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Internet Explorer 5 GripesInternet Explorer 5 is an old version of Microsoft's web browser |
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The following gripes are on this page:
May 2000. Is it time to upgrade your copy of Internet Explorer version 5? Are you running IE 5.0 or IE5.01? These should be easy questions to answer, but no.
Normally to determine the version of a Windows program, you do Help -> About. With IE 5 however, its not so simple. In fact it is so confusing that Microsoft has a Knowledge Base article on decoding the output from an IE5 Help -> About. My biggest gripe here is that version 5.01 is not identified in the Help -> About as being version 5.01. The KB article is called Determining Which Version of Internet Explorer You Are Using. (alternate URL). Below is a small excerpt from this article. It's disgraceful that this is necessary.
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What version of Internet Explorer 5 are you running? | |
|---|---|
Windows 95 |
5.00.0910.1309 Internet Explorer 5 Beta 2 5.00.2014.0216 Internet Explorer 5 (First Production version) 5.00.2314.1003 Internet Explorer 5 (Office 2000, aka 5.0a) 5.00.2614.3500 Internet Explorer 5 (Windows 98 Second Edition) 5.00.2919.6307 Internet Explorer 5.01 (included with Office 2000 SR-1) 5.00.3105.0106 Internet Explorer 5.01 with Service Pack 1 5.00.3314.2101 Internet Explorer 5.01 (Service Pack 2) |
Supported OS not clear |
5.50.4030.2400 Internet Explorer
5.5 (Beta) 5.50.4134.0600 Internet Explorer 5.5 (NT4 and ?) 5.50.4308.2900 Internet Explorer 5.5 (Beta, Advanced Security Privacy) 5.50.4522.1800 Internet Explorer 5.5 (Service Pack 1) 5.50.4807.2300 Internet Explorer 5.5 (Service Pack 2) 6.00.2600.0000 Internet Explorer 6 |
| Windows 2000 |
5.00.2516.1900 Internet Explorer 5.01 (Beta 3, build 5.00.2031) 5.00.2919.800 Internet Explorer 5.01 (RC1, build 5.00.2072) 5.00.2919.3800 Internet Explorer 5.01 (RC2, build 5.00.2128) 5.00.2920.0000 Internet Explorer 5.01 (build 5.00.2195) 5.00.3103.1000 Internet Explorer 5.01 with Service Pack 1 5.00.3315.1000 Internet Explorer 5.01 with Service Pack 2 |
| Windows Me |
5.00.3314.2101 Internet Explorer 5.01 (Service Pack 2) 5.50.4134.0100 Internet Explorer 5.5 |
| Windows XP | 6.00.2600.0000 Internet Explorer 6 |
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Internet Explorer version numbers use the following format: | |
The reason for the OS column in the table above is that some versions of IE only appear in some versions of Windows. However, most versions of IE can run in multiple versions of Windows. Rather than keep a list by OS, Microsoft only keeps one list and it is not clear there (at least to me) which versions of IE run in which versions of Windows.
The table above omits beta versions for the sake of simplicity. Usually someone running a beta version does so on purpose.
On the computer of someone using AOL version 5, IE5 identified itself as 5.00.2314.1003IS. The meaning of "IS" was a mystery until Microsoft updated the Knowledge Base article (see below). This version of IE had the AOL logo in the top right corner rather than the standard windows logo. In the Knowledge Base article, Microsoft identifies this version of IE as being from Office 2000. The computer in question, had no Office 2000 software installed on it.
July 23, 2000. The Microsoft Knowledge base article mentioned above has been updated since May (the last review date is July 11, 2000).
As for the "IS" in the AOL version of IE, the article now explains
that this is a code with these meanings:
IC = Internet Content Provider
IS = Internet Service Provider
CO = Corporate Administrator
There have been two new versions of IE since May 2000 when the above was first written; IE 5.01 with Service Pack (bunch of bug fixes) 1 and IE 5.5. Their new version numbers are now included in the figure above.
One thing is not clear in this article however. IE version 5.5 has only one listing and it is not obvious whether it applies to Windows95/98/NT4 or Windows 2000. The list of IE versions is identified as being for Windows 95/98/NT4 which was true when the article was written, but is no longer true as the list now includes Windows 2000 versions. At first the list identified just the Windows 2000 versions (they were exceptions), so you could assume the other versions were for Windows95/98/NT4 by default. However, the last few entries identify the applicable OS for every entry, so its no longer clear what the default OS is when it is not specifically indicated.
