Pages Tagged “Internet Explorer”
Reviews
- Microsoft Edge ★★☆☆☆ Once you turn off all the Microsoft specials, it feels usable again – but then, it’s just another Chromium skin.
Tech Tips
- IE7 disappearing float bug (Obsolete) In IE7, the exact wrong combination of floats and italics can make a floated element disappear.
- On Broken HTML From time to time the idea is put forth that less common browsers need to start dealing with bad code. There are two problems with that view.
- Pure CSS Buttons As part of a minor site optimizing kick, I replaced the validation labels with something smaller, less obtrusive, and directly on the page. I tried to duplicate the look of the classic antipixel-style buttons in CSS.
- Simple Browser Categorization (Obsolete) Sometimes you want to know exactly what software people (or bots) are using to view your website. Sometimes all you want to know is which rendering engine’s quirks you need to cater to.
- Web Design is Like Pizza A lot of pages aren’t as specific as the authors think they are. When you write code and test it on only one browser, you’re not testing that the code is correct, you’re testing that that browser makes the same assumptions you do.
- Webslices and Microsummaries (Obsolete) Both features have since been removed, but they offered and interesting way to let visitors know when a site had been updated.
Blog Posts
- Internet Explorer Goes Chromium
Microsoft has confirmed: They’re building future versions of Edge on top of Chromium, bringing the web another step closer to monoculture.
- Even Microsoft Hates IE6
Microsoft has jumped on the ditch-IE6 bandwagon with IE6Countdown.com. Of course, they’re taking a slightly different approach than the other campaigns.
- Don’t Block Internet Explorer
At least one website is silently redirecting IE users to the Alternative Browser Alliance. Here’s why that’s not a good idea.
- Improving Browser Reliability
The IEBlog recently posted about their efforts to improve reliability in Internet Explorer 8, particularly the idea of “loosely-coupled IE” (or LCIE). The short explanation is that each tab runs in its own process, so if a web page causes the browser to crash, only that tab crashes — not the whole thing. (It is […]
- First thoughts on IE8 Beta 1
Installed the first Internet Explorer 8 beta. Some thoughts: I’m impressed that it can import settings from Firefox & Safari. It detected Firefox extensions and even offered to look up similar add-ons. Unfortunately it was a big long search string with all the titles, and therefore a useless list of results for things like cameras […]
- Will Internet Explorer 7 finally put IE6 to rest?
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Team reports on a new IE installer release. They’ve changed a couple of defaults, updated their tutorials… and dropped the requirement for Windows Genuine Advantage validation: Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we’re updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as […]
- Firefox too mainstream for Alternative Browser Alliance
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but it’s time to refocus the Alternative Browser Alliance. Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler has referred to Firefox and Internet Explorer as the “mainstream browsers” for more than a year now, and it looks like that’s become true. The web is no longer an IE monopoly. It’s become an […]
- The Danger of Saving Passwords
ISC is reporting a new type of vulnerability in web browsers that the discoverer has termed as “Reverse Cross-Site Request,” or RCSR. Basically, on a site with user-generated content—like a hosted blog—it’s possible to add a form that looks like the site’s login form. If the victim has an account on the same site, and […]
- Advantages of standards-based design: Compatibility
Microsoft is really pushing for people to make sure their websites and apps are compatible with IE7. Apparently this is a real concern for a lot of people who relied on certain proprietary features, bugs, and quirks in IE6. I guess they figured they wouldn’t have to worry about future versions. (Hmm… I wonder where […]
- Browser Discrimination hits IE7
I just read an interesting post from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team on The IE7 User-Agent String. This statement in particular illustrates a problem not unfamiliar to Opera users: There are a few remaining sites which fail to recognize IE7 because they are performing exact string matches to look for specific IE version strings. Those checks […]
- Know Your Enemy (Web Browser Rivalries)
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about various web browsers. Opera can/can’t do this. Firefox can/can’t do that. There’s only so much you can do to promote one product when you only know rumors or outdated facts about another. Opera users: If someone told you that Firefox was better than Opera because it doesn’t […]
- IE Weirdness
I had a really strange experience with Internet Explorer earlier this week. I had a reason to check Windows Update (checking for driver updates), but no matter what I did, Microsoft Update opened itself in Firefox! Even if I typed the URL into IE, or chose it from the Tools menu. It became clear that […]
- IE/Mac: The Final Nail
The WaSP is reporting that Microsoft will end support and cease distributing Internet Explorer for the Macintosh at the end of January. It’s been about eight months since the latest version of Mac OS X shipped without IE, and almost three years since Apple launched Safari. While there is an “end of an era” feeling […]
- Voyage of the FyreFawkes
A tale of the Browser Wars on the high seas. Harken, lads, and listen to my tale. It is the tale of the FyreFawkes, a vessel that turned the tide in the never-ending battle for the high seas. In this day, shipping lanes criss-cross the ocean like a Web, and in years past, that web […]
- Browser War, OS War
It occurred to me today that if you lay out the three major players in computer operating systems and the three major players in web browsers, the results track remarkably well. Windows and Internet Explorer. The dominant player. Obtained that position by being good enough, cheap enough, and promoted enough to win a protracted two-way […]
- Take Action: Browser Choice for an Open Web
Domination by a single web browser harms the web, whether it’s Internet Explorer or Chrome.
