvement you can announce today?
A: Hi Lionel ... we announce features within the IE Blog as soon as we can, and announced at TechEd that the next beta will be coming in August. I would only invite you to keep watching the Blog for more feature announcements.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re Q12: It appears to actually COPY the file rather than MOVING it which is what takes so long which is what I think many users object to. It also leaves files in the TEMP folders. Or is this not technically possible?
A: It is possible, but the process we take is in the best interests of security. If you experience folder size issues, clear your temp files through the Internet Control Panel entry.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: On behalf of the commenters on the IE Blog, there has been many requests for *MEANINGFUL* answers to the following questions in regards to the IE8 RTM...(no waffling please)
A: We'll do our best.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Follow up on Q12: after the file has been downloaded and marked, what prevents you from moving it and makes you copy + delete it? I was not asking why you download it to the temp. files first, I was asking why you copy it instead of moving it.
A: Because if the move operation fails, you might end up with no file

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re Q: 23 - I don't understand why it is more secure to copy rather than move the file but I will take your word for it...
A: See my other response, its also in regards to making sure the file actually remains on the system

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question #8. Will the option to _NOT_ display the !@#$ing "about:tabs" page when opening a new tab for the 2,467th time by IE8RTM?
A: Through the IE8 Beta program on MS Connect, we are focusing our efforts on IE8 bugs. If you choose to file a suggestion through the program it will be resolved and closed as "By Design" and considered for a future release of IE. You should also receive a note through MS Connect stating the same as I mentioned above.

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How many people work in the IE team and what tasks do they have?
A: Regarding how many work on IE, and in what capacity ... the important information is that we are actively working on IE8, and are releasing the next beta in August. That's all we can say. :)

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Regarding suggestions on Connect, could you make the status information more informative when you file it for consideration in post-ie8 versions?
A: Through the IE8 Beta program on MS Connect, we are focusing our efforts on IE8 bugs. If you choose to file a suggestion through the program it will be resolved and closed as "By Design" and considered for a future release of IE. You should also receive a note through MS Connect stating the same as I mentioned above

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: 34: OK. While we're talking about downloading can we have a better downloading experience by grouping the download windows in some way? Otherwise it tends to hog my taskbar.
A: Thanks for the suggestion! We always appreciate new ideas like this.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question #6. What fix will be available for OPACITY in IE8RTM? We need to be ready for this, therefore we need details, not just a yes or no.
A: We will have the filter property functioning again by RTM, which will enable opacity again, but in standards mode you will need to use the "-ms-" prefix. Were there more specific questions about functionality?

Matt H [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Could we see improvements to the internet options interface in the future? Its advanced tab in particular is a little bit tricky to navigate. A design similar to Office Word/Excel/PowerPoint 12 would be nice, with 'horizontal' tabs and resizability.
A: Thanks for the feedback, we'll take that into account as we look at the design moving forward.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Hi guys. Are there any plans to expose a complete API to extension developers for manipulating and adding Favorites?
A: I am unaware of this, but, if there is to be, it will be posted on MSDN.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question #1. Will the end user be able to modify their toolbar chrome by IE8RTM? (e.g. be able to move the reload button to the left of the location bar)
A: The example you mentioned is a very popular suggestion. Our UX team is investigating this type of functionality as well as others. Thanks again for bringing it up!

