IE

To Update Web Browsers Or Not?

January 3, 2012 By Terry Stockdale

Longtime subscriber Chet wrote to ask about the need to update Internet Explorer and Firefox:

Hi Terry

Is it wise to update every time you get an email…for instance I’m still using IE8 and am hesitating to go to IE9…and now it seems FIREFOX, MY BROWSER OF CHOICE, (V3.6.18) is updating every 10 minutes!

I still haven’t gotten around to v4 and they are up to v5. Is it better to wait awhile rather than jump right in as soon as they announce something?

Thanks,

Chet (long time fan and subscriber)

I immediately wrote back to Chet to tell him that it’s time to update to Internet Explorer 9 and to Firefox the current Firefox version.

I usually wait a couple weeks for any "growing pains" to be resolved with IE updates, since I don’t normally use IE.

Firefox, however, I always update immediately. That’s even more important now, since…

Continue reading To Update Web Browsers Or Not?

Filed Under: Communications, Firefox, IE, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web browsing, Windows Updates Tagged With: firefox, ie update, internet explorer, internet explorer 8, mozilla firefox, update, update web browser, web browser, web browsers

Internet Explorer 8 Beta problem

April 20, 2009 By Terry Stockdale

Reader Herman Barnes wrote to comment and ask about problems with the beta version of Internet Explorer 8:

Thanks for a great site. Ihave IE8 beta on winXP. My favorites star button won’t open. Star depresses like it’s going to to something but nothing happens. Recent activity were uninstall Norton Security and install AVG. Any ideas? Thanks..

I wrote back to Herman to tell him that I’m not using the IE8 beta and can’t provide any help on it. I seldomly use beta software, whether Microsoft’s o r from other companies.

Remember that beta software is software that is released in the hopes that users will find and report bugs. It is not perfect, is not a "release candidate" nor final version, and often has known bugs that simply haven’t been fixed yet.

Whether from Microsoft or other companies, you should not have any expectation that beta software’s known bugs have been fixed — whether they are functional or security bugs. There’s a reason that beta software licenses are even more emphatic in their disclaimer of any warranty and disclaimer of any damages that they may cause to your data or your system.

If it doesn’t work correctly, report it. If it bothers you, uninstall the beta software and go back to the current version.

Now, of course, IE 8 has been released as a regular download — it’s no longer a beta. The next rumors are that Microsoft will issue Internet Explorer 8 as a Critical Update for Windows XP and as an Important Update for Windows Vista.

Filed Under: IE, Terry's Computer Tips, Web browsing, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Staying Up-to-Date – Problem Running Online Games

August 6, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

I received an email from subscriber Bev, who wrote that she was having problems running some online games:

Hi, Love your newsletter and look forward to it. I don\’t know how to explain myself very well so you can shorten my description immensely. I have an HP Vista Home Premium 3 months old. 2 gig ram. I play games on Pogo.com every day. I have an HP Laptop XP Pro 2 years old. I have a Linksys router G 4 port 802.11G I use Cox Cable IP. I have been having a big aggravating problem with my game page just dropping out losing my progress. I play Mahjong Garden and many others. It leaves a page saying Unable to connect to server.

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Filed Under: IE, Microsoft Updates, Operating System, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips

Outlook Express Links Don’t Work

January 14, 2008 By Terry Stockdale

I received an interesting question from subscriber Maria. She has been using Firefox, as many people do, including me. In this case, she had just upgraded her Internet Explorer to IE7 and was having problems with Outlook Express.

Maria wrote:

Terry, I currently have Fire Fox and Internet Explorer on my computer. I just added the Internet Explorer as a browser after removing it some time ago. Outlook Express is my default email handler. The problem is that in Outlook Express the links don’t open since I added Internet Explorer. [Tech guy] at [a local computer shop] says that it seams like the two are competing I am hoping that you have some ideas as I have tried a few from a Google search.

Fortunately for Maria, I had seen this problem before and thought I knew the answer.

Internet Explorer 7 messes up Outlook Express’ settings if Internet Explorer is not the default web browser when it is installed.

Continue reading Outlook Express Links Don’t Work

Filed Under: Email, IE, Operating System, Outlook Express, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Web browsing, Windows XP

Outlook Express Links Don’t Work

December 21, 2007 By Terry Stockdale

Maria wrote:

Terry, I currently have Fire Fox and Internet Explorer on my computer. I just added the Internet Explorer as a browser after removing it some time ago. Outlook Express is my default email handler. The problem is that in Outlook Express the links don’t open since I added Internet Explorer. [Tech guy] at [a local computer shop] says that it seams like the two are competing I am hoping that you have some ideas as I have tried a few from a Google search.

Fortunately for Maria, I had seen this problem before and thought I knew the answer.

