Windows Internet Explorer 8 Expert Zone Chat (October 16, 2008)

Chat Topic: Windows Internet Explorer 8 Expert Zone Chat
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008

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

Introductions:

Daniel (Moderator):
Hello everyone-- thanks for coming to our Internet Explorer 8 Chat. Before we get started, I'd like to have our Experts introduce themselves...

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Hello, my name is Harel and I am a program manager on the User Experience Team, dealing with Zoom, Manage Add-Ons and the New Tab Page among other things.

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Hey, I’m Allison and I have been working on the Technical Beta Program.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
I'm Chris Wilson, Platform Architect on the IE team and person everyone loves to blame. :)

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi all! My name is Helen and I work on the User Experience for tabs and favorites.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Hello. My name is Jane Maliouta and I am the deployment PM for IE.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, my name is John Hrvatin and I'm a program manager working on developer tools.

Start of chat:

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: When in a page we right click then go to properties and certificate whenever the site is sign or not it won't work what is the error? did you notice it?
A: We haven't seen this, that I know of - do you know what the error is specifically?

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Do you have any plan for download manager? if not many user have problem that when they disconnect from internet for a while but they have downloading something then all download will gone you need a feather that when user disconnect continue download
A: IE8 includes download resume so a break in the connection won't require you to restart the download.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Microsoft Support website chat will not work good in IE8
A: Hey Reza, can you send us more details via the IE feedback site or via the report a web page tool (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110518)?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: I have a web form that uses F12 function key to submit (using javascript). Now my code breaks because of the new F12 hotkey in IE8. Is there a way to disable the IE8 F12 hotkey?
A: Unfortunately not. We'll take a look, but expect that the function keys are reserved by the OS and browser.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How can I customize the skin of IE8?
A: IE8 does not support different skins. However, you can create a custom version of IE8 using Internet Explorer Administration Kit. You can find out more about IEAK and different customizations it supports in this blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/09/22/the-ie8-ieak.aspx

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Probably a strange question: Is the "Favorites Bar" folder name the same for international versions of IE8? Or does that folder's name change based on the language?
A: The words "Favorites bar" are translated into each of the languages that we ship. So the folder's name literally means the same thing, but it will not show up in English. Hope that answers your question.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Do you have any plan to block spamming websites?
A: IE8 and IE7 include filters that block known phishing websites. IE8 also includes a filter to block sites that are known to distribute malware.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: When will we get a password manager in I.E.? Alot of other browsers already have one. I really thought we would have one in I.E.8!
A: thanks for the suggestion. what are the features of a password manager you'd find most useful?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Any chance the most voted for feature on connect (style.opacity) would get implemented so we can use a standard approach instead the faulty alpha filter. I don't get why we are getting CSS3 properties no one asked for, but not the one everyone asked for
A: We definitely want to implement opacity in the future. However, in order to do it right, so that it works across all elements, is smart about gamma, etc., we needed to spend a large effort, so it's not making it in to IE8. Filter will work as a workaround in IE8.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: the smart address bar it's so nice, but is possible has a option old address bar? The new smart...save only 5 url...
A: So glad you like the smart address bar. This is a great request - I'll pass it along to the appropriate Program Manager. Thanks for your feedback!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: What is the long term thought behind the -ms- prefix? It makes for a complicated developer story. All other browsers supports many of these styles already, and even earlier IE versions supported it, and possible future IE versions as well.
A: I'm not sure what you're asking - the -vendor- prefixing in CSS is the approved way to have vendor-specific properties. As properties become standardized, of course, we would prefer to use those instead.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What are the chances of getting a download manager for IE8? Maybe IE9 at this stage in the game?
A: Beta 2 is considered feature-complete so we have no plans to add a large feature like download manager to IE8. IE8 does large file download and resumes downloads after lost connections to provide some of the value of a full download manager. and there are many third-party download managers you can use as well.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Any donuts today? ;)
A: Why yes there are. And mimosa, courtesy of me. :)

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Where is Eric Lawrence?
A: He could not make it today. I will let him know that he was missed at today's chat :)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Hi...
A: Hello.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: What is the long term thought behind the -ms- prefix? It makes for a complicated developer story. All other browsers supports many of these styles already, and even earlier IE versions supported it, and possible future IE versions as well.
A: The blog post about this (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/09/08/microsoft-css-vendor-extensions.aspx) can do more justice than any answer I can provide in this chat, but the CSS spec outlines vendor prefixes as a way for browsers to provide CSS functionality that may not correspond exactly to the CSS specification, whether it is a partial implementation, an implementation of a property that hasn't been fully spec'd by the working group, or a property that does not exist in a specification/module at all. We use it for those reasons only.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Second, Add to Favorites dialog doesn't remember last folder I chose, so I have to select the folder every time I add several sites of the same session to the same folder.
A: Interesting request. Thanks for the feedback.

