IE7 Final Version to Be Released Before Year-End

According to reports, Microsoft will officially release the Internet Explorer 7 browser by the end of this year through a high-priority automatic update.

Gary Schare, Microsoft's IE product manager, refused to disclose the exact release date but stated that it would be officially launched at some point during the fourth quarter of this year.

The final test version of IE7, Beta 3, has already been released. The RC version is expected to be available at the end of September, but there won't be any major changes—just bug fixes and minor adjustments to the program.

After the official release of IE7, IE6 will continue to be supported. However, Microsoft recommends that IE users upgrade as soon as possible because the older version contains too many bugs and requires a series of security patches.