October 10, 2000. Below on this page are details of assorted travails upgrading IE5. One thing stands out about the different versions of IE5 however: the IE 5 upgrade program (ie5setup.exe) does not tell you anything at all about versions. Upgrading IE5 entails not just the browser, but a long list of companion software such as a Java Virtual Machine, NetMeeting, Outlook Express and much more. At no point does the upgrade program tell you either the versions of these programs that you are currently running or the latest versions that it knows about and wants to download.
February 2, 2001. I just noticed that starting with IE5.5, Help->About reports additional information called "Update Versions." The first copy of IE5.5 I saw had a value of zero for this. What is it? See below.
February 12, 2001. This KB article has been updated again. The last review date is now January 15, 2001. Additions have been reflected in the table above. It is still not clear from this article which operating systems are supported by IE5.5. Also, there is a dedicated version of IE5.5 for Windows Me but not a dedicated version with SP1.
As for "Update Versions" that appear as part of the Help->About output, the article says this:
Internet Explorer versions 4.0 and later include an Update Versions line that lists all installed updates or hot fixes to the current version of Internet Explorer. Updates to ... Internet Explorer 5 or 5.01 are listed by their corresponding Microsoft Knowledge Base article "Q" number... |
I have a copy of IE5 version 5.00.2919.6307 does not show "Update Versions" at all.
September 9, 2001. The table above has been updated (it purposely omits betas). IE6 is shown only for Windows XP. I could not figure out from the Microsoft KB article what the version is for IE6 on the other supported flavors of Windows that it runs on.
December 18, 2001. As of October 28, 2001, IE 5.0 and IE 5.01 are no longer supported by Microsoft which means that bug fixes are no longer provided. Considering that there have been critical security bugs discovered since then, users are forced to upgrade to IE 5.5 or IE 6 to get a browser with all the latest bug fixes.
December 27, 2001. The version of IE is not sufficient to fully identify which version of the browser is being used. When I first upgraded to IE 5.5 SP2 the version number correctly indicated this. However, when I then used Windows update to apply a fix for a security bug (dated Dec. 13, 2001) the version number did not change. In effect, there are two versions of IE 5.5 SP2, those with and without this bug fix applied.
March 7, 2002. There have been at least two updates/patches to IE6 since its initial release. According to the Microsoft documentation, neither of these patches changes the version number. I have not verified this.
October 10, 2000. I try to keep to a minimum the programs that run when my computer boots up. A free program from PC Magazine called Startup Cop shows that under Windows NT4, a program called loadwc.exe is run at boot time. Checking Task Manager just after booting confirms that it is running.
What is it? What does it do?
This gripe is here because it is part of Internet Explorer. Unfortunately that's all I can figure out about it. My guess is that it has something to do with the IE5 option of automatically checking for new versions of IE (tools -> internet options -> advanced tab). However, on two NT4 machines that I checked, this option was off, and loadwc.exe was nonetheless invoked at boot time. One of these machines was running IE5.01, the other IE5.5. I checked the Microsoft Knowledge Base, found 8 hits on this file and looked at all of them. The only information this turned up was that it was also part of IE version 4.
I tried to ask Microsoft this question, but they would not talk to me. The first step of opening a tech support item on the Microsoft web site involves entering the product id. After entering the product id for IE 5.01, the below was their "go away kid don't bother me" response:
| The Product ID (PID) you have supplied is not entitled to any more support because the No-Charge support period has expired. |
Undaunted, I went to a computer running IE5.5 and again tried to ask Microsoft this question, supplying the product id for IE5.5. No go. The response was that the product is not eligible for support via online assisted support. Now I am daunted. Perhaps being a monopoly means never having to provide support.
Here are some more details about loadwc.exe under NT4:
Here are the details about this as observed under Windows 98 on a computer with IE5.0:
The Windows 98 research gave me another keyword to search for in the Microsoft Knowledge Base - webcheck. Searching for "webcheck.dll" returned nothing useful. However, searching for "webcheck" returned item Q176960, Description of the Loadwc.exe File in Internet Explorer (last reviewed July 25, 2000). The item says it handles subscriptions and also "propagates settings for user profiles". Oh.