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Q:http://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=366235 <- is it really so hard to understand? Try to reproduce it!
A: Unfortunately, Connect is temporally down so I cannot see the resolution from your end, but from our end we resolved that issue “Won’t Fix”. We are focusing our resources on other issues that we believe will have a larger impact.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Sometimes when I log on to Windows live account like hotmail or password and I log out but it remain login even though I clcik logout what is the problem?
A: Are you seeing this problem consistently with IE8 Beta2? Do you have multipe tabs, windows opened? I am unable to reproduce it on my machine. I recommend clearing your history and trying again.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: is there any plan fr beta3 before RTW
A: We will have another release soon.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will there be a Beta 3? And if so, can you at this time say about when we can expect it?
A: We'll have more information about our shipping out on the blog soon.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: The Favorites/History/Feeds pane does not remember its resized size when pinned. IE7 did not have this bug.
A: True. Thanks for pointing this out.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will be there a beta 3 release of IE8?
A: (see previous responses)

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I m n't able to Logout from my Hotmail account while using IE8 Beta2...
A: Could you provide more information about the actual behavior you are seeing. Are you still logged in when you open a new window?

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Every other browser vendor are moving to a new a generation of javascript interpreters (compiled JS). Why is Microsoft still behind the curve?
A: Performance in both memory footprint, initial load time, and CPU time are all important factors when considering changes to the javascript engine, as well as compat. and MS does offer a managed javascript engine with Silverlight: http://blogs.msdn.com/jscript/archive/2007/05/04/managed-jscript-announced.aspx.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: If I make an OBJECT tag that has a DATA parameter that points to adifferent domain (different web-server or different scheme), theActiveX gets sent the HTML source for the surrounding web page,instead of the contents of the URL in the DATA parameter.
A: thanks for reporting the issue. can you please file it through the MS Connect site so we can track it properly?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Ops, I mean http://haignet.co.uk/ie8-links-unclickable-1.htm sorry.
A: I see this in beta 2. Did you file this in the feedback database?

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: I'm a small business owner, here on behalf of one of my clients. We just moved their website and email accounts to a new server, and now they cannot send email from their PC without first deleting their mobile mail profile. What to do?
A: Hey Pascazio, I am assuming the server your using is an exchange server. I would suggest checking out the exchange support site to find more information as we as ways to get in contact with members of that team: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=ph;en-us;10926&sd=gn

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: .ics files for expects chats do not work well with windows calendar, because they are all using the same UID for events. Can you get it fixed, please? (It works the first time you insert an event, but not after this).
A: Thanks for the heads up Lionel! We'll look into this ASAP.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: is beta2 is feature complete.??
A: Yes. Behavior is changing as we solidify some of our features, of course, but we're not adding significant features after beta 2.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Did you think Google publish Web Browser?
A: There had been lots of rumors of Google working on a web browser, for a number of years.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can you give some explaination about when IE8 will finish and do we have beta3 or not ? about datelineA: no, at this time we don't have anything to say about future releases and dates

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: How is the full css2.1 implementation coming along?
A: Great!

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would also like to know if there will be a beta3 of IE8.
A: Right now we don't have anything to say about future releases and dates.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: About right click , if you right click on a page and then propertise and click certificate nothing will come. in past if certificate avalable then show information and if not show could not find.it will not work in IE8 beta2
A: thanks for the issue report. can you please file it on the MS Connect site so we can track it properly? thanks!

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How about PgUp/PgDown support in View Source and text selection with cursor keys?
A: thanks for the suggestions. these are things we're looking at for the final release.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: The Win32 file IO APIs have allowed for filenames > 260 bytessince NT, if you use a \\?\ or \\?\UNC\ prefix. But no version ofIE, nor the file explorer seem to support those paths. Is thereany chance that this might get fixed?
A: These paths are supported if they are specified in the current directory. Use the "pushd" command rather than cd to change the path the current directory, and access a file from there

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I think the main feature of a password manager that I like is the ability to look at my saved passwords, hit a button, and see what the password is.
A: Thanks! knowing that helps us prioritize parts of the feature as we look at it for future versions.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: When the Protected Mode is OFF in Vista iam able to see my popup over the IE8 browser.
A: Can you explain the problem in more detail?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: @Chris Wilson, yes, I filed the bug, but am unable to give you the ID number a the database is currently offline, sorry.
A: Cool. What's your nickname on the database, and we can search for it?

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: hi to you all...i would like to program search suggestion for my website. I've seen the example on IE8 blog, which is great. Is there any whitepaper or video tutorials for it and other features?
A: Take a look at the MSDN Search Extensibility article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc848862(VS.85).aspx and IE8 Readiness Toolkit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/readiness/developers-new.aspx

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: What is up with :hover in beta 2? It's behaving very strangely on my personal page.
A: Can you provide some more details, like a demo page? Have you filed a bug on connect?