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why don't you do nightly or weekly releases like other browser manufacturers do, even commercial ones like Opera.
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Doug [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will ie8 be for the DOM what ie7 was for CSS, i.e. a first step to address the main problems, but the large ones will be for a later release?
A: Not exactly: we have also added a number of features to the DOM for IE8 like DOM Storage, the Selectors API and Cross Document Messaging as we announced in our Beta 1. Certainly we did not manage to get in everything that we wanted, but CSS 2.1 was not our sole focus for this release. Hope that helps.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question 19. - Why does IE7 have a checkbox on the "about:tabs" page that says "Don't show this page again", yet in IE8 there is no way to turn this off?
A: you can turn it off in IE8. Open Tools->Internet Options. On the 'General' tab, click 'Settings' in the 'Tabs' section. There's a drop-down that lets you choose what to use on new tabs.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: There used to be an IE/Mac version but it used a different engine (Tasman), is Trident at all portable (and if not: why?) and if so, will there be a PocketIE powered by Trident ?
A: We provide VPCs that have IE8 preloaded which you should be able to load on your Mac. You can also bootcamp Windows :) PIE has traditionally been powered by trident.

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why don't you do nightly or weekly releases like other browser manufacturers do, even commercial ones like Opera.
A: IE is an integral part of Windows, and cannot be easily removed from the OS. Even if it was possible, we perform compatibility testing with 1000's of applications and websites before each public release, and have a high standard of quality that we need to maintain in the product.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Regarding LCIE architecture changes. It appears cookies that were specific to each instance of iexplore.exe are now "global," i.e., there is only one value for the cookie no matter how many instances of IE8 you start. Can we get the old behavior back?
A: We're working on getting all LCIE issues fixed, yes.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How about explicit reference to the real .html source URL in saved .mht file's properties. It will be much easier to know the actual URL of saved .mht file offline if it can be viewed from its properties.
A: that's a good suggestion. we'll take a look. thanks!

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question #8. Will the option to _NOT_ display the !@#$ing "about:tabs" page when opening a new tab for the 2,467th time by IE8RTM?
A: Incorrect answer associated with this question the first time :) If you go to tools>internet options>Tab Settings>New Tab Page, in the dropdown you will see the option to select what you want displayed of the following choices for a new tab: Blank, New Tab Page or Homepage.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will the Google Maps problem be fixed for Beta 2?
A: Sort of. Google is handing us content that expects us to act like IE7 in standards mode, so they'll need to update. The issue of "Emulate IE7 doesn't fix Google Maps" is fixed, though. (You can, even in Beta 1, go in to the Developer tools and select IE7 strict and it will work.)

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: About the rendering engine, can we have better image resizing please? It would be a useful development tool if image resizing didn't look rubbish. Safari would be an exemplar browser for this...
A: In IE7 we were using bicubic to do image scaling for zoom. IE8 will be on parity with IE7 in this regard.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: QUESTION 21.) In IE8 Beta 1 there was a regression where *ALL* text on a page showed the "arrow" cursor, rather than the "carat" cursor. (the "I") Can we pressume that this will be properly fixed in public release of IE8?!
A: The editor - which handles contentEditable, designMode, selection, etc. - needs to be rewired to the new rendering engine and this (clearly) wasn't finished in beta 1. we're finishing this up so editing in IE8 standards mode will match IE7 standards mode.

Doug [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there plans to further depricate the IE menu bar? In IE7 you have to hit ALT to see it, will you be removing it completely?
A: Not at this time. This will continue to work as it did in IE7 modulo any feedback that we might receive from the community.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Regarding page zoom, can we have controls remain in alignment with the rest of the page when the page is zoomed? For some reason form controls tend to mess up with zooming.
A: We are aware of some zooming bugs with controls. We are working on fixing them. Thanks!

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will IE8 still be able to operate in SDI mode?
A: Could you clarify which SDI acronym you're referring to here?