Continue reading Outlook Express Links Don’t Work

Filed Under: Bug Fixes, Communications, Email, IE, Outlook Express, Patches, Pre-installed Software, Security Fixes, Software, System, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web browsing

Making Viewed Fonts and Images Larger (or smaller)

June 11, 2007 By Terry Stockdale

Ever go to a web site and find that the fonts are huge? Or, maybe they’re too small for your eyes?

Our favorite web browsers, whether we use Internet Explorer 6, IE7, Firefox 1.5, Firefox 2, Opera 8 or Opera 9, have multiple ways for us to change the size of the words we see.

Some of those ways affect only the text. They’ll let you have larger text or smaller text, but they won’t affect image sizes.

Some others will automatically change the displayed image size along with the displayed text characters.

Continue reading Making Viewed Fonts and Images Larger (or smaller)

Filed Under: Communications, Firefox, IE, Opera, Performance Tweaks, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web browsing, Windows XP

Sunbelt Personal Firewall Review

June 3, 2007 By Terry Stockdale

Sunbelt Software has recently renamed their Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall to be Sunbelt Personal Firewall. It’s their personal computer firewall software package. SPF is available in full-function mode (paid license) and in a reduced-function free (licensed free for personal non-commercial use) versions. Actually, it is the same program — after the full-function 30-day trial, you can purchase a license key to reactivate the additional functions or if you don’t qualify for the free license.

Sunbelt purchased the existing, respected firewall program Personal Firewall from Kerio in December 2005.

Sunbelt has reduced the price significantly, too. Sunbelt Personal Firewall is only $19.95, which includes 1 year of upgrades, as opposed to the usual $40 for firewall programs. Sunbelt’s web site shows that upgrade subscriptions will be priced at $9.95 per year.

Since I have already registered my copy, I know that the License and the Upgrade Subscriptions are two different things. My license expires “Never,” while my upgrade subscription expires next February.

First, what do you miss with the “free” version?

* It is licensed for personal and/or non-commercial use only.
* Web content filtering is not available in the free version
* The powerful Host Intrusion and Prevention System (HIPS) is not available in the free version
* It can not be used on a computer that is providing the “Internet Connection Sharing” functions for your local network (the “Internet gateway” computer). It will block the ICS data packets, since they are not destined for this computer)
* Logs can not be sent to the Windows “Syslog” server.
* You can not password-protect your firewall configuration, and
* You can not access and administer the firewall remotely.

I am currently using Sunbelt Personal Firewall on all my family’s computers as well as on my notebook (my primary computer) and I am impressed. When you install SPF, you can choose between the “simple” and “advanced user” installations. Even if you’re an advanced user, pick the “simple” installation…

Continue reading Sunbelt Personal Firewall Review

Filed Under: Firewall, IE, Opera, Security, Security Issues, Terry's Computer Tips, Web browsing, Windows XP, Wireless

Filtering Web Content with Windows Content Manager

May 16, 2007 By Terry Stockdale

Subscriber Nena Richard wrote to ask:

In trying to keep grandchildren off “my space,” I loaded “content advisor.”Every site I open asks for a password and I can’t find how to delete it.

Please HELP!

Thanks,
Nena

I assume you mean the Content Advisor that is part of the Windows XP “Internet Options” menu. I’m not familiar with the Content Advisor, but I did poke around in it a little to answer your question.

You can’t delete Content Advisor because it is part of Windows XP. You can turn it off, though.

Microsoft Content Advisor works by creating a list of web sites that you will “Allow” your computer’s users to access without a password. In the same “Allowed Sites” tab, you can also select “Never” for access to a site.

Continue reading Filtering Web Content with Windows Content Manager

Filed Under: Firefox, IE, Operating System, Pre-installed Software, Web browsing, Windows XP

ie7-installation-turn-off-antivirus

April 25, 2007 By Terry Stockdale

To install, the IE team recommends temporarily disabling your anti-spyware, anti-adware and anti-virus applications.

One of my subscribers asked “My question is how do I do this ?”

Filed Under: Anti-virus, IE, Security Fixes, Terry's Computer Tips, Web browsing, Windows XP

ActiveX or No ActiveX

April 6, 2007 By Terry Stockdale

I received a question from a subscriber who asked:

A number of times I have seen you refer disparagingly of “Active-x controls”.
I have seen downloads that require Active X to run properly. I have read the definition of the program, but, I guess I am just dense. What is this thing, and why do you consider it so insidious?
Admittedly, I’m technical-challenged, but can this program be explained?
What does one do as an alternative, if the program you want to download, requires Active-X to run?

Active-X controls are downloadable programs that have full capabilities to do anything on your computer. I’m not sure why Microsoft chose such the innocuous word “control” for a program that originally had few or no security constraints imposed upon it.