November 27, 2000. A reader of this site named Dirk provided some information about webcheck. He said:
I believe Microsoft's IIS Resource Kit contains some source code for an 'unsupported' utility called Webcheck. Webcheck is a VB program that checks whether a web site is available or not. I presume that the code for checking a site is contained in the webcheck.dll file and is probably called by loadwc.exe. Why MS has included this in IE is beyond me.
I checked the Microsoft Press book "Internet Information Server Resource Kit" which describes v4 of IIS. There is one sentence in the book on page 484 about webcheck. It says: "WebCheck monitors server activity and can send e-mail notification messages or log alerts to a database". Is it the same webcheck? Beats me.
December 22, 2000. It seems that you can live without it. Using a utility called Startup Cop from PC Magazine, I stopped loadwc.exe from running at boot time. On two machines so far, everything seems to be working just fine after a few months. Both machines are running NT4 workstation, one has IE5.5, the other IE5.01.
January 8, 2001. A reader named Lawrence wrote with another way to
prevent it from running at boot time. If you rename "loadwc.exe" to "loadwcNoRun.exe"
then Windows will be unable to find the file to run it. There are no error messages returned on
startup. If you ever need to return it, just rename it by removing the "NoRun".
November 13, 2001. Another reader wrote to say that loadwc.exe is not needed for
normal processing under either Windows 95 or Windows 98. He renamed the file to
prevent it from running.
Lawrence also did much research into this on a system with IE4. His research is below.
|
When you subscribe to a web page, loadwc automatically looks for updates. Clicking on "Update Subscriptions", with loadwc running, it
clearly establishes a connection to the web servers in your list and checks for content changes against pages which it has cached.
However, what it does in the background, when you're not updating your subscriptions, is unclear. I've watched the traffic between a Windows box and the Internet using a connection through a Linux router, and I've never seen it attempt to mysteriously pass data across. When loadwc is stopped, aside from subscriptions not working, I have not seen any difference at all in the machine - except for the fact that the CPU cycles and memory consumed by this executable have now been freed up. So, do we really need to have a little task running all the time that seems to only be capable of organizing subscriptions when the browser is loaded? If so, why not make it a part of the browser that only starts up then? ... I made a script that launches loadwc and then IE. I used the script to start IE, rather than just clicking on the desktop icon. For two weeks I did this, ensuring that every time I closed Internet Exploiter, I manually intervened and killed off loadwc afterwards. The fact that the browser - including all subscription features - worked fine suggests to me that Microsoft could have made this a part of IE that only runs when IE is loaded. Since M$ didn't do that, there's apparently something else going on; however, I am at a loss to say what. ... Finally, the name, "loadwc", is, from my understanding, an abbreviation of "LOAD Web Check". Therefore, a program given the name "LOADWC" would start up, launch the Web Check application that it's supposed to call, and then terminate. However, I've never seen anything that looks like it might be related to, or launched by, loadwc, in my running 16 or 32 bit task lists. Nor have I ever seen loadwc terminate... |
Many thanks to Lawrence. In summary, loadwc is not needed.
My gripes on IE6 also include information on webcheck.dll
Bill writes: "There used to be an internet service provider named WebCOMBO. It cost $180 to sign up for dialup service but there was no monthly charge. The company finally went bankrupt, and when they did they sent a message to their members how to get rid of "loadwc.exe." I don't remember the details, but it involved killing the loadwc process and eliminating its registry entry. Pretty simple. Its function as far as I know was to prevent the user from changing his or her home page to anything but WebCOMBO.com." January 3, 2008.
Is Big Brother Watching Your Net Searches? October 23, 2000. Eweek
magazine. Brett Arquette. Quoting from the article: "I had assumed
that when I used the left search pane of IE5 to search Yahoo, the search went
through Yahoo. However, it appears that every search actually goes first through
Microsoft, which packages the request and retrieves the data from
Yahoo."
Searches through IE5 go to ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/srchasst.htm
A different but related problem has to do with another access to MSN. If you enter a bad URL into IE5, before it comes back and says that the web page could not be loaded, it does a search on MSN (thanks go to reader Tony for the heads up on this). In the example below, I manually entered www.youcantfindmeanywhere.com into the IE5 address box.
