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Internet Explorer 6 Gripes Internet Explorer is Microsoft's web browser

Topics Below:  Bugs, Bugs, Bugs   Wrong Error Message   Ignoring Cache Size Limit   Lost Icons   Old Cache   Problem Displaying a JPG file   Hangs   Color Problem   Security Flaw with SSL  Windows 98  Other Gripers, Gripes and FYIs
See also the IE Blog from Microsoft

The Hits Keep-a Coming

May 3, 2006. Windows XP. IE no longer displays .php files that reside on my computer. It used to, until very recently. 

The Great Microsoft Blunder. Internet Explorer is a dead albatross. John C. April 24, 2006. 

You receive a "Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close (Pdm.dll)" error message Microsoft article ID 293623. Last reviewed March 25, 2006. 

November 23, 2005. The latest and greatest version of Internet Explorer is not so greatest. It has a critical bug that Microsoft has no fix for. In fact, Microsoft has known about this bug for months, but couldn't spare a programmer to fix it. Now there are examples on the net of how to write malicious software to attack this bug. It doesn't get much worse than this. 

What to do? You can down load the Firefox web browser from www.mozilla.org. If you insist on using IE, then disable "Active Scripting" which may refer to JavaScript (Microsoft is the only company to use this term and does not explain what it means). To do so: Tools -> Internet Options -> Security tab -> Internet Zone -> Custom Level button -> disable Active Scripting. 

• Attack code released for IE hole CNET News.com November 21, 2005. Yet another is a long line of critical bugs in Internet Explorer. 

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September 21, 2005. This page has not been updated in a while because the point of IE being buggy and insecure has been made over and over again. Still, this story deserves mention, not because there is yet another bug in IE, but rather to note Microsoft's slow response to fixing IE bugs

• New IE Bug Opens XP SP2 To Attack By Gregg Keizer of Techweb News. September 16, 2005

Amazon.com

October 30, 2004. IE6 Windows XP Home Edition with all patches except SP2. While checking on recent orders at Amazon.com I had to enter my Amazon userid (really an email address) and password. For the longest time, the web page where you do this is not secure - that is the URL is not HTTPS and there is no gold lock on the IE status bar. I have been getting around this by entering a bad password. The web page that says the password is invalid is a fully secure web page. Rather it has been fully secure. 

Printing

WNYC September 10, 2004. Windows 2000 with all bug fixes.  WNYC is a New York City radio station. The fonts on their web site are very small. When you try to enlarge them with View -> Text size nothing happens. The real gripe however, is that when you do enlarge the fonts using Tools -> Internet Options -> Accessibility button, it sill looks bad (see sample at right). There is no space between the bottom of one line and the top of the next line. Depending on the font, two adjacent lines may actually overlap when the text is enlarged. When Firefox enlarges the text, it works great.

Bugs Bugs Bugs

Patches, patches, patches...

April 1, 2005. Critical flaws in IE and Outlook discovered CNET News.com. The hits keep coming.  December 17, 2004. Security researchers have uncovered a spoofing flaw in Internet Explorer, even on a fully patched Windows XP system with IE 6.0 and Service Pack 2. The bug could allow a scammer to display a fake Web site with all the attributes of a genuine, secure site, including the URL and the icon indicating SSL security. New IE Exploit Spoofs Web Sites in eWeek. Secunia has an online test you can use to see if your copy of IE is susceptible to this bug. Firefox users are safe.   If bugs in IE were nickels, Microsoft would be rich as all heck. Speaking of bugs in IE, see the User Friendly cartoon from August 11, 2004. IE Exploit Lets Attackers Plant Programs on SP2 By Larry Seltzer in eWeek. October 20, 2004  Microsoft Internet Explorer Multiple Vulnerabilities Secunia Advisory: SA12048  July 13, 2004

Another Internet Explorer flaw found July 7, 2004 by Robert Lemos CNET News.com. It was common knowledge that the most recent patch (bug fix) for IE did not fully fix the problem. This article provides some background. Quoting: "This marks the third time in a month that Microsoft has had to play catch-up to researchers' public disclosures about insecurities in Internet Explorer."

New Microsoft patch doesn't plug all holes Security expert breaks into fully patched Windows systems. InfoWorld July 7, 2004 

Pop-Up Program Snatches Banking Passwords By Dennis Fisher in eWeek June 29, 2004 

June 25, 2004. This is not a good time to be an IE user. Thanks to known bugs without fixes, your computer can get infected with malicious software just by visiting a web site. It used to be you had to only worry about shady web sites. No more. Now even corporate web sites pose a danger. And anti-virus software will not protect you. 
Researchers warn of infectious Web sites from CNET News.com
IE flaw may boost rival browsers June 28, 2004, CNET News.com. A major security hole discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer last week has become a golden marketing opportunity for alternative browsers such as Mozilla and Opera that are unaffected by the flaw. 

