Updated: June 12, 2000

Frequently Asked Questions

Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview - available for download at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/preview/ (the version number of the
Public Preview is 6.00.2462).

Do not download Internet Explorer 6 builds from sites other than Microsoft'
s.  Not only are builds from other sites not certified for general use, but
more importantly, builds downloaded from non Microsoft sites can easily
contain Trojan horse programs, which would put your computer and your data
at risk. The only approved site for download of Internet Explorer 6 is the
Microsoft one listed above.

Platforms Supported
Internet Explorer 6 is part of Windows XP.  It is also available as an
upgrade for users of Windows 98, and newer versions of Windows through
Windows ME, as well as Windows NT 4 SP 6a, and Windows 2000 users.

Internet Explorer 6 can not be installed on Windows 95.  Users should go to
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie501sp2.htm or
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie55sp1.htm in order to get the
latest security updates and fixes for the currently supported versions of
Internet Explorer for Windows 95.

Reporting Problems
If you run into any issues while using the Internet Explorer 6 Public
Preview, please use the Web pages at http://131.107.85.107/ie6beta/ to alert
Microsoft to these issues.  This is the only way to ensure that the problem
is examined.  It also enables Microsoft to contact you in case more
information is needed.

Status of the Product
This is a Beta product. As such, features and functionality are subject to
change before the final release.  Specifically, the privacy and cookie
management features in the Public Preview are not complete and do not
totally represent the intended functionality of the release product from an
end user perspective.

Known Problems

Below is a list of the most serious problems reported with the Public
Preview and their current status:

Blank Subject Lines in Outlook and Outlook Express Mail
This problem is fixed through the patch available at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/preview/ie6/ie6update.asp

'+' Sign Appears on Empty Folders in Explorer view
This problem has been fixed in the version currently in development.  No
workaround is available.

Unable to Print Preview after Uninstalling Internet Explorer 6, on Windows
2000 with SP 1
This problem has been fixed in the version currently in development.  No
workaround is available.

Not able to right click on Web pages.
This has not been reproducible.  We request that you provide more
information through the Beta report site.

Not able to uninstall.
We need more information on the versions installed previous to Internet
Explorer 6, as well as the operating system being used.  We request that you
provide more information through the Beta report site.  For more information
on uninstall, please read the following article
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q293/9/07.ASP.

My financial institution does not allow me access when using Internet
Explorer 6.
Traditionally financial institutions do not provide access to Beta versions
of browser.  Still, it is recommended that you send mail to your institution
so that they aware that their customers are using Internet Explorer 6 and
are ready when Internet Explorer 6 is released.

A Web site that I am visiting draws incorrectly.
We have found that there are two likely causes for this problem.  Either the
site is incorrectly identifying the version of the browser being used.  Or
the site is incorrectly using the DocType switch.  We recommend that you
contact the site and also report this through the Beta feedback site, in
case that this is a browser problem (please provide the URL).

More Information About Internet Explorer 6

General Article on Internet Explorer 6
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/essentials/whatsnew/whatsnewpublic...
.asp

Privacy/Cookie Handling Article
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/security/privacy/ie6privacyfeature...
Additional online presentations are available at
http://www.microsoft.com/winme/.

Standards and Internet Explorer 6
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/css/overview/CSSEnhancement...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/welcome/dsmsdn/dude03262001.htm

Frequent Questions and Feature Requests

What is the status of support for PNG (Portable Network Graphics) files?
PNG graphics files have been supported since Internet Explorer 4.  Internet
Explorer does have a limitation in its support, in that it does not support
the feature that allows PNG to express per pixel transparency (alpha)
values. However, the current level of support in Internet Explorer versions
4 through 6 still makes PNG a good alternative to GIF or JPEG encoded
graphics files.  Note that with Internet Explorer 5.5, Microsoft provided a
workaround to handle the limitation.  This workaround is suggested for use
in some restricted cases, such as content developers that are creating
applications or delivering content for intranet/homogenous installations.
In these scenarios, per pixel transparency for PNG files can be achieved
through the use of CSS Filters,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/filter/reference/filters/al...
eloader.asp.

I would like enhancements to the browser handling of Pop-Up browser windows.
We recommend that you read the following article
http://msdn.microsoft.com/voices/dude04232001.asp.

I would like to request support for my favorite upcoming W3C Recommendation.
Internet Explorer 6 is the most standards compliant version of Internet
Explorer, delivering full support for CSS 1 and DOM Level 1. It has a higher
level of compatibility and support for XML.  Also, it supports technologies
currently in Candidate Recommendation stage, such as SMIL 2, for multimedia
synchronization and animation, as well as P3P, for privacy.  Furthermore,
Internet Explorer 6 also includes support for features from other W3C
Recommendations as well (CSS2, DOM Level 2, XSSLT, and nearly complete
support for HTML 4).  For more information, please read the following
article http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/welcome/dsmsdn/dude03262001.htm.

How do I disable the image toolbar from appearing on my images?
End users are able to disable this feature, if they don't find it useful,
through the Tools menu/Internet Options, Advanced tab, under Multimedia,
clearing the "Enable Image Toolbar" check box. In addition, as part of their
content, content providers have two ways to disable the toolbar:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="imagetoolbar" CONTENT="no">
<IMG GALLERYIMG="no">

How do I disable smart tags from recognizing items on the pages I created?
As part of their content, content providers can disable smart tags
recognizers from being applied to their pages by specifying the following
meta tag: <meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">

More Information and Help

You can exchange information with other users of the Internet Explorer
Public Preview in the following newsgroup:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6beta.browser, at the
msnews.microsoft.com server.

We also recommend that you periodically check the Internet Explorer 6 site
for updates (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/preview/), as well as the
MSDN Online Internet Explorer Developer Center
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/) for new articles.