In my most recent piece, "IE8, and why it's almost my default browser", I outline a couple of factors that inhibited IE8 from holding the default browser position on my PC. Since writing that article, due in part to some helpful Neowin members and some quality time with IE8, I have since awarded IE8 that coveted position on my PC and have promptly thrown Google Chrome to the curb.Perhaps the most taxing of my issues was what has been colloquially referred to as the 'tab issue'. Many users have complained of severe delays when opening new tabs in Internet Explorer. The solution I have discovered (thanks to helpful Neowin members) is that the 'tab delay' is actually caused by Spybot S&D's Immunization settings. Upon hearing this, I promptly entered into Spybot S&D and de-immunized Internet Explorer. To my amazement, IE8 opened instantaneously! I went completely tab-happy and started opening an insane amount of tabs, and they all opened just as fast as they did in Chrome!
In taking a moment to wipe the tears of joy from my face, I was reminded of my other issues with IE8, as mentioned in my previous article. Stumbling upon the Chrome Experiments website alerted me to the shortcomings of my beloved browser, as it was clear that javascript in the form presented, was not an ability of IE8.
The experiments certainly are cool, but I quickly began to question their relevance. I visited all of my frequent sites, the ones which utilizes javascript and found that while IE8 may indeed be unable to render an onslaught of virtual bouncy-balls, it could handle what was actually important quite proficiently.
With my two biggest issues solved, one with a quick-fix and the other with an enlightenment of sorts, I proudly designated IE8 as my default browser.
At the conclusion of my previous piece, I mentioned that the importance lay in the fact that IE8 fell short for very few reasons. With the reasons having been properly dealt with, it no longer falls short! I've disposed of my flavour-of-the-week, Google Chrome and am happily surfing the Internet with IE8.
Lack of OS support is holding me back. I read up on Mac OS X progress though, and it's coming along nicely
IE has addons always has had addons.
It works well in IE7, but it's not yet ready for IE8 it seems.
After all of that, THEN it could be MY default browser.
Yes... I forgot about spellcheck too...
Firefox still rules. Only $$some blinds don`t agree with that.
Not just you. I don't understand how it's so hard to ignore banner ads. On most well done sites, such as neowin, they're really unintrusive.
-Spenser
A link that may be of help, with a "rules list" for the InPrivate feature. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22124619-...block-plus-list
-Spenser
Because on many sites they clash or the ad is for something I really, really don't want to see.
-Spenser
Apart from that great big stonker of an ad slap bang in the middle of the site!
-Spenser
Neowin uses adwords. Adwords are the very essence of intrusive ad placement.
This. Honestly the most annoying advertisements I've ever seen, next to ads with sound.
-Spenser
What a horrible waste of money. For $10 more you can buy http://www.admuncher.com which is updated daily, supports all browsers and other software and is super fast.
+1
I prefer webkit as a rendering engine out of all of them.
I wonder why there aren't any of these extensions for IE? Is it the browser, or is it that people just don't try?
I'm not dependent on extensions.
For the record, Opera user here
For the record, I use Google Chrome.
Well then, your eyes need some adjustment. I suggest contact lenses, or spectacles if you're not bothered about style.
For the record, I use Google Chrome.
Yeah, but some of them take you to the internet and give you a screwed up picture of it.
Show us a few. And NOT Joe Blow's home Linux web blog. Show us some major sites that IE screws up on that Firefox or Chrome show correctly.
Please. I'm serious.
In your eyes, maybe. For others, it's a great browser that's only improved with this latest release. IE6 was awful, IE7 was ok, but IE8 is great. I use it all the time. Used to use Firefox... actually I still do sometimes. But IE8's my default.
You should try it.
Comments like this really do not help contribute to a meaningful discussion :/
I despise Internet Explorer because of how far behind it is compared to the other major browsers, but I understand that it does the job for some people and I understand they have a choice in what they would like to use.
I despise Internet Explorer because of how far behind it is compared to the other major browsers, but I understand that it does the job for some people and I understand they have a choice in what they would like to use.
Far behind in what?
This is coming from an everything-but-IE user. I've used Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc, and I can safely say that all of the above are better choices.
It's more of a shame that somebody bases their opinions on others by the web browser they use.
Check your hosts file.
I just disabled the Java addin and that fixed it. I have nothing in terms of restricted sites or Spybot installed.
Restricted sites list is empty and I had the problem in IE7 as well, so what you suggested is not what causes the delays. Not in my case anyway.
Highest is AVG weighing in at 0.34 secs, which is disabled. The rest are 0.03/4 secs (and are also disabled anyway). Ah well, I probably wouldn't use it anyway. Thanks for the help.
My experiences with IE are always looking over someones shoulders or having to do something on their machine. And almost every time there is some obtrusive nasty looking toolbar that they have installed that makes me want to run in the corner and puke my lungs out.
As for the toolbar issue, Firefox isn't immune to that any more.
I actually think with glasser and hide menubar its the best looking browser around, that with the ability of add ons makes it fantastic.