If you are not quick you won't notice this as the URL shown above is displayed very briefly. I had to try this a few times before I captured the URL with a screen shot. What gives? There are some configuration options for IE5 about searching from the address bar. On the machine that generated the above screen shot, they were all unchecked. Specifically, the options that control this are found at Tools --> Internet Options --> Advanced Tab --> Search from the Address Bar. Clicking on the option "Do not search from the Address bar" does disable this activity. Turns out this is more of an FYI, than a gripe.
January 25, 2001. Many Microsoft web sites were not accessible on the Internet yesterday due to a configuration error with their DNS servers. The Wall Street Journal reported today on page B7 that IE "opens by default to MSN's home page and also uses MSN's search function to help locate some Web sites." This is not news. However, the paper also reported that "Inside some corporate networks, failed attempts by the browser software trying repeatedly to reach MSN clogged Internet connections for other employees." The article is called "Microsoft's Web Sites and E-Mail Crash."
October 18, 2001. IE 5.01 SP2 (5.00.3315.1000). You can not turn off the option for performing searches from the address bar. Tools => Internet Options => Advanced Tab => Search from the Address Bar still brings up four radio buttons. One of the radio buttons is "Do not search from the address bar". I turned this on, closed out of IE, restarted IE and could still do a search from the address bar. Not only that, I got an X10 popup ad for my trouble. Checking back, the radio button was no longer checked, none of the radio buttons were checked. The address bar search took me to MSN, specifically to: http://auto.search.msn.com/results.asp?FORM=AS14&v=1&RS=CHECKED&srch=4&q=[search terms]
A web browser that supports Java applets, runs them inside a web page. The browser includes a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that interprets and executes the Java applets. Over time, there have been many different versions/releases of Java and JVMs. Internet Explorer does not tell you which version of Java or the JVM it is using. (February 6, 2001)
March 18, 2001. In the old days, life was simple. Computer software got updated with bug fixes and new features and each update produced a higher version/release number. Not with IE5.
In the beginning there was IE 5.0. Then came 5.01. Then came 5.01 with a bunch of bug fixes (Service Pack) known as 5.01 SP1. Why the first update to 5.0 was an increase in the version number, but the second one was a Service Pack beats me. Anyway, there was a constant forward movement. Then came IE 5.5. Then a bunch of big fixes produced 5.5 SP1 (Service Pack 1). Like time, versions constantly march forward.
Now Microsoft comes out with IE 5.01 SP2. A second bunch of bug fixes for version 5.01. Even though there is a version 5.5, they continue to enhance the older version 5.01. In effect, there is now a family of IE5 versions, with a 5.01 tree and a 5.5 tree. Why?
Windows ME users, by the way, can not use 5.01 SP2. WinMe comes with IE 5.5 and it can't be downgraded to a member of the 5.01 tree. The readme file for SP2 says that if you upgrade from Windows 9x or NT to Windows 2000, you should first uninstall IE 5.01 Service Pack 2.
March 30, 2001. All versions of IE5, except for 5.01 with Service Pack 2, have a Big Bug! This bug allows a bad person to run any program they want on your computer. The bad persons program can do anything on your computer that you can do - including deleting all your files. What about IE4? Microsoft does not care, they didn't even bother testing it.
Microsoft has a fix for this problem (aka "patch"). The fix however is only for IE 5.01 Service Pack 1 or IE 5.5 Service Pack 1. If you run other versions of IE5, you have to upgrade your browser, not just apply the fix. If you try to apply the fix to a version of IE5 that it does not work with, the fix says it is not needed. This is wrong.
This bug also effects Outlook and Outlook Express because they use IE to render HTML based email messages. This is another instance of how viewing an email message can wipe out all your files, even without clicking on an attachment.
Read about this from Microsoft or from the man who found the bug and reported it to Microsoft, Juan Carlos García Cuartango (web site is in Spanish). This is not the first issue that can result in an Outlook user having all their files deleted just by viewing an email message, without clicking on an attached file to run it. See my Outlook virus gripes.
