Microsoft has sent out invitations to an event to be held in San Francisco on February 10. According to the invites, the event will involve members of the Internet Explorer team, special guests as well as “some important news.” Since then, Microsoft has been actively soliciting feedback and has released two additional developer previews.
According to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans, the software giant is presently building copies of Internet Explorer 9 that include an “ActiveX filter” feature. The filter will allow users to control what ActiveX elements are displayed on sites they visit, furthering Microsoft’s commitment to security within its browser. Screenshots of a more recent escrow build surfaced on Friday, version 9.00.8073.6018 (WIN7_IE9_Partner.110121-2300). The screenshots revealed that Microsoft is planning a location privacy feature for IE9. Microsoft’s release candidate of Internet Explorer 9 will include a number of new enhancements from the previous public beta build.
It now appears that the actual bits for Build 9.00.8073.6010 (WIN7_IE9_Partner.110113-2300) were also leaked in the wild, illustrating some of the progress made by Microsoft since the release of the Beta last year.
In addition to the privacy enhancements, IE9 RC is also bound to feature a range of smaller changes, including new options and bug fixes.
It’s also expected of Microsoft to tweak the graphical user interface, with some UI touch-ups already visible in the IE9 RC-Escrow build.