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I personally like the new menu-less design of IE7(and 8) but often when I alt+tab, the menu pops up anyway, for those who want to kill off that bar for good, can there be an option to disable the pop-up?
A: there's a policy setting that allows IT admins to disable it. you can access it by run->gpedit.msc. under user configuration\Windows components\Internet Explorer, find the policy "turn on menu bar by default" and disable it.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Sidebar: Does Chris Wilson plan to post anything to his blog (Albatros!) in 2008? ;-)
A: Probably. I've been Twittering a lot lately, and I had some personal reasons that I stopped blogging for a while. I do plan to restart, though.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: 64: single document inferface mode where tabs are disabled and it adopts the mode of IE6
A: You can turn off tabbed browsing and get an SDI window by turning off tabs through Internet Options

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Regarding image resizing, I note that you have a good interpolation algorithm (bicubic) but the rules to enable it are quirky, and it is often disabled (no explicit activation, no zoom). Why? For compatibility??!
A: Are you referring to the -ms-interpolation property? The image resizing behavior you see in beta 1 will most likely not be what you'll see in beta 2 and RTM. We are working on improvements. However, there are always performance trade-offs when you are choosing between interpolation algorithms with differing quality results.

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: hello i keep getting a faulty file can anyone help me receive it
A: Neither, it's an integral part of the OS ... I think we already answered your question.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Many web apps make use of iframes... as a developer, and as a surfer, I often want to "open" a frame in another tab/window. Is there any chance that such a right-click context option could be available in IE8?
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Q 36] Ok, have Google given you a date when IE 8 will be supported properly with Google Maps
A: Nope. It's hard to press them for one as well, since our behavior may still change as we improve our standards support between now and RTM. I hope, personally, that they just slap the IE7 strict meta tag on to make it work until they can get it working properly on IE8 standards mode.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re Q:55 "We are aware of some zooming bugs with controls. We are working on fixing them. Thanks!" - funny that, all the bugs in connect are marked as "can't repro"...
A: Hey Steve. Please send me links to the bugs you are referring to and I'll look into them.

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Why does it take a week or more to post the chat transcript, it's nothing more than a simple copy-paste ?
A: Prior to posting, the transcript goes through a final approval process. One week is an estimated timeline.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: DOM/Jscript: As reported in the beta newsgroup, are you aware that IE8 Zoom breaks the ability to measure the IE "viewport" window? A whitepaper explaining at: http://www.readableweb.com/forIEteam/IE8zoomanalysis.htm. Hoping for fix in Beta 2.
A: Thanks for the heads up! We are aware of this bug and are working on a fix for Beta2/RTW.

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: hello i keep getting a faulty file can anyone help me recieve it
A: Sorry, answered a diff. question on this ... is there a specific file you're d/l'ing from MSFT that's "faulty", and what is the error you're seeing?

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be any way to control the privileges of ActiveX plugins on an individual level - such as the individual volumes of ActiveX items? (I am aware of the Vista mixer but would like the ability to specifically control the ability of ActiveX plugins)
A: Individual controls can be ACL'd such that certain users can run certain controls. If you go to IEBlog and look for per-user controls, you can also limit what integrity level a control can run at by installing it from a per-user context.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: 48: In my experience IE7 tends to use nearest neighbour resizing often for smaller images. I'm not sure if this is a bug... but if IE8 really will use Bicubic that is good.
A: As mentioned earlier, there are always trade-offs between performance and quality when it comes to image interpolation. We are trying to determine the best compromise that would benefit most users. If you have any ideas on how to give users more control in this regard (beyond -ms-interpolation), please let us know!

Doug [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there going to be a User Interface change in IE 8 RTM. I heard something about it for Beta 2 but im not sure.
A: As we announced at TechEd Developer in Orlando, the second beta will be available in August. It is difficult to speculate what will be available at RTM. It depends on timing, quality, customer feedback, and so on.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In an kiosk environment, are there any new API's to log web activity such as history to a SQL database such as SQL express? I realize the most accurate monitoring would be off box packet logging of network activity.
A: The best you can do for that scenario is to write custom scripts that migrate the history items into a SQL db.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can we have an Undo Closed Tab feature similar to firefox? (I am aware of IE7pro which offers this but don't like the extension as it caused my browser to crash)
A: Thank you for the suggestion!