IE 5.01 SP2 on Windows 2000 with SP2. With a web server running on another computer on my LAN, I point Internet Explorer at the other machine and it acts as if it was an internet computer rather than a local LAN computer. TCP/IP works on the LAN, I can ping the other computer by name and by IP Address. However, entering HTTP://ipaddress into IE always invokes a dial-up connection window. I use dedicated non-routable internal-use-only IP addresses on my LAN (10.x.x.x), so IE should realize they are local. I also tried HTTP://computername but the result was the same as with the IP address.
I played with IE options:
At Tools ==> Internet Options ==> Connections ==> LAN Settings, I
turned on the checkbox to automatically detect settings. No effect.
At Tools ==> Internet Options ==> Security ==> Local Intranet ==>
Sites ==> Advanced, I added the IP address for the other computer. No effect.
At Tools ==> Internet Options ==> Connections ==> I said to Never dial
a Connection. At first this appeared not to work, as IE again complained that it
could not find the IP address while online and asked if I wanted to go offline.
However, when I said to go online, it did not, but instead found the computer on
my LAN (both by name and by IP address). (July 5,
2001)
Update: A Microsoft KB article may explain this behavior. An Intranet Site Is Identified as an Internet Site When You Use an FQDN or IP Address (Q303650) The article says: When you access a local area network (LAN) or intranet share, or intranet Web site by using an Internet Protocol (IP) address or fully qualified domain name (FQDN), the share or Web site is identified as being in the Internet zone instead of the Local intranet zone. For example, this behavior can occur when you access shares or Web sites with Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, a command prompt ... June 28,2002.
IE 5.01 SP2 on Windows 2000 with SP2. Running Personal Web Server (PWS) on my
computer.
Although IE5 is usable after yesterdays problems, it still does not work correctly. As shown below, when I
enter HTTP://localhost it does not immediately
bring up the web page from PWS running on my computer. Instead it complains
about not having a connection to the Internet. There is no way the localhost can
be anywhere but on my computer. That's what it means. Clicking on the Try Again
button finally brings up the web page. The same problem occurs when I enter HTTP://127.0.0.1
a reserved IP address that always refers to your local computer. IE is too
stupid to realize this and complains about not having an Internet connection.
Grasping a straws, I again changed an option. At Tools ==> Internet Options ==> Connections. I changed the Dial-Up Settings from "Never Dial a Connection" to "Dial whenever a network connection is not present." This should be irrelevant because this problem has nothing to do with dialing and nothing to do with a network - it only involves talking to the web server (PWS) running on my Windows 2000 computer. Nonetheless, it mattered, go figure. Now IE5 will bring up the correct web page in response to HTTP://localhost half the problem solved. It still does not work however for IP address of 127.0.0.1, but now with a new problem as shown below.
IE5 wants a password. For what? I am an administrator on my computer. I can't even guess what userid it wants, let alone the password. PWS was configured such that the default documents were disabled and directory browsing was enabled. It should have shown me a list of the files in the default directory for the web server. This is, in fact, what it did in response to HTTP://localhost.
I enable the default documents and re-start IE5. No change. I enter my Windows 2000 userid and password and finally see the default document. Then I disabled directory browsing in PWS but to no effect, it still wants a "network" password. Localhost is working fine.
I tried to run the Internet Connection Wizard and tell it that I connect to the Internet through a LAN, in the hope that IE won't ever try to dial the telephone. It did not work.
Considering how mature the IE5 browser is, to still be having so many problems is disgraceful. (July 6, 2001)
IE 5.01 SP2 on Windows 2000. I wanted to print just one page of a large
web page that would have been many printed pages. I did File --> Print. On
the default General Tab in the Print Range box, I clicked on the option to print
the current page and then clicked on the button. It printed the whole
thing, 15 pages in my case. (July 16,
2001)
A week later, using the same browser instance I again clicked on the radio
button for printing only the current page. This time I clicked the button
afterwards and then clicked on the
button. It still printed the entire
document. Think bug. (July 23, 2001)
September 10,2001. A constant annoyance with IE5 is the default window size used when opening a new browser window. Where the default window size comes from is a mystery to me and my attempts to force it to be a full sized window have repeatedly failed. Occasionally, for a while, I can nudge IE5 to open up a full size (maximized) window, but it never lasts. This has been true with many releases of IE5 and on different editions of Windows.
