New features include tabbed browsing, the ability to search the net directly and an anti-fraud system to thwart phishing attacks.

The new program is available as a free download on 19 October, but many will get it as an automatic update to Windows XP in November.

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The new version of the browser has gone through a long testing regime and five test or "beta" versions have been made available in the last 14 months.

Despite this IE 7 is still seen as an attempt by Microsoft to catch up with rival browsers as it includes features that have long been seen in competitors such as Firefox and Opera.

With the new version, it is possible to open up tabs rather than windows for new webpages and subscribe to RSS feeds via the browser.

The release comes at a time when the numbers of people using Microsoft's Internet Explorer are shrinking. In 2004, 93% of net users browsed the web via IE. Now that proportion has dropped to 86%. Much of that market share has been taken by the Firefox browser, which is used by 11% of net users.

On the day IE 7 was released, a trial version of Version 2.0 of Firefox was also put online for downloading. The finished version is due to be released in the next couple of weeks.

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