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: In IE8 , my Extension will open a popup kind of window with IE8 which is similar to Google Toolbar Notebooks and when i try to view the window is showing behind the IE8 browser in Protected Mode ON and in Vista.
A: This may be due to the changes with Loosely Coupled IE. The popup may be trying to reference the frame as the modal owner; however, the parent is the tab rather than the frame. This may be causing issues with your extension. Did you look at LCIE yet in your bug tracking for this extension?

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I have tried to do stuff via Connect and it kept saying that I needed to sign up for the beta or some such, but I will try again...
A: If you wish to be a part of making IE better by contributing great bug reports then please email us at IESO@microsoft.com and tell us a little about yourself including why you’d be a great beta tester.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: @Chris, I believe it is bug 368969. I hope it can be corrected before release.
A: Thanks!

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: please add feather in printing that user be able to chose only part of image or text in a website not whole of the website
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: A Firefox extension like this would be useful: http://videos.myspacecrony.com/useful-things/how-to-add-new-firefox-file-extensions-mime
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @Helen: You may not be able to answer this question but.... Could you explain what ClearType is being used for the screenshots in this post? :-D http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/09/30/ie8-tab-grouping.aspx
A: Interestingly I used the default cleartype. I did run the image through powerpoint to add arrows and such (to highlight certain points) - so this may have mangled the text on the image. I don't know too much about cleartype. If you have more questions, you can point them to Chris Wilson.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: There's a little problem with "tabs auto-recovery" feature: if, say, a tab hogs 100% CPU, there's no way I can easily get rid of it -- more likely the shell will also be unresposive and terminating tab process doesn't help, because it gets resurrected.
A: IE8 tries to mitigate this problem by not auto-recovering the tab if it fails 3 times, but improving the frame's ability to stay responsive when a tab hangs is a great suggestion

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: can we have more shortcut keys..!
A: Do you have any shortcut keys you would like to see?

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: When I delete all browser history,cookie ,etc all the thing still some fabican and some cookie remain in internet explorer temprory files why it will not delete all thing?
A: In IE8 beta2 we don't delete cookies and temp files created by 3rd party extensions and activeX controls. That probably explains why you are seeing some things left behind.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Which is the Internet availability date Explorer 8 finally?
A: We're still ensuring that we have a high-quality release, so we're not announcing a final release date just yet.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: ie 8 become unstable on Flash video... website
A: You may encounter instabilities as it is a beta... we are working to address a number of issues. Did you have a specific repro for this error?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Other microformats use a profile url at the head element to mark pages where they are used. Webslices do not. Will you recommend a profile URL to mark pages with slices?
A: We're still working through the Webslices spec in the community. Yes, I expect there will be a recommendation around that, but it's not quite ready yet.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: When hosting WebBrowser activeX in an add-on (toolbar or sidebar or popup window opened from add-on), the page will open in a new tab instead of the hosted browser when zones are differents between main browser and hosted browser. Is there a workaround ?
A: There are a few additions to DWebBrowserEvents2 that could be helpful. These were added as of beta1. Search on MSDN for beta 1 whitepapers and look for one called "Protected Mode Improvements"

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: What kinds of CSS2.1 and CSS3 issues are still on the table for getting fixed/implemented? If I report a CSS2.1 bug now what are the odds it will get fixed before final release? Will there be any more of CSS3 implemented (especially opacity)?
A: We don't expect to implement any more of CSS3. We are definitely still fixing CSS2.1 bugs, as we are trying to fix all CSS2.1 bugs.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How about keeping an eye on the the IE7Pro forum for absolutely great and innovative feature suggestions?
A: we try to look at many places for feature suggestions/ideas, including popular extensions like IE7Pro. many things are a great idea for certain users and we then look at whether it's broadly applicable for all users or should remain a feature added by an extension for the users who want it.

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I did ask IESO to be in the beta and got no response...I have filed tons of bugs on IE over the years...
A: Send me your email address and I'll add you :)

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: to save a webpage ctrl+s
A: @wasker, nikhil: Thanks for the suggestion! :)

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: IMHO, the most useful features in a password manager would be the ability to delete password selectively, and the ability to store passwords using windows secure storage facilities (DPAPI).
A: Hey Lionel. Great suggestions. I'll take your feedback back to the appropriate individuals on the team. Thanks!

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would like to have a ablity to save the seesion manually with user genrated name for future refrence with date and time...
A: This is an interesting idea. We'll consider it for a future IE release.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re: Q13. Thanks Helen! Is there an easy way for a 3rd party (say an extension developer like myself) to generate the localized "Favorites Bar" name?
A: I'm not quite sure, but you could try looking into SHSetLocalizedName/SHGetLocalizedName in MSDN, as well as using the IShellFolder::GetDisplayNameOf API (suggestion from developer). Hope this helps!