To work around this, I added the following JavaScript code to the onLoad event of the computergripes.com home page to force it always be displayed in a full-sized window.
|
function MakeBig(){ if (parent.window.screen) {var awidth = screen.availWidth; var aheight = screen.availHeight; parent.window.moveTo(0, 0); parent.window.resizeTo(awidth, aheight);}} |
However this caused two problems. First, it does not really force the browser window to be maximized. It's close, but not fully maximized. Second, it forced every user to see the page in a full sized window, even those who prefer a different window size. After a short time, I took this code out.
FYI: I have read about, but not tried, a freeware program to
maximize IE called IE
Maximizer
FYI: A reader pointed out this
web page which shows you how to edit the registry and restore the
"default" IE window size. Default size however, is not necessarily
maximized. July 23, 2002.
December 29, 2001. After another rash of security bugs in IE5, I felt it was time to get the latest version. Windows update offered a download to get me to IE 5.5 SP2. The download and upgrade went fine and then I rebooted and tried windows update again. Instead of being at the latest and greatest version of IE, there was still another 2 meg download of a critical security patch dated December 13, 2001. I downloaded this security patch without incident. The gripe is that the bug fixes from December 13th have not been incorporated into IE 5.5. Why is there no SP3 version of IE 5.5 so that users can do a single download.
Update: The problem of Windows Update not updating IE to the latest version continues, seven months after I wrote the above paragraph. Recently (July 2002), I ran Windows Update to upgrade very old versions of IE5 on both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 SP2 machines. In each case, I opted to upgrade to IE 5.5 SP2, rather than to IE6. In both cases, after the download and reboot, IE was at v5.5 SP2 but missing all the bug fixes for it. These bug fixes include (but may not be limited to): Q313675, Q319182 and Q321232. Microsoft considers these critical bug fixes, yet they are still not included in the downloaded version of IE 5.5 SP2. They should be. Microsoft is distributing known buggy software in the guise of providing updates. What is really happening in this case is your browser gets updated from a version with 90 known bugs to one with 12 known bugs (numbers are examples only). Gee, thanks, Microsoft. Adding insult to injury, as only a software company can, nowhere does Windows Update tell you that you just upgraded to a version of IE with a slew of known bugs in it and that you have to run Windows Update yet again to really be up to date. You just have to know. Its like a nerd secret. This is disgraceful and amateurish. July 22, 2002.
The version number for IE 5.5 SP2 is 5.50.4807.2300. The first time I used it to access the Internet, my firewall program, ZoneAlarm asked whether to allow this. So far so good. ZoneAlarm however asked about program iexplore.exe version 5.51.4807.2300. One digit off. The properties of the iexplore.exe file show the version to be the one reported by ZoneAlarm. IE itself however, reports the first version.
Installing IE 5.5 SP2 added Outlook Express to the quick-launch bar. (Windows 2000 SP2)
There have been times when clicks on the menu bar were ignored. That is, clicking on View or Favorites results in no action at all. Putting focus on another window and then bringing focus back to the IE window with the problem, fixes it. (Windows 2000 SP2)
While viewing a web page stored on my computer, the Page Setup function would not run. Print preview worked. The problem was that the only printer defined to the computer resides on a LAN and the machine was not connected to the LAN. I realized this when I tried to print from the print preview screen. As soon as the machine was connected to the LAN, page setup worked. However, if you invoke page setup from the print preview screen, don't drag the page setup window around. The print preview window does not refresh itself so the dragged window leaves white space behind it. (Windows 2000 SP2)
With older versions of IE5, as soon as the user clicked on a link, the mouse pointer changed, providing a visual confirmation that the click was done. This is no longer true with IE 5.5 SP2 (it may have changed prior to this version, I'm not sure). If the response is slow, I now have to look at the status line to see if the new page has started to load.
While a large web page is printing, the IE window can not accept focus when it is clicked on in the task bar.
When saving a web page as HTML only, IE failed because some of the files needed for the page were missing. This should never happen when saving in HTML only format. I opted to save the web page as a complete web page, which also saves the pictures. This seemed to work in that IE produced no errors. However, when browsing the saved version of the web page I noticed that the bottom half of the text was missing.
