I want to start this out by saying that I am using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) because some websites won’t operate without it and some of the updated Java functionality that they are employing. In other words, shoved down the consumer‘s throat, much like many MS operating systems themselves.
IE8 does what Microsoft has classically done over the years and that is to take something good or innovative with another program and installs it in their own process. (Kind of like when a larger website gets it’s ideas for features from smaller, smarter websites.) There’s not much the smaller company can do about it, at least in the beginning.
Sometimes it’s glaringly obvious when an improved feature is installed, like tabbed page viewing, which has been around in the innovative FireFox. Other times, the new feature might come from a smaller company that most users weren’t aware of and it never gets the credit or recognition because the basic user just plods onward with IE8 and doesn’t think twice. Yes, the business environment can be sharky, as can the computer internet browser war.
Some of the many complaints I’ve seen and experience are items like
- Menu Bar on top (Can’t)
- Classic Toolbar Buttons (Can’t)
- Very difficult to remove search bar
- IE8 Changed Desktop Icon Appearance
My personal annoyance with IE8 is that I can’t set auto-populate text fields on. OK, yes, I can, but I would seem to also have to allow IE8 to remember passwords in the same fell swoop. Are you fracking kidding me? Sorry gang, I just can’t trust a piece of software to store my passwords.
As far as I’m concerned one extra step that involves storing incredibly sensitive passwords to one’s entire life in a mechanism that is the target of every hacker out there just doesn’t sit well with me.
IE8 also has compatibility issues with the following apps and websites (as of 8/7/10):
- Cooliris (PicLens)
- Google Toolbar
- HP Smart Web Printing
- The Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
- Real Networks RealPlayer 11
- Roxio Drive Letter Access
- Skype
- Snapfish Photo Uploader Toolbar
- Windows Live Login Helper Object
- ZoomText’s Document mode does not work in Internet Explorer 8
- Alt text not displayed in image maps
- Window-Eyes
- First Run Wizard and Window-Eyes
- Supernova
- New Tab Page with Supernova
- NVDA
- The new Smart Address Bar and Windows Search
- IEAK wizard
- Turn off Data Execution Prevention group policy
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Microsoft recommends that Java 6 update 11 for viewing Java Applets.
You can check out MS’s link for Release Notes for Internet Explorer 8 for present or new information, as they update the page.
Of course finding decent help with some issues just isn’t going to happen sometime. Cruising around some bulletin boards, I found this highly cro-magnon-like response: “Use software the way it was designed to be used or live with the consequences of doing it ‘your way’.” Sigh, don’t you love shills? Of course you then find other mindful and angst-filled BB’s where folks spout on and on about MS stifling innovation and the likes. It does not help when you find a viable question on a BB and the answers are only from zealot haters of the process.
Here I am with my online editor, Liam, dealing with IE8
It is what it is. Me, I’d just like to enjoy these technological updates and still have a familiar or near familiar feel to my working environment. MS doesn’t seem too interested in preserving the comfortable work environment some hard core web surfers use while the majority of Microsoft users just sit down, thump buttons and move onward without batting an eye.
Me, I’d suggest that every time MS changes our work environment, that they do the same to their employees and see how much time is lost in their business day waiting for their own teams to adjust to an enforced work environment change.
Then again, I’m more of an eye-for-an-eye kind of guy. HEY! Thanks for coming by! I appreciate the visit. Now, where was I? Oh yea, wasting my time making computer environment changes!
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