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: In IE8 Protected Mode my extension is not showing popup window , it is showing behind the browser and while the protected mode is off it is showing properly
A: Ill answer your second question on this.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: While Protected Mode is OFF the Extension will show a Basket kind in the right corner of the browser and in Off mode it is showing on top of the browser when it is ON the basket is not showing on the basket i am using BringToFront() method to perform this
A: Can you clarify what you mean by "basket"?

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Right click > Open frame only? This should be a two-minute fix surely, "top.location=window.location;" and it would be v. useful
A: Thanks for the suggestioN!

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: can we have IE be more social Appplcation...!! with Windows Live ID..
A: Are you asking for Windows Live ID to be more integrated with IE? Can you be more specific about what you mean by social?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: How do you guys feel about Apple's input type="search", and the placeholder attribute? I've been working with WHATWG trying to get these standardized for HTML 5.
A: The WHATWG is not a "standards" organization we can work with, since it has no patent policy. I[d recommend working with the actual HTML Working Group at the W3C.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: How come the ACcessKey for "&Translate" and "Save &Target As..." in the contextual menu of IE8B2 are the same?
A: Good catch! I will check to see if that is in the latest build as well... you may have found a bug :)

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Looking to join the Connect beta team to file a couple of bugs -- and plenty of feedback -- unfortunately I emailed IESO@microsoft.com but didn't receive a response.
A: Send me your email address, and I'll give you an invite.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any way you can prevent 3rd-party applications from installing toolbars etc wihtout having to confirm this through IE? Many users end up wtih e.g. Google Toolbars that they don't want/need just because it came with some software they didn't check.
A: hmmm...i'm not sure how we'd do this. when a user agrees to run an installation program, it has access to the machine. we could monitor the registry where apps plug into IE, but many users like toolbars and we have to balance making it easy for them to install. so we focus on making it easy to manage them within IE through things like the close button on toolbars added in IE8

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: How about put a flag of each domain when you log on to a website then show flag of it domain website and show information about it with WHOIS
A: Thanks for the suggestion!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Were you happy from publish google chrome (google web browser)? (Please....) :(
A: Actually, yes. Google's Chrome preview validated a few things that we've believed for a long time - like, that process separation for browser tabs is a good idea.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would like to see a user oriented Web slice like feature in the next release, similar to WebClip.
A: Great feature request. I will pass this on to the feature owner. Thanks for your feedback!

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: is their any UI change in RTW.??
A: we modify UI based on feedback and other issues that come up, but beta 2 is considered feature-complete

Allison [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Like the others, I emailed IESO and never got a response. It would be nice to know what the qualifications are.
A: We got behind in answering our emails from IESO. Please send me your email address, and i'll give you an invite.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Which accelerators and web slices do the IE8 team members personally use the most ?
A: We have an internal webslice for our meal card balance. That's my personal favorite. Every day before going to the cafeteria to buy lunch I can easily see how much balance I have remaining on my meal account.

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: The Adobe SVG Viewer does not currently work in IE8. Is this issue being addressed?
A: Hi -

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Btw, in IEs installer is the icon (top left) in bad quality ;) Launch the IE insaller and you will see this. I know, its not directly a bug, but I alway noticed when I installed IE8 or even IE7.
A: thanks :)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Chris Wilson: Regarding the -ms- prefix. My point is that we now have to have the same style defined twice. One for IE8 with prefix, and one without for all other browsers, probably including IE9. The prefix is fine for TRULY vendor specific stuff
A: Not totally true - the vendor prefix is supposed to be used to protect the core CSS "namespace" from arbitrary vendor additions, until the WG discusses the feature and designs the spec for the feature and its values. Over time, the vendor versions should be deprecated.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: @Matt : Sorry http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;196339&x=15&y=17 : Using this extension, load a trusted page on teh extension while in a internet zone on the tab : It will open in a new tab not in the sidebar !
A: Wow... first, that example needs to be updated (good catch) :) Let me take a look at it and get back to you in a few days. Send me your email address to mattcrow@microsoft.com and I'll give you an answer offline.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I really appreciate the VHD images you publish for the betas and for old versions of IE. It would be nicer still if the English language versions had the East Asian features enabled or easily installable. Right now you need a XP3 slipstream CD for it.
A: that's a great suggestion. thanks! i'll forward this to the people who publish those

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: @Matt : If I understand correctly the problem comes from protected/non protected mode? But new feature do no help to solve the problem : http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;196339&x=15&y=17Tr
A: (see previous answer)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: @Chris, I'm pretty sure I used 'cjhaig'.
A: Thanks!

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: What about a Save As XPS? (This is definitelty non urgent).
A: Hey Lionel, you can get that functionality by printing to the XPS writer. This comes with Vista as well as any installation of Office 2007.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Will IE8 have a best skin?
A: IE8 does not have "skinning" capabilities.

