The company is showing the latest version of its browser publicly for the first time here at the TechEd 98 show. Microsoft (MSFT) promised the new browser would be more stable than IE 4, which sometimes crashes systems, forcing users to reboot their computers.
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Microsoft said one of the new features would let users drag icons from a Web site onto another frame, including a separate part of a Web site, a Word document, or onto the desktop.
In one demonstration, a Microsoft employee visiting an online computer store dragged icons of various computer components from a main page onto both a separate Web screen and Word document. When the icons of the computer parts the employee was purchasing appeared on the other pages, information about their sizes, prices and features appeared immediately on those pages.
The company said developers can use the feature to create better e-commerce functions, such as complex shopping baskets.
Clearer error messages
Microsoft also said it would clean up its IE error messages, displaying more specific ones for developers and less cryptic ones for users.
The company also showed off its new "behavior" feature, which in effect will let developers wrap icons they've already developed on their Web pages in certain commands. For example, the feature will let developers make pictures already on their Web site "fly" on or off the page without complex coding.
And Microsoft said the upcoming IE 5 would include a feature called "snapshot," which, among other things, allows users to recall information they've submitted on Web forms when they return to that page. Right now, a blank form comes up when a user returns to a form that's been submitted.
Security a question mark
But many developers had concerns about compatibility and security in the upcoming browser. Some wondered whether the new features would allow more of their coding to be displayed publicly.
Microsoft said that developers can hide their scripting in a separate file, "so it's not easily read," and employees said they were working on more complex encryption features.
The company would not comment on the browser's compatibility with Netscape Communication Corp.'s (NSCP) Navigator, but said it would work to make IE's features interoperable with standards.
Microsoft has not given a release date for IE 5, but a test version is expected to ship in July or August. The company just released its much-hyped IE4 last fall, and the browser has since become a focal point in the government's antitrust investigation against Microsoft because of its tight integration with Windows.
During Tuesday's presentation, the company did not discuss IE 5 integration issues.
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