Is I.E. 7 any good

[PaulaToo]

Oh please, PLEASE, don't mention IE7 within reading distance of this daft old bird.
Machine going slow, always does that when an update is about to rear it's ugly head.
Ping...Important update.
Right, have that, get things running better again.
A couple of hours later.....................I find I can't connect to the internet........Internet, what internet. No one ever told me about the internet.
Frantic call to server, who ALWAYS comes up with the answer.
'Are you trying to connect to broadband?'
'Um, yes.'
'Oh, it's all in the instructions.'
'No, you don't understand, I downloaded IE7, and now you have disappeared and won't come back!'
'Oh, eh, try closing everything down and start again, that might work.'
Did it! Guess!
Computer had a touch of the vapours, went into a tail spin and I lost patientce.
When I FINALLY convinced it that it should start up again I got rid of the stupid IE7 thing, did a Refresh, and everything was suddenly roses and daffodils again!

But that was just me, someone else might have just said......'Try that,' and made it work.
All the same, don't mention IE7 anywhere near me!

[Cadoret]

PaulaToo, you don't sound old, and you're certainly not daft - you fixed the PC yourself didn't you? 

It's not you, it's Internet Exploder 7 that's at fault!!!! I have a love/hate relationship with Microtheft - sorry, Microsoft; they've brought (relatively) easy-to-use computing to the masses, but release very buggy operating systems and software, while at the same time stifling or buying ANY competition... 

Don't forget your PC will automatically download & install IE7 at some point -  unless you've switched the facility off... or still have pre-Windows XP PC, in which case... erm... you could be facing more outages at some point in the near future...

It would be interesting to hear Microsoft's response if you mail the details of your IE7 problem to their help desk!

[PaulaToo]

You're right there, Cadoret, it would be interesting what Microsoft would say. I'll bet they would give me a couple of pages of instructions that I wouldn't have a hope in a hot place of understanding, and tell me that was all I had to do.
I've got an XP 2000, and it is a machine that has LIVED.  It's been used, and used, and gets cranky from time to time, but I've never known it throw in the sponge like that before.
Let's just say I'm well past pension age, but that experiance added ten years in ten minutes
They had the cheek to trot out some more updates a couple of days later. Guess what was top of the list. I found a place that said,'Don't show me this again' so I gave it one.
You know that little smiley Berlin Bob has, the one where the fist comes out of the machine and bops him on the nose......that's the relationship I have with my computer.......nah, love it really

[Tony Payne]

I have been using Firefox for the last year and I much prefer it to IE6.

Apart from the features, and IE7 now has many of the features that Firefox has had for a while, Firefox doesn't store such a huge amount of items in cache and make it virtually impossible to delete them. 

From a security point of view, the largest percentage increase of new attacks against browsers in the past few months has been against Firefox, since more people are now using it.   On a positive note, most of the holes in Firefox are usually patched within a couple of days, a lower percentage of the holes in MSIE are patched within a couple of weeks.

I would recommend that you download and try Firefox to see if you like it, but it's easy to delete if you don't, and there is nothing to stop you having 2 browsers installed.  The only problem I have found is that Firefox won't allow me to play MSN games, which specifically check for MSIE as the browser, but other than that it works nicely.

[celia]

Hi
I have had a problem getting on here today,just want to thank you for all the input.I will have to think about the new version of I.E. I have changed my setting so they don't  download it.My question hasn't been answered yet though If i do decide on the new version will it interfere in anyway with the setting of My I.P or O.E which works with I.E. If this post arrives at a decent time i might not need a update    Posted 00.20 go

Celia That clock is 3 minits faster that mine

[Cadoret]

Completely agree with Tony. As I said in my earlier post I did try V2 & had problems (probably my PC rather than the software), but unlike IE it uninstalled without any problems, as has all earlier versions in the past.

Unfortunately, you do need to keep up with the IE 'upgrades' to keep your PC secure online - eventually MS stops supporting earlier IE versions, which leaves it open to hacking. But ther's not really any hurry, and so you can leave the download/install until the 2nd or 3rd version of IE7 is released.

Firefox also has an excellent online community, and you can even change the way it looks - with 'Themes' - and acts - with 'Extensions'.

On that note, Tony, have you tried the extension 'IE Tabs' for your gaming? It opens IE in a Firefox tab, and usually tricks the remote site to thinking it is 'seeing' IE - I guess MSN may have sussed this & blocked it though! I rarely use IE now, & usually only see it when it opens automatically for an IE-specific file extension. You can get it at; https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/

The only downside I know of with Firefox is that if you do  LOT of browsing, it can eat up your memory, but if this happens all you need to do is close it down - and if the problem continues shut down Firefox.exe in Windows Task Manager; press Ctr-Alt-Del to access it, and you'll see how much memory Firefox is using.

PS regarding your specific query, Celia, I think you've done the right thing by delaying the install until you've had more feedback about known problems. But if you haven't already done so, switch the update notification back on, then you can decide which updates to install on a case-by-case basis. When you do install IE7, it *shouldn't* (!) affect your settings, but there is no guarantee; if you're really worried, create a System Restore Point, and do a full System Backup before you install IE7.

[Cadoret]

Sorry for yet another post, but if you want to delay installing IE7 and don't want to switch off Automatic Updates for Windows XP, Microsoft have release a 'Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 7'. This will stop automatic download of IE7 but allow all other automatic downloads, and will not stop you downloading IE7 manually when you wish to install it.

You will need to have Windows XP Service Pack 2 already installed (you should have this installed in any case, as MS have stopped supporting Service Pack 1), and can download it at; http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displaylang=en

But remember, you will soon need to install it as an upgrade to IE6 to keep your PC secure, and so you should periodically check the Microsoft Update site regarding the advisability of installing IE7; at some point in the near future it would be inadvisable to keep using IE6.

[Tony Payne]

Hi Cadoret,

No I haven't tried opening an IE tab under Firefox.  Might be an idea.  Thanks.

There is all the hype about insecurity in IE, but there is nothing to stop you downloading IE7 to be sure you are up to date on the updates, and then to use another browser (ie: Firefox etc).

I count myself lucky to have multiple computers, so I can use one as a guinea pig to test the water first.  If I don't like what I find after installing something I can go back.

[PaulaToo]

Nice and quiet today, everyone zonked out after New Years Eve, so I took the bull by the horns and installed I E 7 for the second time!

First time was a disaster and the computer went into sulk that only uninstall could save me from. Even then I had to do a system restore before it would forgive me.

So with some trepidation I pressed the button and set the wheels in motion.
Brilliant.
Went like a dream.
No problems....well, not yet....there isn't.

Funny, but it looks entirely different to when I tried it way back months ago. Have they changed it?
Have no problems using it hardly any difference to what I had before.  Wish the icons were a bit bigger, but hey, I can live with that.

Right pleased I am.