Fun with Microsoft (IE8, actually)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Debated whether or not to put this in “General Questions”, but decided that it was so unimportant that this was the spot for it.

After receiving many warnings from various sites to the effect that “…you are using an old browser that is no longer supported…”, I bit the bullet and upgraded to IE 8. This turned out to be very easy, and things went swimmingly for several weeks. Didn’t notice much difference, but at least the Internet didn’t bitch at me for using an obsolete browser any more.

Then a short time ago, IE 8 began deciding to poop out on me. I would click on its shortcut, and then the screen would go blank, and stay blank, no matter how long I waited. So I reinstalled IE 8, with no apparent problems or error messages, and opened it. AND, instead of IE 8, IE 6 came up on the screen. Microsoft is wierd.

Well OK, so I reinstalled IE 8 again, and this time IE 8 did come up when opened. All went well for several days, and then the same problem (blank screen) started again. Tried to reinstall IE 8, and again IE 6 was the result. Saying “the Hell with it”, I’ve left IE 6 on my computer and again am using it for my standard browser. I still get the occasional grumbling from the Internet about using an obsolete program, especially from You Tube, but have found that if these warnings are ignored things work perfectly. And I no longer have to reinstall my browser on practically a daily basis. Anybody else experience this?

I won’t get into the exciting things that had happened with my mail after replacing Outlook Express with Windows Live Mail. Suffice to say that I’ve learned how to back up my address list and messages files, something that I never had to do with Outlook Express.

Question - is Microsoft regressing as it upgrades? Are we eventually going to be all the way back to DOS 6? Their software sure doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I bought a new laptop the other day, with Windows 7 installed, and am waiting with baleful anticipation to find out what booby traps it has in store.

2

So… why not just install Firefox with Adblock and have a wonderful web browsing experience?

3

I am having some interesting IE8 related fun right now…

I have to do some work on a webpage which is so fancy and snazzy that it doesn’t save properly as “html, complete” (as in, “doesn’t open right in either Chrome, Firefox or IE”). It does open all pretty if I use this new IE-only option of saving it as MHTML, and I can edit it to do what I have to (it’s not going to get published to the 'net, so working on this funky file is ok).

So I edit a piece, and save. And Open the file. And sometimes it opens with what I just saved… and sometimes the last n changes do not appear… and sometimes it opens looking as if I hadn’t edited anything at all… and then I double click it again and all the changes appear… and this weirdness takes place even after setting in place the policy of “always refill the glass of water in between saving and opening”.

Weird doesn’t begin to cover it.

4

I don’t use Microsoft products so my guess here may be wrong, but it sounds like a cache problem. That is, the browser is not loading the most recent version of the page (until you force it to by double-clicking).

5

Chrome user here. Works great and is super fast.

6

Ditto.

This would be my guess as well - you can also force the page to ignore cached files by pressing Ctrl-F5 (instead of closing/re-opening the file via double-click).

7

Yikes! IE6 was released on August 27, 2001. It is nearly ten years old. The internet has not only changed since then, it has changed since IE8 came out. You can’t continue using such an outdated browser, eventually nothing will be viewable at all.

You must let go of your dependence on Microsoft, and choose from the array of other browsers out there. This is required of you.

8

Microsoft is your friend. Resistance is futile!

9

Ignore me!

10

There is nothing wrong with IE8. I personally prefer chrome because I like the standard welcome page and it’s a bit faster, but IE8 is great browser too.

Now, given that you’ve been using a 10 year old browser with flash installed, I wouldn’t rule out some type of malware/virus/worm corrupting your registry or otherwising messing with your IE8 installation. Obviously, spontaeneously reverting back to an outdated browser is NOT standard operating procedure for IE8 or windows.

Make sure you double check your installation file, run a virus/malware scanner, and maybe uninstall IE6 completely before installing IE8. Something’s up, and I doubt it’s Microsoft’s fault.

11

Don’t forget that there are still sites that aren’t compatible with IE8.
Choose the Compatibility Mode to make sure it works.

12

Oh ye of little faith, behold! IE6 is not dead yet. Read about it here:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Its-not-dead-yet-Microsofts-outofband-IE6-fix-impacts-IE8/1269902411

13

I think the idea mentioned in the comments about an IE classic mode is brilliant. Most of the people I know who won’t (rather than can’t) upgrade do so because they don’t want to learn a new interface.