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: "PIE has traditionally been powered by trident." . What version ? (would ease development) And why is it so much less capable ?
A: Current PIE is powered by some port of the trident engine, but it is not sync'd with the current trident engine in development. The guys on the PIE team might be able to answer these questions better.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @Harel Williams: yes, I was refering to -ms-interpolation. Using bicubic more often would IMHO be welcome.
A: Thanks Lionel. Are you saying you would you like to see developer choice beyond -ms-interpolation?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: At this point, Internet Explorer is surely one of the most-used tools in human history. Maybe not up there with the knife and fork, but inching up fast behind the automobile, surely. What's the IE8 team's secret to keeping sane? ;)
A: Making sure we focus on our users. Lots of them like us. :) And understanding the responsibility as well as the rush of being synonymous with the Internet: http://brightkite.com/objects/9526b6763e5c62cfd39ad327239c51d47ba0fe05.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Q65) Isnt that cheating. They may never take the tag out. Isn’t it better and easier for it to be compatible with IE 8 Standards.
A: Better (in the long run) yes - in the short run, though, they still need to work on IE7 (and IE6), and IE8 standards mode is a moving target until we ship. It's best for users if they put the tag in, and take it out when IE8 ships and they can fix it.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question #9. Will the non-domain portion of the url "graying-out" feature be either customizable, or removed and fixed by IE8RTM? (this has been discussed ad-nauseum, please just remove it already)
A: Hi Steve - how would you suggest fixing the feature? are there other ways to help users quickly identify the top-level domain name that you'd prefer?

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there any further improvements in the pipeline for .net developers? In terms of making Browser Add-Ins and maybe also using IE inside other applications. The last time I had a look in to the MSDN docs, things seemed a bit.. confusing.
A: There are many good examples online about using .NET/CLR for developing add-ins for IE. codeproject.com has some great ones, and there are also some good articles on MSDN now about building C# BHOs and using IObjectWithSite. If you want to use IE objects in other applications with .NET, you can use the WebBrowser control, which is an implementation of IWebBrowser2 itself (and has many of the features that IE does, minus tabs and such).

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: IE8 release was pass ACID3???
A: ACID3 is not an important target for us either: http://shaver.off.net/diary/2008/03/27/the-missed-opportunity-of-acid-3/.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re: Q25 (orig Question 9) - I would MUCH prefer that the domain part is *Bolded* and the remaining portion of the URL is "normal" black text.
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Q 81) Ok, do you have a tracker that detects whether they are using the tag or not. Or do you have to look for it yourself.
A: We have to look.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Question #9. Will the non-domain portion of the url "graying-out" feature be either customizable, or removed and fixed by IE8RTM? (this has been discussed ad-nausium, please just remove it already)
A: we're working to improve our documentation to help with this. for example, here's an article that should help quickly find information about our CSS support: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc351024(VS.85).aspx.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: There are regression rendering issues with fieldset's and legend's https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=336258 any info on if this will be fixed by IE8RTM?
A: No update at this point. It's in our system, and we're in bug-fixing.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will you issue a list of "known issues" with regards to bugs/omissions in standards support/rendering so we developers don't spend time finding it out for ourselves ?
A: answered wrong question before: we're working to improve our documentation to help with this. for example, here's an article that should help quickly find information about our CSS support: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc351024(VS.85).aspx.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @Harel Williams: [-ms-interpolation] I think using bicubic by default for zoom=1 would make many pages look better. If perf is an issue, maybe an heuristic based on image size would help?
A: I see, so you are saying to use bicubic for image resizing that occurs when the element that contains the image doesn't equal the native size of the image. Thanks for the suggestion!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Live.com does not work in Standart mode corrrecty , it is Live.com developer mistake or ir is ie bug??
A: It's live.com being pragmatic, and handing IE content that will work in IE6 and IE7. We encourage them, of course, to migrate to IE8's better standards support, and they understand that it's cheaper for them in the long run.

