Internet Explorer: Reasons Why it Sucks

I have had several recent conversations about why not to use Internet Explorer, and they prompted to make a handy list I could refer people to online.

I use and recommend FireFox for a reason – it is stable, it is constantly updated, and works with most web sites. It has issues of its own – it can be a memory hog, for example – but it is by far what I consider the best browser right now. I also like Safari, Opera, and Camino.

As technology is in a constant state of change and flux, certain proprietary software types can’t, or won’t, keep up. Because they don’t acknowledge the malleability of the internet, they encounter problems when you try to use them.

So what are some concrete reasons behind my recommendation against Internet Explorer in general, and my refusal to design for any version earlier than IE7? (And my reason behind refusing to design for future IE versions at all.)

Common Internet Standards Ignored

The internet works as a cohesive unit only because all makers of browsers and web sites adhere to certain commonly accepted standards of design and use. Microsoft consistently ignores these standards in favor of being proprietary. this means they would rather everyone be forced to use their software model than change their model to meet fast changes and increasing demand for cross platform and cross browser compatibility.

This makes Internet Explorer the hardest browser to work with. If I design a web site and it isn’t working in FireFox or Safari, for example, the tweak to fix the error is small, because they both accept the same standard of design and use. If it doesn’t work in IE, forget it. The tweak to make it happen in IE is massive and time consuming. I already spent huge amounts of time designing the page and getting it to work in four common browsers, I don’t want to spend additional days on end trying to make IE “see” it.

ActiveX Is The Debil

Safety is another huge issue with IE. Other browsers do not use or accept ActiveX and Active Scripting, two Microsoft applets that allow people to access your browser for various programs. These two programs allow someone else the possibility of controlling your computer, and open a huge barn door for viruses, adware, spy ware, malware and phishers to come strolling leisurely through.

Go ahead and use your virus software and your firewall – as long as you also use IE, you may as well give it up. You will continue to get malware on a regular basis, clogging your computer’s arteries, causing slowdown and crashes and possibly putting your data at risk. Of course, any virus or malware can still get on the machine of someone using one of the other browsers. The main difference is that the users of other browsers more often have to actually open a file or interact with it in some way to allow it in with them, and IE lets malware in for you.

Does Not Accept Extensions and Add Ons

No software can accommodate the complete wishes of its user base. It’s impossible. Other browsers, like FireFox and Safari, acknowledge this by allowing third party programmers to build extensions and add ons that handle the missing features, making every one happy. Internet Explorer demonstrates great hubris by not allowing their user base to create or add features that address issues with their software and its lack of compatibility with so many things.

I’m not the only one who thinks IE’s hubris is damaging. There have been several suits filed in various places wanting IE to no longer be tied to Windows, and to be forced to be more compatible with web standards. The most recent of these is the Opera suit in the EU.

Ugly Web Spaces

Have you ever viewed a web page designed solely with IE in mind in another browser? They are hideous, non functional, clunky pages in every case, on every other browser. Safari does the best job of “fixing” the looks of an IE page, but it can’t do much to fix the way they work (or don’t). Thinking the web still has to be hard to use and ugly is just wrong. The moment you switch to any other browser, your mind will opened to a beautiful looking, easy to use, functioning web.

Overwrites

When you install IE, you allow it to overwrite your system DLL files. The files it installs are not 100% compatible in many cases, mainly because it not only refuses to be compatible with much of the web, but with its own operating system as well. This can lead to system slow down and crashes. Add in the malware issues mentioned above and you have a real morass on your hands.

Java Issues

Did you know that Microsoft Java is not the same as the Java everyone else uses? I would be willing to bet you didn’t. I’d also be willing to bet you’ve experienced the frustration of going to page with Java applets on the recommendation of friends or colleagues who have been using it flawlessly in other browsers, only to find it doesn’t work right for you.

this is just another example of IE refusing to comply with the standards everyone else uses. They want you to have to use Microsoft products and Windows, and they think shutting you off from most of the web’s functionality will convince you that is necessary. It just isn’t so. You can use FireFox and still use your Microsoft programs. Changing browsers won’t blow up your computer – it will just open new doors to you online.

Linux Incompatibility

This makes no sense to the average web user, but Internet Explorer’s continued incompatibility with Linux is an issue for a very tech savvy sector of the online market.

There are so many reasons not to use Internet Explorer I had some difficulty putting them into a list. In fact, there are so many I keep thinking I forgot a few. Did I? Let me know if I did.