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: The Adobe SVG Viewer does not currently work in IE8. Is this issue being addressed?
A: This question acutally has two parts. Is Adobe going to support their SVG viewer in IE8? This is really better answered by Adobe. The second is if IE is looking at adding native SVG support. In IE8 we've prioritized a bunch of standards work, but unfortunately SVG support is not on that list. I can say that we've heard from many in the community that SVG support is important.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Helen [38]: actually, this is the original IE6/IE7's behavior. I'm so missing it.
A: Thanks for the feedback :)

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Regards to Chris and Matt, I meet you in the past Chat room
A: :)... regards back at ya, PDD.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: What re the restrictions on elements with class="hslice"? At least in beta 1, <li class="hslice">...</li> did not work (no webslice detected). I assume that there are other restrictions?
A: That should work, actually. Did you try it in beta 2?

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aboutinprivatejo4.png <-This also happens in no-AddOns Mode. What about fixing it?
A: thanks for reporting this! i forwarded it to the PM for InPrivate.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Please provide a "Toggle JavaScript" button for users, not just developers. Power users need it.
A: I am assuming you mean functionality that allows you to disable JavaScript per site? We currently have the ability to disable JavaScript via the Tools->Internet Options->Advanced Tab.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is it possible that you add in quicktabs (I dunno the exact english expression for it - I have a german OS) a scroll bar where I can adjust the size of the preview windows? It sould be Office 2007-like. You know, zoom in, zoom out. Like this stuff...
A: Thanks for the suggestion :)

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: is there a reason why particular key's such as F12 can no longer be canceled? our application relies on certain F-Keys and CTRL/key combinations for specific functions as we have "keyboard only" users. in earlier versions event.cancelBubble worked fine...
A: do you find this happens only with specific keys or all keys?

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: @Chris, do you know if bug 333636 regarding the HTML element <object> will be fixed? An example is at http://haignet.co.uk/object-image-map.htm where by the faces aren't clickable if defined as an image map.
A: This is on our list to get fixed, yes.

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Have you guys noticed that lots of sites (Google search is the most visible one) might not show text until you hover or click the mouse on the partially visible paragraph? Any chances to have this fixed?
A: Hi - thanks for the feedback. Yes, we are aware of the issue, which was caused by an error in "incremental update" - our notification and drawing process for web pages. We've corrected the problem in recent builds.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: error occur while watch a flah video on orkut, youtube..!! the whole system get hang because of IE8A: Can you send me a repro? mattcrow@microsoft.com

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Me also facing a prob with logout from my Hotmail account
A: I just tried it on one of our latest builds and logging out of hotmail seems to be working.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: For developing IE8 Actiivities, it would help to attribute multiple "categories" to a single activity -- at least two categories would help. Right now only one category is possible.
A: Agreed, that would be a good feature to add. :)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: @Chris Wilson @| Really? Google Chromes is not adversary for IE8? :)
A: You're presuming that competition is a bad thing. I think it's a good thing for the market, actually.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @Q92, JohnHrv: How about in that situation, IE offers a note that shows where the new toolbar came from and an instant removal option, when the user next opens up IE, such as "you've installed some software "App Name" that as added this new toolbar to IE"
A: that's a good idea. it would be hard to reliably know where it came from, but we could detect a new add-on and display a notification. thanks!

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
A: We put the "Add to favorites" button in the favorites center based on the feedback from the usability studies and SQM (monitoring mechanism for how IE8 users use IE8 features). The new location is the same amount of clicks away as it was previously and we observed that majority of the users when to favorites center first and then performed "Add to favorites" so we grouped the two actions closer together. As for the second part of your question, this is a known issue. We'll look into remembering the previous folder location in the Add to favorites dialog.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Hello!Here's the question about new Favorites features. First off, the button "Add to Favorites" isn't accessible easily, as it was in IE7. Second, Add to Favorites dialog doesn't remember last folder I chose, so I have to select the folder every time I
A: We put the "Add to favorites" button in the favorites center based on the feedback from the usability studies and SQM (monitoring mechanism for how IE8 users use IE8 features). The new location is the same amount of clicks away as it was previously and we observed that majority of the users when to favorites center first and then performed "Add to favorites" so we grouped the two actions closer together. As for the second part of your question, this is a known issue. We'll look into remembering the previous folder location in the Add to favorites dialog.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: @Chris:"Over time the vendor versions should be deprecated". The problem with IE is that that time is at least 8 years! (look at IE6 that we still have to support!). So technically we NEVER get rid of them.
A: Actually, we've never used the vendor prefix before (actually, we used it once, in IE7) - so no vendor-prefixed feature in IE is 8 years old, although MS proprietary properties that aren't prefixed are. If we add vendor properties that then move into the standard, we can move people toward those properties.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: While I fully support that you implement CSS2.1, it seems to me you forgot all about the web developers and made their life harder by going completely overboard with too strict compliance. Prefixes of existing agreed upon styles are just one example
A: I'm not sure what you mean.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: What happens when you in a future version will support opacity, and we already defined an alpha filter on an element? Will it get applied twice (because we of course have both filter and opacity specified to support xbrowser/vers). Please think long term!
A: That is a great question and one we are aware we are going to need to answer when we do support opacity. We will do our best to keep the developer community involved when that time comes. Thanks!