Cyra (Expert):
Q: re Q60: With Vista, windows finally has proper desktop composition, also there are blurry effect on windows which uses the GPU. Doesn't vista have something like Core Image and can't you use that to speed it up ?
A: Vista uses the Windows Desktop Manager to provide the features that you are talking about. For more information on the WDM see the following DWM article - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756980.aspx. Direct X, WPF and GDI provide some of the services that you are describing. Remember however that not every machine has sufficient graphics hardware to provide hardware assist for ancillary graphics functionality.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: I know this has been talked about (and deflected) over and over, but can we get a sense of what the MSFT mindset is on SVG? I personally think it is a great technology, but the lack of full browser support makes it very hard to use in production....
A: We believe that graphics support is important, and SVG is a pretty good capture of capabilities, with lots of industry support (though the spec is big and inconsistently/incompletely implemented across browsers). It didn't make the IE8 cut.

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Regarding the "Open these tabs again next time" feature, could I a) confirm that this feature will be preent in Beta2 and b) suggest that it saves the actaul session and restores it rather than just reloading the pages (which may not exist any more e.g.)?
A: We cannot comment on features which will be coming in Beta 2, but since both IE7 and IE8 Beta 1 both offered "open these tabs again next time", I doubt you'll see that functionality removed unless there is a suitable replacement. There's been no other announcement regarding tab opening at app-open or re-open, though.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Protected mode I understand was hard work and per-tab features are going to be great. Are any plans to provide protected mode as an API to devs for their own apps? Since IE became hard, other applications have started to be targeted instead.
A: We have released the Protected Mode API improvements in the IE8 Beta1 Whitepapers. We also have feature control keys for these features that can be turned on and off per application in the registry. For information on those, search MSDN for Internet Explorer Feature Control Keys.

Doug [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re Q82, "Remember however that not every machine has sufficient graphics hardware to provide hardware assist for ancilary graphics functionality." sure, but you can fall back to the current mechanism, or is consistency a higher prio ?

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re Q55: this bug is marked closed: https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=333984
A: Hi Steve. There are no repro steps included for this bug, therefore is it closed as no repro. This is not to say this isn't an issue, we simply need an end to end scenario that reproduces the issue on your side so that we can test and validate your reported issue on our side.

Matt H [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can the IE phishing filter be collaborated with another organization like Google or PhishTank in the interests of improving safety? I think this would be in the interests of all users....
A: The Phishing Filter already uses data sources from external providers in addition to feedback and input from our many users. Other data sources are examined as necessary to enhance the quality of our service to increase the protection of users.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can we PLEASE have a facility like Firefox where typing words into the address bar gets the first result on the default search engine?
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: question 20) Will the text selection highlighting be fixed in the final IE8? If you use the zoom feature in IE7/8 text selection gets majorly distorted, starts to highlight text you didn't select, etc.
A: We are aware of bugs in text selection in general and are working on fixes for Beta2/RTW. Thanks!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Question #11. Will the IE options dialog be getting its long overdue overhaul for usability?
A: User experience functionality is coming in Beta 2 and RTM.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: What is the status of support for advanced OpenType features (e.g. ligatures, alternate glyphs) in ie?
A: It's under consideration.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is the pace of releases going to be after IE8, do you intend to slack off again like after IE6 or are you trying to get a new improved version out regularly ?
A: We are very hard at work making sure we ship quality versions of Internet Explorer.

