Internet Explorer Archive

Microsoft considered renaming Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 36 Comments

Microsoft has had "passionate" discussions about renaming Internet Explorer to distance the browser from its tarnished image, according to answers from members of the developer team given in a reddit Ask Me Anything session today.

In spite of significant investment in the browser - with the result that Internet Explorer 11 is really quite good - many still regard the browser with contempt, soured on it by the lengthy period of neglect that came after the release of the once-dominant version 6. Microsoft has been working to court developers and get them to give the browser a second look, but the company still faces an uphill challenge.

Windows Phone faces the same problem. I'm fairly certain 'a Windows phone' just sounds dirty to many people, associating it with viruses and other issues from the past. Can't blame them.

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Mobile IE to spoof Safari to render mobile sites properly

Internet Explorer 51 Comments

Based on your feedback, we pursued a web experience for IE users consistent with what is available on iOS and Android devices - even where this meant we would be adding non-standard web platform features. We believe that this is a more pragmatic approach to running today's less-standardised mobile web.

Thank you, web developers, for turning mobile Safari into the new Internet Explorer. Have you people learned nothing?

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Microsoft will fix IE in XP despite ending support

Internet Explorer 67 Comments

Despite XP's end of support, Microsoft is still going to release the fix for the recent Internet Explorer vulnerability for the ageing operating system.

Even though Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and is past the time we normally provide security updates, we've decided to provide an update for all versions of Windows XP (including embedded), today. We made this exception based on the proximity to the end of support for Windows XP. The reality is there have been a very small number of attacks based on this particular vulnerability and concerns were, frankly, overblown. Unfortunately this is a sign of the times and this is not to say we don’t take these reports seriously. We absolutely do.

If you're still on Windows XP, you deserve to be insecure. Get a modern operating system - Windows 7/8, OS X, Linux, anything. XP is outdated crap, and it's time to move on.

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Internet Explorer 10 released for Windows 7

Internet Explorer 22 Comments
"Internet Explorer 10 is available worldwide in 95 languages for download today. We will begin auto updating Windows 7 customers to IE10 in the weeks ahead, starting today with customers running the IE10 Release Preview. With this final release, IE10 brings the same leading standards support, with improved performance, security, privacy, reliability that consumers enjoy on Windows 8, to Windows 7 customers."
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How not using IE put me out of touch and cost me dearly

Internet Explorer 19 Comments
"It's never good to scare away your customers. It's even worse if you don't realize you're doing it. That was me. Like most folks in the developer community, it's been years since I last used Internet Explorer as my daily browser. Oh sure, we all keep copies around for web development work, but Firefox, Chrome, and Safari now rule the web roost. Unfortunately, that was not the case with the Blurity userbase." Wise lesson from Jeff Keacher.
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Microsoft to bring full Internet Explorer browsing to Xbox 360

Internet Explorer 22 Comments
"Microsoft is currently testing a modified version of Internet Explorer 9 on its Xbox 360 console, according to our sources. The Xbox 360 currently includes Bing voice search, but it's limited to media results. Microsoft's new Internet Explorer browser for Xbox will expand on this functionality to open up a full browser for the console. We are told that the browser will let Xbox users surf all parts of the web straight from their living rooms." So, when did browsing on your TV turn into something that isn't useless?
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Microsoft flags Firefox and Chrome for security failings

  Submitted by lucas_maximus Internet Explorer 89 Comments
Microsoft has unveiled a website aimed at raising awareness of browser security by comparing the ability of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome to withstand attacks from malware, phishing, and other types of threats. Your Browser Matters gives the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome a paltry 2 and 2.5 points respectively out of a possible score of 4. Visit the site using the IE 9, however, and the browser gets a perfect score. IE 7 gets only 1 point, and IE 6 receives no points at all. The site refused to rate Apple's Safari browser in tests run by The Register.
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IE 9 Best Option Against Web-Based Malware Attacks

  Submitted by HAL2001 Internet Explorer 9 Comments
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 has proved once again to be the best choice when it comes to catching attacks aimed at making the user download Web-based malware. This claim was made by NSS Labs in the recently released results of a test conducted globally from May 27 through June 10 of the current year, which saw five of the most popular Web browsers pitted against each other. Windows Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), Google Chrome 12, Mozilla Firefox 4, Apple Safari 5 and Opera 11 were tested with 1,188 malicious URLs - links that lead to a download that delivers a malicious payload or to a website hosting malware links.
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IE9 Subject to Old, Unpatched IE Vulnerability

  Submitted by Petur Internet Explorer 7 Comments
Microsoft has confirmed that an old known vulnerability has struck their newest version of their browser, Internet Explorer 9. According to Microsoft: "Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability in all supported editions of Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow an attacker to cause a victim to run malicious scripts when visiting various Web sites, resulting in information disclosure. "
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Internet Explorer 9 Is Not Cheating on SunSpider Benchmark

  Submitted by Debjit Internet Explorer 101 Comments
There's a bit of a ruckus on the web about how Microsoft was supposedly cheating when it comes to Internet Explorer 9's performance on benchmarks. Digitizor, as well as some enterprising readers over at HackerNews, came to the conclusion that Microsoft included code in IE9 specifically to ace the SunSpider benchmark. I was ready to write a scathing article about this, - until I loaded up the IEBlog. As it turns, it's not cheating, it's not a bug - it's an actual piece of smart code optimisation other browsers don't have yet.
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‘IE9 Is the IE6 of CSS3’

  Submitted by google_ninja Internet Explorer 50 Comments
"There, I said it. Microsoft has been bombarding the media with claims about how much better IE9 is than all the other browsers, more HTML5 and CSS3 compliant than any other browser that ever existing and ever will. It's the only browser that passes all the tests they made up. And, Microsoft has finally implemented the CSS3 selectors that were implemented by other browsers back in, what? 2003? Because Microsoft has updated IE to support CSS3 selectors and rounded corners, they want us to believe that somehow IE9 magically supports the whole slew of CSS3 visual styling. I'm afraid it doesn't. As a matter of fact, IE9's support for CSS3 visual styling is so poor that the results are shocking."
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Why Do so Many Geeks Hate Internet Explorer?

  Submitted by poundsmack Internet Explorer 29 Comments
"It's common knowledge that almost every single geek hates Internet Explorer with a passion, but have you ever wondered why? Let's take a fair look at the history and where it all began... For posterity, if nothing else. Contrary to what you might think, this article is not meant to be a hate-fest on Internet Explorer - in fact, we're pretty impressed with the hardware acceleration and new features in Internet Explorer 9 - but keep reading for the whole story."
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