Speed up the internet explorer

Delete temporary Internet files

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER. Internet Options opens
3. On the General tab, click Delete Files under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, Click to select the Delete all offline content check box.
5. Click OK.
6. Wait for the temporary Internet files to be deleted. This might take only several minutes in some cases

Delete Cookies

Export cookies

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. On the File menu, click Import and Export. In the Import/Export Wizard, click Next.
3. Click Export Cookies, and then click Next. Click Next to export cookies to a Cookies.txt file in your My Documents folder.
4. If Customer prompts you to replace an existing file, click Yes. Click Finish.
5. A dialog box will appear to indicate that cookies were successfully exported.
6. Click OK, and then close Internet Explorer.

Delete cookies.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Inetcpl.cpl, and then click OK. Internet Options opens.
3. On the General tab, click Delete Cookies under Temporary Internet Files.
4. Click Yes, and then click Close.
5. Click OK to close Internet Options.

Change security settings for different Zones.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
3. Internet Properties opens.
4. Click on security Tab.
5. Click on the following Tabs:

Internet

1. Click on Internet.
2. Click on default level.

Local Intranet

1. Click on Intranet.
2. Click on default level.

Trusted Sites

1. Click on Trusted Sites.
2. Click on default level.

Restricted Sites

1. Click on Restricted Sites.
2. Click on default level.

Reset Internet Explorer Privacy

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
3. Internet Properties opens.
4. Click on Privacy Tab on the Top.
5. Move the slider to top.
6. Click on Default.

Reset all Internet Explorer settings

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER.
3. The Internet Options dialog box opens.
4. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Restore Defaults .
5. Uncheck Third Party Browser Extension
6. Click on Apply and Ok
7. Cose all open Internet Explorer windows, and then restart Internet Explorer.

Web Based Malware And Browser Catch Rate

The study shows IE8 and it’s new SmartScreen filter head and shoulders above all other browsers. “Socially engineered malware,” as they put it, is arguably the most important form of malware these days. We’ve reported on it many times in the last year. The basic idea is that the user is enticed into visiting a web site and downloading malware believing it to be something else. The study was funded by Microsoft but the methodology was designed and the tests executed by NSS Labs.

The recent generation of web browsers has approached this problem with reputation services, just as they have with phishing. Just as phishing sites are often initially blocked by browsers (“…this is a reported phishing web site”) based partly on blacklists of domains and IP addresses, so are malware sites being blocked.

NSS Labs’ tests came up with these results overall:

Browser	Malware Catch Rate
IE8 (RC1)	69%
Firefox 3.07	30%
Safari v3	24%
Chrome 1.0.154	16%
Opera 9.84	5%
IE7	4%

Results like these can change over time as companies change priorities and find new sources of reputation data. It’s clear, for example, that Opera and Microsoft with IE7 aren’t even trying very hard to find malware. It’s also true that tests for phishing sites could find very different results. In fact, phishing is all those two browsers may be looking for, and they may find what malware they find by sheer coincidence. Finally, it’s likely that Microsoft was interested in such testing because they had been working hard on improving detection of such sites.

The other important take-away from this is that even the best numbers from IE8 are low. Protection such as this is a good defense-in-depth measure, but it’s no substitute for a good anti-malware program and other protections, such as least-privileged access.

Internet Explorer 8: More Faster and Easier

Microsoft have done to put the web at your service and make Internet Explorer 8 the best browser for everyday browsing.

Experience Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, our new, improved and free web browser.

Download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

The main features of Internet Explorer 8 are as given below;

Accelerators

Tired of cutting and pasting information from one website to another for everyday tasks? Now there’s a better way. Accelerators give you ready access to the online services you use everyday—from any page you visit. Now you can simply select some text and then click on the blue Accelerators icon. For example, you may be interested in the location of a business featured on a webpage. In the past, you would need to copy the address from the webpage, navigate to another the webpage for a mapping service, and paste in the address. With the “Map with Live Maps” Accelerator in Internet Explorer 8, you can get an in-place view of a map displayed directly on the page.

Tired of cutting and pasting information from one website to another for everyday tasks? Now there’s a better way. Accelerators give you ready access to the online services you use everyday—from any page you visit. Now you can simply select some text and then click on the blue Accelerators icon. For example, you may be interested in the location of a business featured on a webpage. In the past, you would need to copy the address from the webpage, navigate to another the webpage for a mapping service, and paste in the address. With the “Map with Live Maps” Accelerator in Internet Explorer 8, you can get an in-place view of a map displayed directly on the page.