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would very much like incremental find to be built into the browser, I consider this an essential feature, especially since ERVERY other vista app does word wheel search.
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Cyra (Expert):
Q: Re Q82, "Remember however that not every machine has sufficient graphics hardware to provide hardware assist for ancillary graphics functionality." sure, but you can fall back to the current mechanism, or is consistency a higher prio ?
A: Even when the hardware is available, there may not be sufficient memory or GPU resources to provide the acceleration. So even on systems with GPUs there will be inconsistent availability of GPU acceleration.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I noticed that the JavaScript messages returned in errors are a tad more verbose, and the dialog has had some much needed TLC applied... is there any info on the changes? (e.g. might be a good IE Blog post topic)
A: i thought we had written a blog post on this but i can't find it right now. if we haven't, we definitely should. if i get the link in the next 10 min i'll post it.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re: Q84 why zoom bug was closed... there are repro steps... grep for "Simple test case:" in the comments.
A: Hey Steve. Thanks for pointing this out again. We will review the issues listed in the bug and re-active on our side as necessary. Thanks again!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: While your emphasis is on rendering and security, could you please put resources into actaul features as well? After all the front end is what most users will see and appreciate in IE8 - I feel it deserves more development time and focus.
A: I'm presuming by "actual features" you mean user-facing, user experience features. We absolutely are doing that; Beta 1 (as we said at MIX) was a developer-targeted release, and Beta 2 will contain much more in the user experience.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would like a better solution to the security problems presented by the Javascript:Prompt() dialog than simply blocking all scripted windows, as they are necessary for back compatibility with many sites and useful besides.COuld just display domain intitle.
A: have you found the problem is not knowing if the dialog comes from IE or from the site, or is the problem usually that a site endlessly throws dialogs?

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would very much like incremental find to be built into the browser, I consider this an essential feature, especially since ERVERY other vista app does word wheel search.
A: Even Calculator? :D We're very aware of "find" scenarios, and support in other Microsoft products, and aren't finish adding features yet (so watch for Beta 2).

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Question #3. Will the remaining bugs with .setAttribute(name, value) in 'ie8 standards mode' be fixed by IE8RTM? (e.g. no more camelCaseOnly attributes)
A: We are trying to work through all those detailed issues with get/setAttribute by RTM, yes.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):Q: Question #4. Same as question 3, but specifically for inline events be fixed by IE8RTM?
e.g.
.setAttribute('onclick', 'doFoo(this);');
A: Again, it's on the list.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: DOM: Perhaps too late for IE8, but in parsing stylesheets, identifying an @media "parent" rule currently means a regex hack as there is no rule type property. Any plans to take a fresh look at this? Its a gap in what otherwise works well and painlessly.
A: Hmm. May not make IE8, but it's on the list.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can Activities please SELECT the word for the user rahter than having to actaully select the word, that is a lot of work for just looking something up I should just be able to right click a word and see the activities rather than selecting and right click.
A: that's something we should consider. personally, i usually use double-click to quickly select a word. not as easy as just right-clicking, but it works today so that's a bonus :)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: ...takes this request seriously... it is a need, not a want.
A: ack.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Q90: I don't have any problems with Javascript:Prompt but I was thinking if the origin of the prompt was known then the need to block them would not be necessary. Alerts should also have their origins identified btw...
A: yeah, this is something we're working on. there are ways malicious sites can be completely annoying and sometimes dangerous if they can get you to click the wrong thing.

Richard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is the bug where, in Vista, a minimised and re-opened window will lead to parts of the deskop showing through until it is minimised and reopened again a recognised bug that'll be fixed for IE8?
A: Is this reproducable on multiple machines? This sounds heavily-dependent upon your video card driver not refreshing that portion of the screen.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: re Q46 : "Even if it was possible (...) have a high standard of quality that we need to maintain in the product." -- If so, why did you release IE6 and IE7 ?
A: hahahah. Keep it respectful please.

Doug [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be any changes in how IE 8 can save/archive files? Many websites refuse to save in MHT or HTML complete with error messages, including ~20% of Microsoft KB articles! Printing to XPS doesn't save all data either :(
A: None in Beta 1. We are still evaluating this issue for subsequent releases.