A couple problems rendering tables, frames and fonts with IE 5.5 SP2 are described on the page for HTML gripes. (March 7, 2002)
I did a Find command on a web page today and IE 5.5 SP2 looped, using all the cpu horsepower on my computer. Fortunately, the browser window was closable by right clicking on its tab in the task bar (despite the message about the program not responding). Thinking it was a quirk, as I've done a Find (Ctrl+F) many times before, I brought up the same web page again and repeated the find. It looped the second time too causing my cpu usage to jump to 100 percent. The only update applied to this copy of IE is Q313675. The OS was Windows 2000 SP2. March 8, 2002.
IE5 chooses a default cache size that is way too big. I don't think there is much benefit to keeping more than 5 meg or so of previously viewed web pages. I don't know how it determines the default size but it is way larger than it needs to be, in my opinion.
Georgi Guninski, a Bulgarian computer consultant, JavaScripter, and program-bug-hunter has a web page with a long list of bugs in Internet Explorer. (added September 12, 2000, link updated August 12, 2002)
FYI: Internet Explorer Setup/Troubleshooting Links to information on how to setup and configure Internet Explorer for any Windows version. By Ed Bott of windows.about.com.
FYI: Hate the clicking noise IE makes? Go to the Sounds applet in Control Panel. In the Sounds Properties box, scroll down to the Windows Explorer section. There is an event there called Start Navigation. Select it and click the Name drop-down arrow and select None. Click OK.
IE 5.5 SP2 and IE6 will no longer support plug-ins, a Netscape technology for extending a web browser that works on multiple operating systems. Instead, browser extension support is limited to ActiveX a Microsoft technology that only works on Windows. In this article someone calls this "a forced death march" restricting users to Microsoft-only software. SiliconValley.com The Seattle Times. August 24, 2001.
There is a bug in assorted versions of IE5 that can be fixed by upgrading to IE6. However, if you are running Windows 95, 98, 98SE or ME and upgrade from IE5 to IE 6 you just have to know to perform a Full Install or Typical Install. If you do a minimal install or a custom install the bug will not be eliminated. Read the Microsoft documentation. October 31, 2001.
FYI: Microsoft has an Internet Explorer 5 Repair Tool. It is documented in Knowledge Base article Q194177. On Windows 2000 it says the repair tool only works with IE 5.5. The Repair tool is included with Internet Explorer 5 and can be used to diagnose and fix problems with Internet Explorer 5.
November 9, 2001. There is yet another security hole in IE. In and of itself, this is not news or a source of a gripe but the norm. However, I do have a gripe about this bug. Microsoft confirms the bug exists in IE6 and IE 5.5 SP2. What about the well over 90% of IE users (my guess) that don't use these two versions of IE? Tough luck. Microsoft considers all the dozens and dozens of other versions of IE old and it won't even bother testing if they suffer from the bug also. This is yet another bug that you can be affected by just by reading an email message without having to open an attachment.
December 28, 2001. In an article in ZDNet Piecemeal patchwork? How to best protect Internet Explorer, Robert Vamosi complained about the procedures for updating IE.
FYI: Frequently Asked Questions about IE
FYI: April 2, 2002. The Register reports that a critical Microsoft patch intended to repair some ugly security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer does not work. The March 28, 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer does not, as it claims, correct a vulnerability which could allow a malicious user to run code on a victim PC.
April 21, 2002. IE bug manifests itself in Outlook and Outlook Express. The Klez family of email viruses have caused quite a stir recently despite their not being new by any means. The Klez virus does not need you to open an email attachment, just previewing the message in Outlook or Outlook Express is enough to cause problems. There are two big gripes regarding the Klez viruses. First, quoting Woody's Office Watch newsletter from April 21, 2002: "Despite the threat against their products you won't find anything directly relevant on the Microsoft web site unless you know the code words - and even then you have to check the fine print." The other gripe is Woody's search for information on which versions of IE need to be patched to avoid the Klez virus. It is disgracefully difficult to figure out if your copy of IE is vulnerable or not.