Enhanced navigation

Compatibility View

Internet Explorer 8 is a beta release and some websites may not yet be ready for Internet Explorer 8. Click the Compatibility View toolbar button to display the website as viewed in Internet Explorer 7, which will correct display problems like misaligned text, images, or text boxes. This option is on a per site basis and all other sites will continue to display with Internet Explorer 8 functionality. To go back to browsing with Internet Explorer 8 functionality on that site, simply click the Compatibility View button again.

Enhanced Tabbed Browsing

It can be difficult to keep track of many tabs at once. Internet Explorer 8 introduces Tab Groups, which make tabbed browsing easier. When one tab is opened from another, the new tab is placed next to the originating tab and color coded, so that you can quickly discern which tabs have related content. If you close a tab that’s part of a group, another tab from the same group is displayed, enabling you to remain within the context of the current task rather than suddenly looking at an unrelated site.

Better Find On Page

Internet Explorer 8 includes a completely redesigned Find On Page toolbar, which is activated by pressing Ctrl-F or choosing Find On Page from the Edit menu or Search box drop-down. Press the Alt key if you do not see the Edit menu option.

Smarter Address Bar

The Address Bar in Internet Explorer 8 makes navigation easier than ever, becoming a highly useful search tool that enables you to just type a few characters and then go directly to the desired site. It searches across your History, Favorites, and RSS Feeds, displaying matches from the website title or any part of the URL. As you type, matched characters are highlighted in blue so you can identify them at a glance. In addition, you can delete any address in the drop-down box by clicking on the red X. This is especially useful for getting rid of misspelled URLs.

Redesigned New Tab page

The New Tab page loads quickly and provided links make it easier to get started on your next browsing activity:

Use an Accelerator:

Now you can use an Accelerator using any text you have copied to the clipboard.

Start InPrivate Browsing:

Two things happen when you start inPrivate Browsing: your browsing activities, history and cookies are not retained, and third party web content providers may be blocked from tracking your online activities without your consent.

Reopen closed tabs:

Reopen a tab that you’ve closed in your current browsing session, which can be helpful when a tab is accidentally or prematurely closed.

Reopen your last browsing session:

Reopen all tabs that were open when Internet Explorer 8 was last closed, which can be useful if you accidentally close the browser.

Improved Zoom

Adaptive Page Zoom improves upon traditional zoom-in/zoom-out functionality in the browser by intelligently relaying out the page content and eliminating the need to scroll left and right. This will improve your ability to magnify pages with small fonts and be able to read more on the web.

A better back button

When using rich applications such as mapping on the Internet, you may be taken to the beginning of the application instead of the previous page when you hit the back button. Now when you hit the back button, more pages will behave the way you expect.

Increased performance

Internet Explorer 8 includes many performance improvements that contribute to a faster, more responsive web browsing experience in the areas that matter most. Internet Explorer 8 starts quickly, loads pages fast and instantly gets you started on what you want to do next with a powerful new tab page. In addition, the script engine in Internet Explorer 8 is significantly faster than in previous versions, minimizing the load time for webpages based on JavaScript or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX).

Improved favorites and history management

Enhanced Favorites Bar

Now there’s a better place to keep track of your top favorites. You can save Favorites, RSS Feeds, and Web Slices to the Links Bar that appears across the top of the browser, quickly navigating to the sites and content that you care about most.

One Click Favorites

Press the One Click Favorites button and immediately add the page you’re browsing to the Links Bar, saving you extra clicks.

RSS feeds on Links Bar

The links bar has been updated so you can drag an RSS feed to your links bar, making it easier to see when important feeds are updated.

History sorting

The new Browsing History view allows you to sort your history by Site Name, Most Visited Sites, Order Visited Today, and Date, making it easier to organize and locate sites in your history.

History searching

In Internet Explorer 8, you can search for pages in history by typing keywords, making it easier to locate sites when browsing your history.

Instant search

Search suggestions

Now you can type a search term and see real-time, relevant search suggestions from your chosen search provider and your browsing history. Click on a suggestion at any time to immediately execute the search without having to type the entire word or phrase.

Visual search

Internet Explorer 8 is partnering with top search providers like Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Amazon, and more to deliver direct results and “visual search” images that provide you with immediate answers. For example, typing “Seattle weather” with Live Search will instantly show you a preview of the current weather directly in the Search Box drop-down. Look for more visual search results with your preferred search providers.

More improvements

Because people often use search to get back to sites that they’ve visited before, Internet Explorer 8 includes matches from your History in the bottom part of the Search Box drop-down.

An integrated “Find On Page” button also has been added to the instant search box, enabling you to search for text on the current webpage. Also, you can change the width of the Instant Search Box by dragging its left edge, making it easier to see long search strings as they are typed.