Cyra (Expert):
Q: Is there going to be an "Activite" 'Search with Google Maps' instead of just Live and Yahoo?
A: We cannot really speculate about when Google will write an activity for Google Maps. However, the awesome thing about Activities is that anyone can write an activity - provided the back end service offers an interface. Remember that Activities is just an XML definition of an (often existing) service. If you take a look at the Google maps URL interface, I'll bet that you could write the XML wrapper for their service ;>

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Re: answer for Q:19 - Someone buy the IE team a round!.... it would be awesome if that was fixed!
A: We have a preference for Corralejo tequila, thanks. :)

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In Firefox there is a feature where alt+clicking a link sets it to download. Can IE8 have that feature too - it can't be that hard since it only invokes the Save Target As... feature
A: Thanks for the suggestion! We'll take it under consideration!

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: With whom should be talk to about getting a *permanent* public bug tracking system for Internet Explorer? in IE7 (and now IE8) development, there has not been one concise source for tracking bugs and posting test cases. I would really hope that MS....
A: We are well aware of the communities request for a public bug tracking system and we are continually considering our options for this.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Q118 / Q46 that is why the transcripts are not cut and pasted :)
A: heh. Actually, unless it's really disrespectful (lower bar than that) or obscene, we don't generally remove.

Cyra (Expert):
Q: Oh, another RSS suggestion: live bookmarks live FF2/3 would be cool
A: Thanks for the suggestion.

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Oh, another RSS suggestion: live bookmarks live FF2/3 would be cool
A: Well pass your suggestion on to the IE RSS team. Thank you!

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Have the UX team heard about the istartedsomething.com's Windows UX Taskforce? User's are hard at work there documenting stuff they'd like fixed and rating. :) There are several requests there for IE UI bugfixes and features.
A: Hey Nidonocu. Thanks for pointing us to this site. Our team is always looking for quality user feedback.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will any of the suggestions here make it into Beta 2. Or is Beta 2 near enough finished, and we will have to wait until RTM?
A: We're still improving quality by fixing bugs in Beta 2, but we're not implementing new features at this point for the Beta 2 release.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Question 17. - Will popups be fixed by IE8 RTM so that the location toolbar (if it really, really, really, really, really, are you serious?, seriously, really, really must stay in IE8).... that shows up display in a more usable manner?
A: Can you describe what's unusable in location toolbar?

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I'm getting error message stating an application failed to start because of AegisE5.dll, what should I do to fix the problem?
A: If you are concerned about the safety of a control, there are many online security sites that can help you. Castlecops.com and secuina.com can help you with this.

Cyra (Expert):
Q: Can we have Slices and Live Bookmarks available without having the space-consuming bar displayed? I want to maximize my vertical viewport space... perhaps displaying something on the side?
A: Great Idea. We'll take a look at what we could do to provide more display options for the Favorites bar.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can we have non-continuous selections in IE8? For example Ctrl+selecting more than one thing or Alt+selecting (as is the behaviour in office) which selects an area rhater than continuous text? DUe to style sheet quirkiness and tables this is really essential
A: i'd love to see this as well. as you know, our focus for IE8 has been standards features and with the new layout engine, much of our work in the editing/selection space is to make sure everything works there so this unfortunately is lower priority for this release.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: So if our needed features are not in Beta 2, we need to wait for next version of IE?
A: That depends on scope - certainly large features won't make it in after we're done with Betas.

Daniel (Moderator):
That's all the time we have for today's chat. I'd like to thank all of our guests for joining us and also thanks to our Experts for answering so many questions. The next Internet Explorer 8 chat will be on July 17th at 10am Pacific time. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/default.mspx Have a great day everyone!

Kristen [MSFT] (Expert):
Thank you for attending! Bye for now!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Thank you IE team. :)
A: Thanks!

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
Thanks! Have a good day everyone!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Thank you for flying with IEAir!

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Thanks for the questions. Bye!

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
thanks, everyone!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Aaaaaaagh! Snakes! Snakes!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
:)

Matt Crowley [MSFT] (Expert):
lol

Doug [MSFT] (Expert):
Thanks everyone. Have a great day.

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