Internet Explorer 3.0

Quick, what does Internet Explorer (IE) mean to you? If you're like most Netscape Navigator users, you probably think of Microsoft's Web browser as just a throw-away application. IE1 and IE2 certainly paled in comparison to their arch rival, Netscape's bigger, faster, and more powerful Navigator (for information on the latest Netscape Navigator, see the sidebar, "Netscape's New Navigator."). However, Microsoft has shipped IE3, and it delivers a crushing blow to Netscape's pièce de résistance. The final version of IE3, which I review here, has a new look, expanded Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) support, optimized performance, free content offers, and a plethora of--dare I say it--cool new features.

Installing IE3
Installing the full version of IE3, a 9.8MB download, is straightforward. The setup program scans your system for existing versions of IE. If the installer finds a previous version, it puts IE3 in the same directory and renames the old version to ie#.exe, (# is the version number). By having IE3 rename your previous version, Microsoft gives you a fallback in case IE3 crashes. IE3 also scans for Netscape bookmarks and converts them to IE3 favorites. This convenience is handy if you have a lot of bookmarks. After a quick reboot, you're up and running with IE3.

A New Look
The first feature you notice is the new user interface (UI), which resembles those of Microsoft's Cinemania and Encarta. The new UI is more pleasing to the eye than Navigator's industrial-strength interface or previous versions of IE. A nice aesthetic touch is that the toolbar buttons change from monochrome to color when you move the mouse cursor over them.

The toolbar includes the standard back, forward, and home buttons, and you can have one-click access to features that are usually buried in menus. For example, the Font button lets you change font sizes without opening a dialog. Sliding toolbars, such as the Links toolbar, let you save screen space by tucking them away.

The IE3 UI is highly customizable. For example, you can remove components (such as toolbars) that are stationary in other browsers.

Frame and Plugin Support
IE3 matches Netscape Navigator 3.0 feature for feature, and Microsoft ups the ante by adding new capabilities. For example, IE3 supports frames, which Netscape first introduced, but goes further by supporting borderless and floating frames. IE3 also supports the Cascading Style Sheets standard, although the rest of the industry isn't following suit. This standard lets HTML authors and Web developers use style tags to create rich Web pages with desktop publishing-like control.

To help users migrate from Netscape to IE, Microsoft added support for Netscape plugins. My tests show that IE3 supports most major plugins, although Microsoft doesn't guarantee 100% compatibility. I downloaded five popular Netscape plugins: Shockwave for Director from Macromedia (for information about Shockwave, see Eric Shanfelt, "Shockwave Rocks Multimedia Development," September 1996), VDOLive from VDOnet, Crescendo from LiveUpdate, Adobe's Acrobat Reader, and ichat's namesake plugin. Each plugin installed and ran as smoothly as on Netscape.

ActiveX Interactive Objects
At the heart of IE3 is Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), which uses the much-hyped ActiveX controls. ActiveX is Microsoft's name for OLE Custom Controls (OCXs) modified to run over a network (in this case, the Internet or an intranet). (For information about DCOM, see Keith Pleas, "NT 4.0's Distributed Component Object Model," September 1996. For information about ActiveX, see Microsoft's ActiveX page at www.microsoft.com/ie/ie3/activex.htm.)

ActiveX objects (controls) extend a basic Web browser's capabilities. With ActiveX controls, you can embed interactive objects in static documents, as you can with Java applets. For example, real estate agents who describe a house on the market with text and pictures can now use an ActiveX control to display a 3D rendition of the house. The ActiveX control lets prospective buyers take a virtual walk through the virtual house with full freedom of movement. A good example of ActiveX in practice is XpressNet's Distance Learning site (www.xpnet.com).

Citrix's WinFrame ActiveX control lets you run a remote Windows application within the context of IE3. So if you have a sufficiently speedy connection to the Internet (or are working on an intranet), this approach can be a good alternative to NT's Remote Access Service (RAS) or to using products such as pcANYWHERE. I often use the WinFrame ActiveX control to connect to an NT Server machine in another state to remotely run database applications on that host system. I access this machine over a TCP/IP connection, so I save money because connecting to my Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a local call.

Many Netscape plugin authors have already converted their plugins to ActiveX controls. This conversion means you can view Shockwave files or watch VDOLive broadcasts from within an HTML document instead of having to spawn an external viewer.

The beauty--and potential danger--of ActiveX is that you don't have to actively seek out extensions. They automatically download and install on your system as needed. Because ActiveX controls contain executable binary code, they can make system calls. This ability to access your data leaves the door wide open for virus and trojan horse attacks because ActiveX controls download without user intervention.