May 17, 2002. Woody's Office Watch newsletter was none too happy about the bug fix released on May 15, 2002 for IE 5.01, 5.5, and 6. He noted that Microsoft released (yet another) security fix without fully testing it. There is a bug in the patch that makes Outlook's "Find" and "Organize" panes look strange. Microsoft has one big whopping problem in testing and delivering security patches. And I wonder again why Microsoft doesn't take testing more seriously. Any savvy Outlook 2000 or 2002 user should've picked this one up in a New Yawk minute. It's the same problem MS had with Office XP - rushed out the door... Microsoft provides no way to "roll back" this security patch. The patch for IE 5.01 only works on Windows 2000 and NT 4. If you have Windows ME or Win98 (either the original or SE), and you use IE 5.01 - . . . you're outta luck.
May 16, 2002. Microsoft Patch for IE Flaws Is Incomplete by Dennis Fisher, eWEEK. A group of security researchers that identified one of the vulnerabilities covered by a Microsoft Corp. advisory issued May 15, 2002 said the patch Microsoft issued is incomplete and doesn't resolve the problem it is meant to fix. The bug fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability only addresses part of the problem. They said that Microsoft did not understand the problem and only patched a symptom, not the root cause. This leaves IE 5 and IE 5.5 vulnerable. CNN covered this on May 20, 2002.
IE Bugs: May 20, 2002. According to
this web site, there are 13 known bugs in IE even after the major bug fix
released by Microsoft on May 15, 2002.
August 27, 2002. A new URL, but the
same data. Thor Larholm documents 17
Unpatched IE security bugs.
FYI:
Some web sites change the IE start page by installing malicious code on your PC.
Walter Mossberg mentioned in the Wall Street
Journal on June 6, 2002 that there is a free program that blocks this
sabotage. It's called StartPage Guard and it allows you to restore your favorite
start page. He said you can download StartPage Guard at www.download.com
by searching for "start page" or from the author at pjwalczak.com.
Update: The Browser Hijacking section of
www.spywareinfo.com has an explanation
of this problem and multiple solutions. They note that AOL has started doing something similar by placing it's web site free.aol.com in IE's trusted sites security zone, thereby bypassing
some security settings. June 28,2002.
FYI: WinGuides has a bunch of tweaks for Internet Explorer.
Win XP Download Bug June 5, 2002. From Windows Support Center web site by James A. Eshelman. When Internet Explorer on Windows XP is performing a file download and, for whatever reason, the download is incomplete — perhaps because the connection was interrupted, or the server at the other end fails in some fashion — Win XP doesn’t tell you that the download is incomplete. It just acts like everything went fine.
Security
flaw found in Microsoft Web browser Reuters. August 12, 2002. Researchers
found a serious security bug in Internet Explorer that has been around for at
least five years. The bug is in IE's implementation of SSL and could allow an
attacker to silently intercept data such as a credit card numbers and passwords.
IE v5 and v5.5 are said to be totally vulnerable, IE 6 is vulnerable under most
circumstances. The problem stems from the fact that IE fails to check the
validity of digital certificates used to prove the identity of Web sites. Anyone
with a valid digital certificate for any web site can generate a valid
certificate for any other Web site. Cryptography expert Bruce Schneier said
"I would consider this to be incredibly severe. This is one of the worst
cryptographic vulnerabilities I've seen in a long time". Microsoft does
not, at present, intend to fix the problem. For more on this, see my
IE6 gripes.
Severe
Security Flaw Found in IE PC World Magazine. August 13, 2002.
Microsoft
Explorer May Have Flaw Associated Press. August 13, 2002. In Information
Week.
How to Uninstall Internet Explorer 5.5 From Microsoft. Applies to Windows NT 4, 98 and 98 Second Edition. Previously published as Q257234. This article includes links about uninstalling Internet Explorer 5.01 and other versions of IE on other versions of Windows.
Internet Explorer scandal: It secretly spies on you and reports back to Microsoft By Al Fasoldt Aug. 30, 2000
There have been a number of problems reported running IE6 on Windows 98. You can download IE5 SP2 from Evolt. It is 84 MB and that does not include the many additional bug fixes required. October 15, 2003.
My IE 6 gripes include a problem with customized icons for web site Favorites reverting to the generic icon. This happens with IE 5.5 on Windows 98 SE also.
| Page created: May 2000 | Page last updated: January 3, 2008 |
| Prior updates: November 6, 2003 | |
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