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: One of the (only) things I like about Google Chrome is the way the popup blocker works, suspected unwanted popups are displayed as transparent within the window frame and can be dragged out, instead of actaully blocking the popups... love that in IE!
A: Thanks for the feedback. We'll consider this for a future IE release.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Sometimes IE have checkbox that says do not show this message anymore and user may change mind and want to see the message. what is the solution like when you press F7
A: the best way i know of to do this now is to reset IE settings in the Advanced tab of the Internet Options control panel

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: IE-Team? What do you think about an AddOn competition at IE8's lounch? I think this would be a great way to promote IE8, but also to show that IE has great AddOns like FireFox, too. What do you think about it?
A: I think that really would be a great idea :) We opened up a gallery a month or so... but having a competition seems really cool :)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Why not adapt the the Silverlight implementation of (managed) Javascript and fit it in IE.next? It's fast as hell.
A: We've been looking at Javascript engines closely. The transitions back and forth between managed code (JScript.Net) and unmanaged code (IE's DOM) would be expensive, though, so it's not as much of a slam dunk as it might seem.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can you put a feather that user can group tabs manually?usr want to link some tabs toghetherA: Great request. For now, at least, you can right click on a tab and select "new tab". This will open up a new tab grouped with the first tab - and you can navigate wherever you'd like. Nice feature request, though. Thanks!

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: How are Activities and Slices chosen as "Featured Content" on ieaddons.com ?
A: Offhand, I don't know. Send me an email (mattcrow@microsoft.com) and I can ask for you later on today.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: I'm attempting to upgrade my computer and have added a 500 GB HD. I've successfully initialized the new HD and have partitioned it into an "H" volumn and an "I" volumn. What I really want to do is to rename them to C and D, then establish Win XP Pro on C
A: Congratulations on your new hard drive!

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Have you thought about pages that contain webslices that contain hAtom? (Think of all the entry-title's.) Is this supported (everything below class="hatom" being ignored), or should it be avoided?
A: Can you clarify here? Are you asking if elements with a class attribute setup such as class="hatom foo bar" will ignore foo and bar when hatom is present?

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: @Harel: I have filed it. Look at the :hover effect if you put the mouse ont the top-left button, at http://www.normalesup.org/~fourquau/pro/index.html . Isn't it broken? I don't understand what you did to poor :hover :-)
A: We do have a number of known issues with :hover in Beta 2 that are being addressed right now. Looks like your example page is working correctly in our latest builds. Thanks for filing the bug!

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any plans for a favourites 'tagging' feature in IE 8, so that users can 'tag' favourites as well as sort them in folders?
A: We have received other requests for this feature. We'll consider your feedback for a future IE release.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: IE need feather to drage tab from one window to another one, user open 2 windows and want to drage one tab to anothe rone
A: Love that feature request. Thanks for this feedback!

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In IE7 when there's a JavaScript error, the error message tells you the line number on which the error occurred, but not in which file the error occurred. If you're using several .js files on one HTML page, this sucks. Any chance this is fixed in IE8?
A: we've improved the script error reporting to make file and line number information more accurate. try it out and see what you find.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: From social IE i mean user can ablity to save their settings, UI change, sessions all while be saved in windows lIve ID and can be access anywhere, aslo like Flok..
A: You could build an add-on for this ;)

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Since addons like Flash and Silverlight do not allow downloading the streaming video, please consider adding such a feature.
A: There are implications in doing that, such as DCMA issues :)

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will chats resume in January '09?
A: Yep, we should continue, yes. We just haven't scheduled that far ahead yet. We do have another in November, too. Haven't decided on December yet.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: What about a blog post on issues involving xml namespaces in html?
A: What would you want us to cover?

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: I haven't seen the betas so I don't know: does IE8 have a decent "view source" feature yet (with line numbers and syntax highlighting) or does it still launch Notepad?
A: Yes! We added a very nice, syntax-highlighted view source window to ie8 :)

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are recording a website which crash occure in order to solve it?
A: If you've opted in to Watson (a feedback mechanism available on Windows platforms), we'll get information about the crash to help us diagnose the issue. You can also download and install the "Report a Webpage Problem" tool and submit a direct report as well. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a950a427-d16c-4379-b641-2f319a69f70d&displaylang=en. Thanks.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: i just downloaded windows vista and lost windows xp .ilost all my music that i have been downloading for two years. how do i get it back
A: Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista should retain your personal data and documents, unless you chose to do a clean install of Windows Vista in which case none of your personal data is retained. Is it only the music files that were lost, or all of your personal files?

