In my last blog, I wrote that Microsoft has abandoned the power user. But there’s also some possible good news: The company says the next version of Internet Explorer will include features dear to the hearts of power users.

I had lunch with several Microsofties a little while back, to talk about Internet Explorer 7, and they freely acknowledged that power users may not be happy with IE 7 because it’s less customizable than IE 6. The toolbar can’t be as easily customized, and if you change some settings, you’ll be nagged from here until eternity to change them back.

Yes, they admitted, perhaps Microsoft had gone too far in making IE 7 easier for less-advanced users, and they said IE 8 will include features near and dear to the heart of power users.

First off, they said it will let you customize its toolbar. They hope that you’ll be able to customize a lot more than that, for example by adding your own background to it. They’re hoping to add skins and themes as well. And you may be able to turn off that nagging when you change a feature that the browser thinks isn’t safe.

Beyond that, they weren’t sure. But it’s a start, at least. Now, if only Microsoft would open up Vista more to tweakers and hackers, we’d all be happy.