What's next for Internet Explorer?
Internet Explorer 5.0 goes to a second public preview

December 18, 1998

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 has plenty of enhancements to make browsing smarter and easier*. Even though the interface doesn't look much different from Internet Explorer 4, it's not just little things that add to the experience here. Here are some of the features you can look forward to using to make your Web lifestyle simpler.

Auto-complete
Remember this from Internet Explorer 4.0? It's where the browser guesses where you want to go before you even finish typing it in the address toolbar. Now a box pops up giving you possible addresses. It's also not just limited to the address toolbar anymore - now it works in form fields as well.

Pop-up Auto-Complete box

Favorites
There's a lot to love on the Internet. Many of us have dozens of Favorites. Internet Explorer 5.0 has new features to make using Favorites easier, including a revamped way to organize them. You can import and export Netscape bookmarks, and it's smart about pages with frames too.

New way to organize your Favorites

Error Messages
Internet Explorer 5.0 has a better way of telling you about script errors. You can make it so the browser loads pages with script errors and only notifies you at the bottom of the screen.

No more requesting a page and being left with "HTTP Error - 402 Bad Request" either! Internet Explorer 5.0 will now explain the HTTP errors and give you options on what to do next.

Web-Based Mail Integration
Ever wish you could set up Internet Explorer's mail functions to automatically send mail using your MSN Hotmail account? Internet Explorer 5.0 includes the feature to use Web-based mail as your default mail client to read mail, or send new mail, links, or Web pages to others.

Search Enhancements
There's even a new search assistant to help you run better searches. In the Search bar you're already familiar with, the assistant lives to serve you.

You can enter in a word, and the Search Assistant will automatically go to the primary search engine you set it to. If you don't like what comes back, you can click a button and move on to your next-favorite search engine. Set as many as you like.

You can also search your History folder too.

Windows enhancements
Internet Explorer 5.0 turns toolbars that don't fit on the screen into pop-up menus (like the Windows Start Menu) to make it easier to get to items that otherwise wouldn't fit on your screen. 

New handling of oversized toolbars

Try it with the My Computer icon.  If you’re using IE 4, drag the My Computer icon on to your taskbar, and compare the old way of scrolling toolbars to what you see here.

If you connect to an FTP site, Internet Explorer will now display it as if it were a folder on your computer. Drag and drop your way through file transfers and your own FTP places on the Web.

Extras
But wait - there's more! Here are a few other things that might also make a difference for you:

• The toolbar is fully customizable. You can change it as easily as you can an Office 97 or 2000 toolbar.

• You can always open up a Folder bar (that left pane from the Windows Explorer) in any Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer window.

• There's more space in the status bar for displaying URLs.

• New security features make it even easier now for parents to protect their children online, including the option for making an approved and denied sites list.

• Internet Explorer 5.0 will tell you when a new version is available and give more options than before.

Automatic notification of upgrades

Down to every last detail, Internet Explorer 5.0 makes your experience on the Web faster, smoother, better. By no means consider this a definitive list of everything Internet Explorer 5.0 has. We couldn't even attempt going over all of it. More resources ahead:

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