Sharon [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I second the need for a password manager. A simple implementation that does not require double clicking and selecting the username from the form would be nice. Similar to Apple's implementation of Keychain on OS X, but using DPAPI.
A: Thanks for the feature suggestion. We'll keep it in mind.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @JohnHrv - the developer tools seriously rock in IE8. Thank you so much. I wish these could be backported to IE6, but I feel that I'm wishing for too much. :)
A: thanks! it's great to hear you like them. you're definitely not the only one asking for them on IE6. we just have to decide when it's better to spend time on making them work on IE6 versus making them work better on IE8.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: Can you do anything about the speed of opening tabs? I know, I know, 0.5 secs should be fast enough for anyone... but I am very demanding. Perhaps one idea to speed it up would be to preload one New Tab page hidden?
A: Remember, IE is a beta :) We are continually working to improve the quality and performance of the product before release.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Third, that'd be great if I could add group of tabs to an EXISTING favs folder, not create a new one.
A: Interesting. I like the request. I've never received it before. Thanks for the feedback :)

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Thanks very much for the GREAT new Zooming freature in Ie. I love how it wraps the text and just, umm, behaves logically instead of forcing horizontal scrolling. I mean REALLY thanks! My eyesight is terrible so I use ZOOM a huge amount so really appreciate
A: You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Cant you change the download experience to one window for multiple downloads instead a new window for each download? This would be great. I hate it, if I download 10 Files at the same time and I see in my taskbar 11 IE windows... please :(!
A: This is a good idea. We'll consider it for a future IE release. Thanks.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: can you put update tab feather which check tabs and if there is a new update then ask user to update them?
A: I'm not quite sure I understand the request. What do you mean by "check tab"?

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: What is the story with dynamically added VML through javascript. You added support for static VML in beta2, but will we get that fixed for the next release?
A: I am not sure what you are looking to do with VML. It is my understanding that you can add VML elements dynamically through JavaScript.

Sharon [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: If the Find-as-you-type toolbar focuses a link, can the ENTER key folllow the link? That would do wonders for Accessibility which I am sure is important to the IE team!
A: thanks for the suggestion. I'll pass it on.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How about a function in IE that checks to see if the Favourites link is still valid? (e.g. not dead) You could have sort of a que of things IE8 requires attention for. Like the unused shortcut functionality on the desktop.
A: Clean up links that are still valid or that haven't been used for a while?

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: I have dual-monitor configuration and from time to time (sorry, no 100% reproduction here) IE8 stops remembering its window position and always open on the primary screen, instead where I put it (the secondary for one).
A: Do you have more specific repro steps? A number of us here use IE8 on multi-mon and it seems to work correctly.

Sharon [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: UI of Restricted Sites (the dialog box) is very cumbersome to add and remove when hundreds of bad sites have been added. Please put some sort of search and add/remove functionality.
A: thanks for the suggestion.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Re: [Q139] - in IE7 we could no longer cancel ctrl/+ and ctrl/- so we had to use different key combinations, in IE 8 it's F12 and F7 that aren't cancelling properly - i'm afraid we've deinstalled the beta so that I can't list all key's at the moment
A: thanks for the additional information. this is always a debate on whether we need to guarantee the IE shortcut key to work for all users on all pages.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can there be a One-Click method to add the current site to Restricted Sites and refresh the page?
A: Why are you interesting in having one-click for adding to restricted sites?

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can you please allow us to put the Refresh and Stop buttons tot he left of hte address bar in teh next Beta of IE8?
A: This is possible with today's version of IE8 Beta 2! Simply right-click on the toolbar and go down to "Customize" - it should be the first option in the menu "Show stop and refresh buttons before address bar".

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: can we able 2 see more speed and performace improve in IE8 net release
A: yes, absolutely.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can you please allow us to put the Refresh and Stop buttons tot he left of hte address bar in teh next Beta of IE8?
A: you can do that in beta 2! right-click on a toolbar or blank space on the tab band, click 'Customize', and choose 'show stop and refresh before the address bar'

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: [35] Jane, can you add Add to Favorites button to the list of customizable buttons, so anyone who doesn't really comply to usability studies could have it accessible right away?A: We'll consider it for a future IE release.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I can remeber that you have a website, where I can upload "8" images which symbolizes IE's eight release. Have you a link for me :)?
A: send it to ieso@microsoft.com

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: @Chris: (namespaces & html) I understand that there were some changes in ie8, and issues to consider. Last I remember, it was possible to tie behaviors to a ns prefix but not a ns url, this may have changed? What about things like createElementNS?
A: We've improved this so that behaviors can be "installed" to a respond to a namespace url. We haven't done createElementNS (or real XML parsing as an input to IE's DOM tree) yet, though.

