Delayed Firefox 3.6 buffs up Windows 7 support

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 16 Oct 2009 at 08:28

Mozilla has delayed the beta of Firefox 3.6 by a week, but is set to improve support for Windows 7 in the latest version of the browser.

The first beta of Firefox 3.6 was due to be launched this week, but that's now been pushed back to 21 October - only a day before the official Windows 7 launch date.

That's significant because one of the new features being incorporated into the browser is better support for Windows 7, including Aero Peek. This will provide thumbnail images of every open tab in the browser, unlike the current implementation, which only provides a thumbnail of the active tab.

Firefox 3.6 will also support Jump Lists, the shortcut menus that appear when you right click on an application's taskbar icon in Windows 7. The Firefox Jump List will provide links to your most frequently visited sites, as well as an option to open a new browser window.

The two enhancements will bring Firefox into line with rival Internet Explorer, while Google is also adding support for Jump Lists in developer builds of its Chrome browser.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Firefox 3.6 will include an API capable of detecting your computer's orientation, if the PC is fitted with an acclerometer. The API could be used for games or navigation.