New IE Holes Defy Latest Patches Four browser flaws, some twists on known vulnerabilities, could let hackers take control. IDG News Service June 11, 2004 
New Internet Explorer holes causing alarm Four new holes have been discovered in IE that could allow malicious hackers to run attack code on Windows systems, even if those systems have installed the latest software patches. IDG News Service June 11,2004.

Pop-up toolbar spreads via IE flaws June 9, 2004. CNET News.com. Quoting: "An adware purveyor has apparently used two previously unknown security flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install a toolbar on victims' computers that triggers pop-up ads, researchers said this week. One flaw lets an attacker run a program on a victim's machine, while the other enables malicious code to "cross zones," or run with privileges higher than normal. Together, the two issues allow for the creation of a Web site that, when visited by victims, can upload and install programs to the victim's computer..."

Viruses Tag Along eWeek March 29, 2004. You can get infected with a virus just by reading an email message thanks to a bug in IE. 

Another IE Spoofing Hole Found  January 28, 2004 eWeek. The bug allows an attacker to mask the true file extension of malicious downloads. An attacker could lull a user into opening a malicious file from a Web site by making the file appear as a legitimate extension, such as a PDF or MPEG.

New Explorer hole could be devastating  Browser users could be fooled into downloading executable files Techworld.com January 28, 2004.

Wrong Error Message

March 17, 2004. Windows 2000 SP4 with all patches. IE6 with all patches (as shown below). When I tried to print a web page, IE said that I did not have permission to use the printer (see message below). This was not true. The real problem showed itself when I looked at the printer definitions for the computer. The status of the default printer clearly said what the problem was and it was not an authority problem (I was logged on as an Administrator making this message even more improbable). The printer status was "Printer not found on server, unable to connect". The real problem was that printer in question was hooked to a print server on my LAN and there was a networking problem on my LAN.

Ignoring Cache Size Limit

November 8, 2003. IE 6.0.2800.1106 on Windows 2000 SP4. All software is up to date as far as Windows Update is concerned. Tools -> Internet Options -> Settings button has a cache limit of 16 MB (Temporary Internet Files Folder) and it has been set at this limit for a long time. The folder however, is 33.3 MB in size. Specifically, the folder is  C:\Documents and Settings\userid\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
Update: March 17, 2004. I checked this again on the same computer and now the folder size is correct. With the cache limit still at 16 MB, the folder size is 16.2 MB. The IE 6 version has not changed, but many patches have been applied to it since I first noticed this. IE6 has all patches as of March 2004. 

 Lost Icons

November 6, 2003. Customized IE Favorite icons revert back to generic icons. Many web sites have their own customized icon that is used when you save a link to them as an IE Favorite. Three examples are shown here on the right, Yahoo, Dell and IBM.

Somehow, over time, these customized icons disappear and revert back to the generic IE Favorite icon as shown on the right.  I don't know how, when or why this happens. It has happened to me with the latest version of IE 6 on Windows 2000. This was first brought to my attention by someone using IE 5.50.4522 on Windows 98 SE.  November 10, 2003. Windows 2000 SP4. Paying more attention to this, I noticed that the icons changed in a couple days. No software or patches were installed. Puzzling. Then I kept better track. I added three new Favorites that each had a customized icon. The custom icons remained in place until the computer was powered off and re-started. Just after restarting, two of the three Favorites had lost their customized icons. After the next cold start, the final custom icon disappeared.

Old Cache

May 8, 2003. When you upgrade from IE5 to IE6, the browser cache is stored in a new location. The old cache, from IE5, is not deleted. I have observed this on only one Windows 2000 machine so far, but it is the only machine I looked at. IE6 was using
  C:\Documents and Settings\userid\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
for its cache, while IE5 was using
  C:\Documents and Settings\userid\Local Settings\Temp\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
for its files. You might be able to see the cache folders by searching for files named "index.dat". 

Problem Displaying a JPG File

April 2, 2003. I updated a web page on this site and made a couple changes to one of the JPG files (cropped it and moved it to another directory). It displayed fine on my computer. After uploading the picture and its containing web page to this web site, IE6 refused to display the picture. Instead I get this . I reloaded the web page, restarted IE, transferred the file again, no change. I then looked at the same web page with another web browser on my computer and it displayed fine. I found the JPG file in the IE cache and deleted it. Now the picture displays correctly. 