Web Slices

How many times a day do you check for updates to e-mail, weather reports, sports scores, stock quotes, auction items email and so on? Until now this was a manual process, where you had to go to those sites to check for changes or new information.

Using Web Slices, you can keep up with frequently updated sites directly from the Favorites Bar. If a Web Slice is available on a page, a green Web Slices icon will appear in the upper-right hand corner of the browser. You can then easily subscribe and add them to the Favorites Bar or delete Web Slices that are no longer desired.

Community-developed Web Slices and Accelerators can be found in the Internet Explorer Gallery.

Add a Web Slice to your Favorites Bar

Hover your mouse over an item on a webpage.

If that item incorporates Web Slice functionality, the Web Slice icon will appear. Click on the icon to add this “slice” of the web to your Favorites Bar. Now you can keep up to date with this information no matter where you are on the web.

To delete, right-click on your Web Slice and click Delete.

Need help with Web Slices? Check out this informative “how-to” video.

How to Remove GoogleUpdate.exe

Google Chrome, Google Lively, Google Earth, and an untold number of other Google applications may install an update mechanism named googleupdate.exe, googleupdater.exe, or something similar. The googleupdate may continually attempt to access the Internet without requesting permission and without providing an option to disable it. This behavior may persist even after the parent application has been removed. While there’s no single way to rid the system of googleupdate, the following tips provide the common install locations.

Here’s How:

1. Instead of removal, a permission-based firewall such as ZoneAlarm can be used to temporarily block Googleupdate. If desired, the steps below can be used to completely remove Googleupdate from the system. Before attempting any manual removal, it’s a good idea to backup your system and make a separate backup of the system registry. Also note that removing Googleupdate will impact the parent applications ability to download updates.

 

2. To locate instances of googleupdate, search all local fixed drives for googleupd or googleupd* (depending on the search utility, the * wildcard may be required. Note that it is not required for the Windows search feature in Windows Explorer).
3. Make copies of any files found, noting their original location. Depending on the OS, some or all of the following may be found:
   • Google Update (Task Scheduler Object)
   • Googleupdate.exe (Application) (two or more locations)
   • GoogleUpdateHelper.msi (Windows Installer Package)

 

4. You should be able to delete the Google Update Task Scheduler Object and the GoogleUpdateHelper.msi with no problem. However, to delete googleupdate.exe, you’ll first need to launch Task Manager, locate the running Google Update process, and stop it. After doing that, you should be able to delete Googleupdate.exe. In other cases, GoogleUpdate may be installed as a service, in which case you will need to first stop the service before attempting to delete the file.

 

5. Next, open the Registry Editor and browse to the following subkey:
   HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\

 

6. In the right pane, locate the value named “Google Update“, right-click the name and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. When finished, close the Registry Editor.

 

7. After following the above steps, reboot the system.

Google Chrome Not Prefetching Pages

Google Chrome doesn’t actually prefetch webpages. Instead, it simply resolves the IP address to the domain name in advance. Should the page then be requested, the path to that page is already known so the page appears to load faster – even seconds faster, according to Google Chromium Developer Jim Roskind who explained the distinction in his comment to the original post. The good news – no need to disable DNS prefetching in Google Chrome. And faster surfing.

Google’s Chrome : Need To Polish

Less than a day out, and already frustrated users are posting about the Googleupdate “virus” which continually tries to gain Internet access even if Chrome itself isn’t active. (And allegedly even after Chrome has been uninstalled). For removal tips, see “How to Remove GoogleUpdate.exe“.

Other complaints about Google Chrome include a surprising inability to view YouTube movies (surprising because Google owns YouTube). The same videos run fine in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera, but when attempted via Google Chrome, it either displays the message “”We’re sorry, this video is no longer available” or it tells you the Adobe Flash Movie Plugin is not installed.
Equally perplexing, the Terms of Service for Chrome are a bit confusing when it comes to intellectual property rights. Initially it seems reassuring with this disclaimer:

“Other than the limited license set forth in Section 11, Google acknowledges and agrees that it obtains no right, title or interest from you (or your licensors) under these Terms in or to any Content that you submit, post, transmit or display on, or through, the Services, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in that Content (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist).”

But the referenced Section 11 states:

“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”
According to Google Chromium Developer Jim Roskind, Google Chrome isn’t pre-fetching pages, but rather simply pre-resolving the IP address for the anticipated page request. For details, see: Google Chrome Not Prefetching Pages. (Note that this correction doesn’t apply to Firefox, which prefetches the first page of Google search results. To disable Firefox prefetch, see: How to Disable Google Pre-Fetching in Firefox).