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: It seems like IE8 can handle all kinds of XML, but it doesn't support XHTML. What specific problems prevented XHTML support from being added to IE8? XHTML support would allow my to greatly simplify the toolchain I use for the websites I manage.
A: We actually don't (yet) natively handle XML as a input to IE's DOM tree.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Q: To Share the Cache Between the Process is there any good option i can follow to implement - i am a C# developer
A: (answered in separate chat)

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: On behalf of designers worldwide, I'd like to lobby once more for border-radius or ms-border-radius :) Many popular sites are switching over to this full-time (no hacks). Chances it will make IE8?
A: Hi - thanks for the feedback. Our priority right now is finishing up our committed to plan of full CSS 2.1 compliance. In the odd event that we have time left over in the end, we'd certainly consider this request along with others from CSS 3 (selectors, opacity, etc...). Thanks.

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: @JohnHrv: I am sure MS have done the resarch, but you may be interested: 2 of every 3 of my (non-tech-aware) friends have some kind of toolbar, and I have asked all of them non-leading questions "What is that toolbar?" and they respond "don't know." shows!
A: yes, that's my experience too. hopefully the red x 'close' button in IE8 helps.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I had to uninstall IE8B2 and revert back to IE7 on one of our machines. Now when I go to Windows Update (XP Media Edition) update fails because of a PROXY error code. But when I try to implement the 2 fixes recommended it still fails; firewall is okay.
A: This is the first I am hearing about this issue. At which point does Windows update fail? Did you reboot your machine after uninstalling IE8beta2?

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Can Prompt(); work without having to display an Information Bar? I don't see why it can't just display the originating domain in the title bar like Firefox and Safari and Opera doA: Hey Chris, can you provide an example? Msg it to me since questions are closed.

Helen [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Helen, @39: Think of it as of a topic research session, that spans in several days or week -- you'll really need to grow your number of favorites from time to time, and those favorites are sitting in the same folder.
A: It makes total sense. I like the feature request :)

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: As domcat said, border-radius or -ms-border-radius would be nice
.A: Hi - Yes, feedback heard. As I responded to domcat, our priority right now is finishing up CSS 2.1 support. If we have free cycles at the end of the project, we'll certainly consider CSS 3 items. Thanks.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: why this javascript is not working in IE8?
if ( originalTipProd[i].voidValue && originalTipProd[i].voidValue == "1")
objTipProd.options.add( originalTipProd[i]);
originalTipProd – Array options
objTipProd – drop down list
New that works: if ( originalTipProd[i].voidValue && originalTipProd[i].voidValue == "1")
{
optionsAdd (originalTipProd[i], objTipProd); } function optionsAdd(item, control) {
if (!item || !control) return;
var oOption = document.
A: Can you submit a full repro to the feedback site so we can check it out? Its hard to debug this out of context.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will be any additional features different between IE8 and IE8.1 which will be in Win7?
A: The best way to find out about Win7 features is from the Win7 blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/. We will also be covering and demoing Win7 features at PDC later this month.

Sharon [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Users sometimes require quickly disable Javascript for particular page/tab. A button to toggle it on the toolbar instead of somewhere deep inside Advanced options would be useful.
A: Thanks for the suggestion.

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is important trait in IE8 ? (IE8 Final Versian)
A: We have made many investments across all areas of IE8: better platform and standards support, improved performance, reliability, security, new end user features like ULV and web slices and activities. We can't possible summarize this into one trait. :)

Scott [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will you be adding SVG support in future versions of IE?
A: Hi - We've heard the feedback from many customers that native SVG support in IE is super important. We'll certainly be taking that feedback into account when we plan the next release of IE. At this time, the planning hasn't happened yet, so I can't comment one way or the other whether support is "in" or "out". Thanks.

Matt Crowley [msft] (Expert):
Thanks guys... it's been fun, as always :)

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: i like 2 have memory management tool as, most of the time i face i prob that if single tab is n't working proparly the whole IE browser windows get unstable and i hve 2 use End Task.
A: In IE8 we have separated tab and windows processes, so if a single tab is slow, you can kill it in End Task without affecting the rest of your tabs/windows.

Daniel (Moderator):
Well we're out of time for today's chat. Thank you very much to all of our guests who joined us today as well as to our Experts for answering questions. The next IE8 chat is scheduled here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/default.mspx Have a great day everyone!

JohnHrv [MSFT] (Expert):
thanks for joining us today! great questions!

Jane [MSFT] (Expert):
Sorry we have to go now. We'll try to get to all your questions next time. Thanks for a great chat. Bye.

Sharon [MSFT] (Expert):
thanks all.

Harel Williams[MSFT] (Moderator):
Thank you all for coming. See you all very soon!

Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
bye all!

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