Angus Kidman06 May 2009, 5:09 PM
The Windows 7 release candidate has been live for just 24 hours, but Microsoft has already pulled one feature amidst fears it could make the new OS unsuitable for netbooks.
The Windows 7 RC includes a newly enhanced version of Internet Explorer 8 which includes what the IE development team describe as "tab hang reporting" — a system for tracking whether individual tabs in IE have stopped responding. As in-browser applications become increasingly important, being able to isolate individual problem tabs is an increasingly important feature (and one promoted particularly heavily in Google's rival Chrome browser).
The "tab hang" system originally included in the Windows 7 RC version of IE8 would produce a message after seeing no response from a tab for a prolonged (though unspecified) period of time. Microsoft was conscious that getting this setting wrong could make the browsing experience annoying through constant unwanted interruptions, but decided that it was worth the risk. "Based on the initial, Microsoft-internal, data after putting this in the product, we thought the experience was unobtrusive and overall better for users because it provides more information to improve the product," the company's IEBlog noted in a post late last week.
However, that feature hasn't remained in place for long. On May 5 — less than one day after the RC was made available for general downloading — the IE team released an update that switched the feature off, apparently because it was way too over-sensitive and was reporting potential crashes when absolutely nothing had gone wrong. Or, as Microsoft put it: "We noticed that some users are being prompted to recover from hung tabs more frequently than some would like . . . based on the data we've seen so far, today we are publishing an update that turns off the additional tab hang reporting in Win7."
The problem appears particularly pronounced on lower-spec machines. Microsoft's knowledge base posting on the update notes: "On low performance computers or on computers under high load conditions, the time-out value is frequently exceeded." Given that Windows 7 is being heavily touted as a possible successor to XP on netbook machines, that's not a state of affairs that seems highly desirable. Microsoft's support note says that the issue will be resolved in Windows 7 RTM [release to manufacturing], but doesn't explain how that might be possible.
Microsoft has tried to place a positive spin on the turnaround, arguing on its blog: "The upside here is that we now have a wealth of data about the real issues that users encounter every day, and we are going to continue to work hard to address responsiveness issues up until and after Win7 RTM."
Given that many people who downloaded the software probably haven't even installed it yet, that seems a mildly optimistic assessment. One of Vista's many less than desirable features was a tendency to hang out the "not responding" message a little too readily, so it's unsurprising that Microsoft reacted quickly to avoid similar criticisms with Windows 7, which has generally received a more positive reaction from testers. Windows 7 will also be a key means of trying to push the more recent versions of IE onto a largely apathetic user base, especially in business. According to a recent Forrester Research survey, the most common business browser remains the ageing (and highly non-standards-compliant) IE6.
Nonetheless, there's a growing body of evidence that suggests that the IE team didn't feature too highly in Microsoft's planning for the RC version of Windows 7. As well as today's feature zap, Microsoft also revealed on the IE blog last week that early testers — including those who accessed the software via its TechNet and MSDN programs and an unknown quantity of people who illegally downloaded the software via BitTorrent — would not be able to make immediate use of the Compatibility View feature in IE8, as the list of affected sites hadn't been finalised for distribution with the product. That list did get released along with the latest update though.