Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 5.0, Outlook Express 5.0.2

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 5.0, the latest version of the company’s free Web browser. New features in Internet Explorer 5.0 include a completely new standards-based rendering engine called Tasman, a redesigned interface that allows users to choose from nine colors, an Internet Scrapbook feature for saving snapshots of dynamically generated Web pages, a customizable toolbar, and an Auction Tracker that helps you follow online auctions. Internet Explorer 5.0 requires a PowerPC-based Macintosh running Mac OS 7.6.1 or later with 8 MB of available memory (12 MB recommended). Also required are QuickTime 3.0 or higher and Apple MRJ 2.1 or later. Internet Explorer 5.0 is a 6.8 MB download; you can also order it on CD-ROM for $10.

Simultaneously, Microsoft has released Outlook Express 5.0.2, a minor update to the free Outlook Express 5.0 that improves performance in a variety of areas and ensures that the Progress window appears in the foreground when users run a schedule manually but stays in the background when a schedule triggers automatically. Outlook Express 5.0.2 requires a PowerPC-based Macintosh with Mac OS 8.1 or later and 8 MB of available RAM (12 MB recommended); it’s an 8 MB download.