Hangs  

March 26, 2003. After applying bug fixes to IE6 with Windows Update it now hangs when opening a new window. The OS is Windows 2000 and the Update versions applied are SP1; Q328970, Q324929, Q810847 and Q813951. This has happened on at least three different web sites. Using Task Manager to kill IE seems the only way around it. At first, IE does not shut down, but after Task Manager reports that it is not responding, the subsequent request to immediately shut it down works. Interesting, all instances of IE are closed, even ones that were not hung. One web site that causes the hang condition is of my own doing, www.mdsg.org. The home page opens a new window using the following HTML 

The Brooklyn group inspired 
<a href="http://about:" 
 onclick="Hndl=window.open(&quot;Brooklyn.Group.Poem.html&quot;,&quot;poemwin&quot;,
 &quot;menubar=yes,height=400,width=330,status=0,toolbar=0,resizable=yes&quot;); 
 return false">
a poem</a> (opens new window)

March 27, 2003. The problem went away all by itself. 

December 14, 2002. Windows 2000 SP3. IE version 6.0.2800.1106 with SP1 and Q328970 and Q324929 (see picture =>) 

After upgrading IE6 to the latest and greatest version via Windows Update, I started having problems. Specifically, the problems started after applying Q324929. 

IE hangs on a number of different web sites when clicking on links that should open pictures. I'm not sure what these links have in common, but each time I had to cancel IE using Task Manager. This happened today six times.  

This page at Newegg.com hangs when I click on the See it link. Clicking on the link from this page works fine. Two other pages that also caused IE6 to hang were not repeatable. That is, a half hour later, the same links on the same pages worked fine. The Newegg page was repeatable.  

Update: This problem has gone away on its own. (January 2, 2003). 
Update: A reader (Matthew) running Windows NT4 had a similar (same?) problem after applying Q324929. Monitoring things with Ethereal and tcpview lead him to a half closed TCP/IP connection, one in the FIN_WAIT_1 state. Microsoft Knowledge Base articles Q279745 and Q183110 pointed him to the registry: 
   HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
where the "MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server" value was set to 0x77e781ff rather than 4 (as expected). Changing it to 4, fixed the problem. (February 17, 2003). 

Color Problem  

August 10, 2002. I was visiting someone running IE6 under Windows XP Home. All web pages appeared with the same background color and the same font color. 

This was not a problem with Windows XP as colors on the machine work fine everywhere else. When using NetMeeting on this computer to view an instance of IE running on another computer, the colors were fine. The problem happens with both 16 bit and 32 bit color and at two different desktop screen sizes. 

The obvious answer is the color options at Tools -> Internet Options -> Color button. However, turning all these options on and off did not fix the problem. The only effect was that the background color of web pages could be changed, but still, every web page appeared with the same background color. 

The next obvious answer are the Accessibility color options at Tools -> Internet Options -> Accessibility button. Playing with these options had no effect. They were initially all off and after playing with them, they were left off.  

Then I thought it might be a bug in IE and ran Windows Update. IE was at the base level that shipped with Win XP. There were no updates applied to it. Windows XP had two critical security fixes for IE6 included among the other critical fixes. I installed just the two IE fixes and rebooted. No change. 

As this was not my computer and my access to it was time limited, I had to give up at this point. Then again, I was out of guesses. 

August 12, 2002 Security Flaw with SSL

There are so many bugs in IE that it's helpful to refer to them by the date that news of them first broke. For lack of a better name, this is the August 12, 2002 security flaw regarding SSL. Not to confuse it with any other IE bugs.  

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,.
Alternate Link at CNet to the above Reuters story.
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. 
IE Flaw Leaves Users Open to Data Theft. eWeek Magazine. August 12, 2002. This article explains the bug well and is the only one to mention that Konqueror and Opera are also vulnerable to the same thing. Unlike Microsoft however, the companies behind these browsers fixed the problem recently. 
Microsoft: SSL Flaw in Windows, Not IE  Network World. August 15, 2002. Researchers said the browser was insecure, but now Microsoft says it's the OS that must be patched. It is working on patches for Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, and XP. 

Windows 98

Jim Eshelman reported that IE6 and Win98 don’t get along (original link is no longer valid). He says that IE6 destabilizes the Win98 shell, particularly Windows Explorer. A variety of hangs, failures, and misbehavior start happening right after IE6 is installed on Win98.  June 25, 2002.
Update: Still more problems with IE6 under Windows 98 reported by Jim Eshelman. November 3, 2002. (again, the link has gone bad). 

