A senior Microsoft executive has confirmed many of the security enhancements that have been rumoured for the next major update to Internet Explorer, including integrated anti-spyware features and restrictions on cross-domain scripting access.

Microsoft has said IE 7 is to be above all a security release, with any other enhancements on the back-burner. The browser, code-named Rincon, will be available for Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Professional x64.

At a Monday security briefing at Microsoft's TechEd conference, Gordon Mangione, corporate vice president of the company's security business and technology unit, confirmed that the IE 7 will run in reduced-privilege mode by default, according to a report in industry journal eWeek. The feature is designed to prevent remote attacks via the browser, which have become a major hassle for Microsoft.

This change, among many others, has been rumoured since the announcement of IE 7. Microsoft is retooling the browser after years of neglect, which was largely due to lack of serious competition for the dominant browser, according to industry analysts.

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