New features include tabbed browsing, page zooming, an integrated search box, a feed reader, better internationalization, and improved support for web standards, although it does not pass the Acid2 or Acid3 tests.

Security enhancements include a phishing filter, 256-bit stronger encryption, and a "Delete browsing history" button to easily clear private data.

[3][4] Both he and Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of the Internet Explorer team, cited needed security improvements as the primary reason for the new version.

[10] On December 16, 2008, a security flaw was found in Internet Explorer 7 which can be exploited so that crackers can steal users' passwords.

It also includes bug fixes, enhancements to its support for web standards, tabbed browsing with tab preview and management, a multiple-engine search box, a web feeds reader, Internationalized Domain Name support (IDN), and antiphishing filter.

When running in Protected Mode, IE7 is a low integrity process; it cannot gain write access to files and registry keys outside of the low-integrity portions of a user's profile.

This feature aims to mitigate problems whereby newly discovered flaws in the browser (or in Add-Ons hosted inside it) allowed crackers to subversively install software on the user's computer (typically spyware).

This flaw means that phishers can keep links from previous emails functioning by simply moving to a new server when their original web page is blacklisted and adding a redirect.

Microsoft's stated goal with version 7 was to fix the most significant bugs and areas which caused the most trouble for developers, however full compatibility with standards was postponed.

Although Internet Explorer 7 is more compliant than previous versions, according to all figures it remains the least standards-compliant compared to other major browsers of the period.