Although customisation (including aesthetics) is a strong point of Firefox its a shame a couple more features aren't standard, I think the styling of glasser and the removed menu bar would be perfect - then the ability to right click the main bar similar to wmp without classic menus, to select the normal menus would be great (maybe they have classic menus or not as an option similar to wmp too)
There are three addons which report load times of 0.03 seconds or less.
There are three addons which report load times of 0.03 seconds or less.
Yes for some reason the IE 8 I use in Windows 7 beta 7000 is actually faster than the version currently available for Windows Vista.
i wanted my extensions badly. so i browsed for a solution and came across firefox minefield... and damn is it fast! super fast browsing speed but launch speed is still slower than google chrome...cant blame firefox for that though because i have like 38 addons and it takes 15 seconds for a cold start but around 5 seconds for a warm start.
chrome on the other hand launches in 1 second roughly, has slower browsing speed than minefield, a more compact interface (but not even close to the compactness and beautiful interface i get with firefox after a bit of customization).
these two are my main browsers right now.. minefield for main browsing and google chrome for quick launch browsing (like when i wanna look up summin quick)
tried internet explorer 8 and the first page I loaded showed up with artifacts when i scrolled down. never fired ie8 up again.
i wanted my extensions badly. so i browsed for a solution and came across firefox minefield... and damn is it fast! super fast browsing speed but launch speed is still slower than google chrome...cant blame firefox for that though because i have like 38 addons and it takes 15 seconds for a cold start but around 5 seconds for a warm start.
chrome on the other hand launches in 1 second roughly, has slower browsing speed than minefield, a more compact interface (but not even close to the compactness and beautiful interface i get with firefox after a bit of customization).
these two are my main browsers right now.. minefield for main browsing and google chrome for quick launch browsing (like when i wanna look up summin quick)
tried internet explorer 8 and the first page I loaded showed up with artifacts when i scrolled down. never fired ie8 up again.
Chrome will have extensions support soon - I'm sure someone could right a hack but then it would be stuck in a cycle of incompatibility because of a lack of a stable extension api.
We could give them a chance in 3 - 4 years time again. But for now they should be punished.
We could give them a chance in 3 - 4 years time again. But for now they should be punished.
Wrong. IE8, Opera and Chrome all displayed a site I desigend perfectly. I had to go back to fix things for Firefox3.
We could give them a chance in 3 - 4 years time again. But for now they should be punished.
Wrong. IE8, Opera and Chrome all displayed a site I desigend perfectly. I had to go back to fix things for Firefox3.
Agreed. IE8, Chrome, and even Opera seem to display websites perfectly, while FF3 still has some issues. I use FF3 still to this day, but I use Chrome when I am designing a website, to ensure it works to what most people still use.
Also, can you tell me what specific FF3 issues you've had?
I'll give you a specific IE8 issue. It fails to register an absolutely positioned element as a child of the closest parent element with display: relative. If I apply something to the parent element, the absolutely positioned child acts as if it doesn't belong to the parent and doesn't inherit the style. It causes big problems when trying to make pure CSS dropdown menus.
Chrome, Safari, FF3 all behave identically, IE8 is the only problematic one. And no, it wasn't in any compatibility mode I verified that through the developer tool
Although I had nearly decided to switch to Firefox before IE 8 came out, I've since gone back to 100% IE. Compared to IE 8, Firefox 3 feels slow to me now...
Although I had nearly decided to switch to Firefox before IE 8 came out, I've since gone back to 100% IE. Compared to IE 8, Firefox 3 feels slow to me now...
They appear on technology websites where the ad claims you have an infection or software problems and con you into clicking on it. IMHO the issue is the scum bags who do these ads rather than Microsoft.
Although I had nearly decided to switch to Firefox before IE 8 came out, I've since gone back to 100% IE. Compared to IE 8, Firefox 3 feels slow to me now...
They appear on technology websites where the ad claims you have an infection or software problems and con you into clicking on it. IMHO the issue is the scum bags who do these ads rather than Microsoft.
LOL, which "technology" site are you referring to?
For the record, I use Firefox for the addons, and the one I can't live without is Foxmarks, that syncs my bookmarks, and now even my passwords across multiple computers, i.e. home and work.
Out of all the engines, seems only Gecko always works as expected. Sometimes being slower just means they are doing the proper calculations for everything
There are perfectly good spell checker plug-ins available anyway....
I've not had one security issue since using IE8. As for display problems; none have been noticed. In fact all round IE8 is a great program!
this is rediculous
I'm a platform neutral person Windows/Mac/Linux, Microsoft/Mozilla/Google, etc. and I must say that out of all the fanboy groups, Microsofties are the worst breed of fanboy, even worse than the Linux Geeks.
Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices | Sounds
Scroll down to Windows Explorer. "Start Navigation" is the one you hate. I hate it too, along with many other default Windows sounds, which is why I customized my sound scheme LONG ago.
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