- Why Alternative Browsers?
When Internet Explorer won the first Browser War, the web stagnated. Lack of competition led to a lack of technical innovation, and with 95% of people using the same software (with the same vulnerabilities), the web became a breeding ground for viruses and other malware.
- More Netscape 8 Nuttiness
Q: What happens when you break up/fire your web browser-developing group with years of experience, and later hire an outside firm to build your next product? A: Netscape 8. IEBlog has an amazing report—which I’ve just verified. Netscape 8.0.1 disables IE’s XML rendering. So if you try to load an XML document—say, an XSLT-styled RSS […]
- No Free Lunch
Some potentially nasty browser security vulnerabilities found this weekend in Mozilla and in Safari. Both involve software update mechanisms. The Firefox one tricks the browser into thinking it’s installing from a trusted update site (the maintainers of updates.mozilla.org and addons.mozilla.org—the only trusted sites by default—have made some changes on their server to prevent the exploit […]
- Cross-browser Java Spyware
Talk about convoluted. Someone has developed a Java applet that will use one browser to install spyware on another. The applet runs in any browser using the Sun Java Runtime Environment—Firefox, Opera, Mozilla, etc.—and if it can convince you to run the installer, it will install spyware on Internet Explorer. And since you can’t remove […]
- Trusted Site, Untrusted Browser
I installed the just-released Netscape 8 Beta. It imported most of my settings from Firefox, including bookmarks, cookies and even history. One of the first things I always check with a new browser is how it identifies itself, which in this case is as Firefox 0.9.6. (Presumably they’ll get on this by the time the […]
- Bring It On
As reported all over the place, Microsoft has reversed its previous plans and will be releasing a new beta of Internet Explorer this summer instead of keeping it locked to the next version of Windows. About frelling time. Of course, there’s no word on whether they’ll actually improve page rendering—all the statements so far have […]
- Internet Explorer: Spyware Source!
Satire: “Not only is it able to remove spyware from the system, but also the source of most spyware. Our competitors can’t match that.”
- Browser Switch Campaigns Compared
Firefox – Switch [archive.org] is the first of these sites I noticed. Based on Apple’s “Switch” campaign, it’s aimed at raising awareness of Firefox and convincing people to switch from IE. It has stories of people who have switched, a top 10 list of reasons to switch, and answers to questions about just how you […]
- Netscape: Re-Clutter the Web
CNET has posted a write-up of AOL’s new Netscape prototype based on Firefox, as well as a screenshot. It seems to be a combination of Firefox + theme + bundled extensions… plus a mode that embeds Internet Explorer for compatibility. There are some nice ideas: adapting Firefox’s RSS capabilities to create a headline ticker, for […]
- Internet Explorer: Unsafe at any speed
Netcraft reports on a series of malicious banner ads using a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 to spread the Bofra virus. Clicking on the banners sends you to a website that uses the recently-discovered IFRAME vulnerability to infect your computer. Of note are the facts that there is no patch for this yet, and XP […]
- IE 2 Flashback
I had to reboot one of the Windows servers on Thursday, at which point the GDI+ checker installed by Tuesday’s security fix popped up a message explaining that there was still some software with the JPEG vulnerability. OK, fine, I’ll run it again and see what’s missing. So I clicked on, well, OK, and it […]