Tip-Of-The-Week

November 10, 2006

From the Free Computer Consultant

http://www.FreeComputerConsultant.com

This week I'm going to talk about the new Internet Explorer 7.

On November 1st, Microsoft added it to the automatic updates download list. If your machine is set to auto download, you probably did.

The good news is that Microsoft won't install it automatically; because they care about you? WRONG! Because you have to agree to their EULA (end user license agreement) before they will actually install it.

My recommendation is to pass on IE 7, at least for now. After all, you are using Mozilla Firefox, Right?

Firefox released version 2.0 this week, and I do recommend it. I haven't checked all of my plug-ins to make sure they are compatible, but at least Firefox, unlike IE, can be uninstalled without too much trouble.

Why pass on IE 7? Well, for starters, why use it? But for those sites where you must use it, IE 7 still hasn't fixed some of the vulnerabilities in IE 6. And in order to make it work properly and securely, some very propeller headed individuals have a nice long list of tweaks necessary to feel secure with it.

I think to myself, if I don't have the patience to go thru that list of tweaks, who does? The average computer user? I think not.

But here is perhaps the best news for those who have some websites (I do too) that MUST be viewed with IE because their programmers are morons! (Alright, maybe they aren't THAT bad; maybe).

It's called IEView, a plugin for, you guessed it, Firefox. Install IEView, close Firefox, then reopen Firefox and go to an IE only site. Right-Click on the page and select "View in IE" - pretty cool, huh?

It gets better. Go to the menu and select "Tools" | "Always view this page in IE". Is that great or what? Use Firefox, bookmark even IE pages, and when you go there, IE will open up for you.

Get IEView at http://ieview.mozdev.org/installation.html

That's it for this week.

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