IE7Pro just released version 2.0 to the public, and it has a few notable new features. For starters it has been modularized which will help increase its stability, and there is also a 64-bit version available on the download page. The biggest news, however, can be summed up by looking at the screenshot above. Yep, that’s a built-in download manager! It automatically integrates into Internet Explorer 7, and as you can see from the screenshot it supports the pausing/resuming of your downloads.
They took an interesting route with the way they implemented it, but I think they did it the right way. The download manager has a System Tray icon, and by default it is always running. Even if you close the browser the download manager will still remain open. One of the benefits for this is that your downloads will continue chugging along even when the browser has been closed, but there is an option in the settings to have the download manager close after all of the downloads have been completed.
One thing I’m sure many of you are wondering is whether you can completely shutdown the download manager and resume your downloads at another time. As it turns out you can! With this you can essentially restart your computer, and still pickup where your downloads left off. Now try doing that with Internet Explorer 7 out-of-the-box.
Personally I would never use Internet Explorer 7 without the IE7Pro add-on. It actually makes IE7 bearable. :)
“Personally I would never use Internet Explorer 7 with the IE7Pro add-on.”
¿que?
Typo methinks, was about to make the same comment. He meant to say “without”
Though interestingly I’d also never use IE7 with IE7Pro, because I’d still be using IE and so the principal problem of the poor rendering engine would still be present.
Wooohoo. Firefox has been doing this for how long?
Hey dkong, actually until Fx3 (which hasn’t been released yet) you couldn’t resume downloads after restarting the browser.
No download manager is one of the big basics IE7 is missing. That’s why I’m using IE7Pro right now. It really is a great addon. However, I prefer when browsers have features built in. With a public beta of IE8 coming up, I’m hoping MS fixes some of these basic flaws. More are the lack of find as you type, and the absent bookmark search.
Then IEPro could focus more on the extras, like mouse gestures, speed dial, bookmark sync, and whatever innovation the Opera team comes up with next.
nester007x- Oh, well I didn’t really read the article in depth…I didn’t realize this lets you close the browser and keep downloads going.
I thought it was just talking about pausing and resuming downloads in general.
Personally I don’t find much use in closing Firefox when I’m downloading something. Most things I download with firefox take 5 minutes, at best…
Oops, that was a typo. I meant without as Inferno_st1ke pointed out.
That was a good one! I almost feel bad how Opera comes up with so many innovative features, and then all the other browser have add-ons that just copy off of them. I guess that’s how the world works though.
IE7Pro is single handedly bridging the gap between IE7 and Firefox.
Internet Explorer should just hire these people for their team.
You know, I’ve actually been wondering whether that is the intention of the developers. I think they might actually want to get hired, otherwise I don’t really see what the purpose is of them creating this FREE add-on.
Actually, if MS gets IE8 up to decent standards, then I’ll use IE because of the speed and stability. Firefox’s extensions both slow it down and make it instable. With a single addon like IE7pro, it’ll be a relatively stable ride.
Umm, you do realize using add-ons is optional?
That’s exactly how I see it. I know they’re optional in Fx, but that browser doesn’t have reload tab every x, speed dial, custom mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts, bookmark sync… w/out the addons. In IE, I get all that w/ 1 addon by 1 developer so it really makes it as if it was all built in (like Opera, but w/out the site compatibility issues). I just want many cool features w/out a dozen addons slowing my browser down.
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One thing that really sucks for the Opera team=
Here’s lists of the latest stable releases of the major browsers from least to greatest…
*in order of standards compliance: IE, Fx, Safari, Opera
*in order of site compatibility: Opera, Safari, Fx, IE
Looks to me like a strong negative correlation between standards compliance and site compatibility.
Exactly! Unfortunately it seems like there is just no perfect browser out there right now. I just wish that some of the developers wouldn’t be afraid to take some ideas from other browsers and implement them. I think inline spell checking is a must for me these days.
I recently installed IE7, after along hesitation, mainly for so-called security issues, though Firefox is my default browser. Still not sure I’ve done the right thing. All Microsoft products – IE in particular – are so interconnected…
After, I tried IE7Pro 2.0. Heavy. Spell check was the only true advantage I found, not worth the megabytes called, in my opinion.
I think my next system will be without Microsoft, I just can’t stand their crap any longer. Microsoft never invents anything, they look at the market, at products that work, then buy with their big fat dollars what they have been unable to accomplish by themselves.
OK, these comments go further than the topic, sorry for that.
IE7Pro does add a lot of features, but I never found that it hindered performance.
This is all stupid.
It gives rise to viruses.