This is interesting. Both Google and Web.de (a German ISP and services company) have recently joined Yahoo and USAtoday in producing customised versions of IE7 for download from their sites.
So far, so uninteresting – ISP’s and web companies have always provided versions of Internet Explorer with their own branding and search tools tacked on. What makes this a bit more interesting is the way that they’ve done it.
They’ve both used the new Internet Explorer Administration Kit 7 (IEAK). This is a point-and-click tool that was originally designed for sys-admins (there have been 5.x and 6.x versions before it, but this is much improved). It lets you create a customised set of packages with your own branding that will be rolled into an IE7 download. Once downloaded, it also provides an avenue for automatic upgrade of those packages on your user’s machines.
It’s a free licensed-tool and there are licenses available for a range of different circumstances: for Internet Service Providers, Content Providers/Developers and Corporate Administrators (sys-admins).
Some of the customisations available include:
- Adding custom components in the form of
.caband.exefiles - Customising the level of user interaction (if you’re running it under the Corporate Administrator license).
- Browser title and toolbar customisations
- Search provider customisations
- Set URLs in the Favorites, Links and Feeds and set the homepage (lock them, too if you’re running the corp-admin version).
- Setup for own custom welcome page for your users
- Add custom text to the User Agent String so your own brand of the browser will appear in site’s search engine statistics
If you’re working as a sys-admin, or would like to roll-out branded versions of IE7 alongside your software it would be worth taking a look.
