I've been playing with IE7 pro again for about 2 weeks. Firefox has been screwing up(same old, same old ) and I can only like opera for a few days at a time(I try to use it and then I always find something that annoys me.) So my last option was IE. The first time I tried IE7 I noticed a lot of bugs(slowed down the browser, adblocker didn't hide the places where ads were, couple of crashes) but I haven't noticed anything like that so far.

The adblocker in it has been greatly improved. It does about the same things adblock does in firefox and while the filters may not be as far through as adblock plus, I'm not seeing ads on any sites I go to.

The spell checker works as good as firefox. The mouse gestures(which has become a requirement of mine now) work just as good as anything opera or firefox has.

It ads inline search(like firefox, ctrl+F) and allows you to highlight all words searched for like firefox. Great and now essential feature for me.

The easy homepage or "speed dial" a la opera is awesome. It even one ups opera by allowing me to get the picks from my bookmarks(what the heck were they thinking at opera not to do this?). And because it has a google search box in it, I'm actually compelled to possibly use it.(still using google for now though. Hard to change sometimes).

"Clear Private Data" like feature from firefox. Another thing I really like.

It has lots of other features too but those are the ones I use. I've been used to the IE interface for some time now(actually I prefer it, especially for the way bookmarks come out of the toolbar and disappear once I select one. Also it minimizes screen use by not having as many toolbars as other browsers.)

Definitely worth the try if you haven't used it before or worth trying again if you had problems in the past with it.
I cant say I'm going to use IE forever now but right now it seems ok.
http://www.ie7pro.com/

I have it installed and it definitely improves IE7. I prefer Maxthon and Maxthon 2 though if I am going to use an IE based browser.

I dont like the newest version maxthon. The options menu tab thing sucks, the adblocker doesn't block all the stuff it used too, the search box doesn't use regular google/yahoo(uses their own ad sponsored version), and it doesn't seem as snappy as the old one either. I really dug maxthon pre firefox 1.5 because before that firefox crashed horribly(kind of like 2.0 ), was extremely slow to start up, and it didn't load lots of pages correctly.

IE7 has grown on me a lot. When I first saw it, I hated everything about it.

You can change the search in Maxthon 2 to Google or anything you want. The add blocker has filters you can download and you can create your own rules or exceptions. Maxthon 1 still works as well as ever to. Both Maxthon 1 and 2 have hundreds of addons and skins.

IE7 with IE7 Pro is not bad though.

I have it installed on IE7 Vista. I like it but it reduced the robustness of the browser - it causes crashes. I only use the adblock and spell features so it is one of those for sure.

I'm not a vista user but so far this release has been stable on xp. Hopefully they will get the vista side working soon.

I still have to use IE on my PA State Network, for whom I work, to access work from home. I need favorites tabbed, my biggest gripe with IE and I agree, something about Opera I just don't like! This IE7Pro will nag if you want to open tabs you had open during a session but can't do it without the session restore nag. Just can't see ever dumping Ff.

Regular or Pro, it's still IE... There are better alternatives around you know, like Opera and Firefox.

I dont agree. Just because software comes from the "great Borgified evil software giant who kill babies and are the source of all the worlds ills" doesnt mean it isnt top shelf. If you actually take the time to compare features and performance and security (especially SP1 Vista IE7) to alternatives your opinion would change.

I dont know about opera but I saw a statistic from mozilla that said that only like 40% of the people who try firefox keep it. That means that there is something about firefox that is making people want to use IE, so if there are people out there improving IE by adding good features than thats a good thing.

I still use IE7 and have no desire to use firefox again until v3 comes out and even then I probably wont swich unless it has some killer features.

I,m back to using IE7, I tried Opera for a while... and then Firefox.
I didn't have any real issues with Opera or Firefox, I just feel more comfortable using IE7.
Sometimes I think it's better the devil you know

Personally, been using FF for a long time, and I love it.

Yeah it's called not being bothered to learn something new or just being lazy.

Out of the box Firefox isn't really impressive. It's not loaded with features compared to IE7. So if you are a person using and liking IE7 and you decided to try Firefox chances are you won't be impressed with the basic install of it. You will probably say whats the big deal with this Firefox. If you are willing to learn about the thousands of extensions and how to install and tweak them (which I suspect most are not) than Firefox is much better than IE7 even with IE7 Pro. Out of the box Maxthon is the most full featured browser. It comes with more features than any browser out there. On top of that it also has hundreds/thousands of addons to make it even more extensible. I have no doubt that if IE did not come with Windows it would have no where near the share of the market it has. Most buy their computer and just use whats with it. I know many that think the only way to get on the internet is the little blue e on the desktop. They don't even know that it's a web browser. They just know that the little e will get them to their porn sites so they can spank their monkey all night. They have no desire to learn any more than that.

Just because you dont like something doesn't make you lazy. Firefox does have problems of its own.
Its not about how many feature/add ons that a browser has its about the ones that count. For me I want adblocking, spell checking, mouse gestures, and a minimal interface. All of which I get with IE7 without the constant problems I've had with firefox 2 since it came out.

I'm playing with the opera beta right now and its still a funky program but it is nice. Strangely opera still displays some pages really funky where IE/FF have no problems with it.

I'm not saying that because some one doesnt like IE they are lazy. If you give Firefox a good run and decide it's not for you than that is great. I am talking about the comment you made about 40% of the people trying Firefox don't keep it. Most of those probably did not give it the good try you have. They were almost certainly using IE because it came with their machine and than hear all the talk about Firefox and give it a try. They probably could not be bothered to really learn about it and what it could do with the extensions and just went back to old familiar IE. As I said Firefox is not that impressive in it's default form and unless you take the time to really learn it you won't be able to appreciate the differences between it and IE.