Other Gripers, Gripes and FYIs

"My advice is simple: Boycott IE. It's a cancer on the Web that must be stopped. IE isn't secure and isn't standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable both for end users and Web content creators. Because of their user bases, however, Web developers are hamstrung into developing for IE at the expense of established standards that work well in all other browsers."  from IE 7.0 Technical Changes Leave Web Developers, Users in the Lurch by Paul Thurrott.  August 2, 2005

"Stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, which has become a four-lane highway for malicious invaders. I recommend instead Mozilla Firefox ... I use it all day, every day." From A Digital Crime Wave by Walter Mossberg in Smart Money April 2005. 

By Paul Thurrott in Windows Secrets newsletter of March 10, 2005 (paid version): "Microsoft keeps fixing IE, but it remains the number one opening through which malware enters users' PCs ... IE's support of inherently insecure technologies like ActiveX in this day and age is simply irresponsible. IE is so insecure, in fact, that Microsoft is releasing an IE 7 version this year. That release wasn't originally in the cards, but the company acknowledges that today's IE just isn't secure enough." 

IE 'Unsafe' 98 Percent Of 2004 by ScanIT March 25, 2005. Known bugs with no fixes, pretty much all the time. 
A commentary on this Internet Explorer Sucks by Bruce Schneier December 26, 2005. 

Security, Cool Features Of Firefox Web Browser Beat Microsoft's IE  By Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal December 30, 2004. Quoting: "Microsoft hasn't made any important functional improvements in Internet Explorer for years ... Firefox is both more secure and more modern than IE, and it comes packed with user-friendly features the Microsoft browser can't touch ... I recommended back in September that users switch to it from IE as a security measure."

December 22, 2004  Use Firefox for a Safer System by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols in eWeek. Quoting: "Internet Explorer is insecure junk, and it's time for Windows users to move to Firefox if they want to protect their systems."  

The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating) by Randall Stross in the New York Times December 19, 2004. An article about Firefox that includes a few IE and Microsoft gripes. Even the Microsoft spokesman does not use IE, but uses Maxthon instead. 

 "IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER! Today. Now". by Patrick Crispen in his Internet Tourbus newsletter. November 11, 2004. " Microsoft recently announced that they will no longer offer free support for Internet Explorer on Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, or ME. If you have any of those older Windows operating systems, Microsoft may or may not release a patch for your system when the next major Internet Explorer hole is found. And Microsoft may or may not charge you money to get this patch." 

"Plus, let's face it: Internet Explorer may well be Microsoft's worst blunder. And if not the worst, then it's most certainly the one that's been pricking the company's side the longest." from Patching IE for XP only is a smart move by Oliver Rist in InfoWorld October 1, 2004

Sampling a World of New Ways to Grapple With the Web By VERLYN KLINKENBORG in the New York Times October 11, 2004. Quoting "..Internet Explorer... has grown into a problem in its own right. Software developers complain about it. Ordinary users get sick of the pop-up fireworks. Even in corporate America - which finds its allegiance to Microsoft routinely tested - business users are being asked to switch from Explorer to the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox for security reasons. What went wrong with Internet Explorer is a big subject. But one answer, apart from the mediocrity of the software itself, is that it sided with the commercial purposes of the Internet and not with the user."

Internet Explorer--headed for extinction? CNET News.com. October 1, 2004. Many articles on the subject. 

When viewing a secure web page, IE indicates this with only a small lock in the bottom corner of the screen. Firefox also displays a small lock but it also makes the entire address bar yellow, something that is much more obvious. Also, when finding text on a web page Firefox is much better than IE6. 

"I suggest dumping Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, which has a history of security breaches. I recommend instead Mozilla Firefox, which is free at www.mozilla.org. It's not only more secure but also more modern and advanced, with tabbed browsing, which allows multiple pages to be open on one screen, and a better pop-up ad blocker than the belated one Microsoft recently added to IE." by Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal. September 16, 2004. How to Protect Yourself From Vandals, Viruses If You Use Windows

Internet Explorer Wins the Battle by Lance Ulanoff in PC Magazine. September 1, 2004. Quoting: "Internet Explorer is a slow, often inscrutable piece of software, which, like most of Microsoft's other creations, is burdened by years of coding on top of old, legacy code. I run IE and watch on a daily basis as the browser eats up most of my system resources ... Mozilla's Firefox is, for now, the model of what a browser should be. " 

A reader of this page (thanks Daryl) mentioned two valid gripes. First, when you save a web page via File -> Save As, IE goes back out to the Internet as opposed to saving the copy already resident on your computer. No doubt dial-up users feel this more than broadband users. He gets around this by setting IE into off-line mode before doing the Save As. Second, people who frequently save web pages as MHT files, can't set MHT as the default file type. August 12, 2004.  

Target IE: A look at Internet Explorer alternatives by Paul Thurrott July 22, 2004. "If you're looking for the single most obvious attack vector for your PC, IE is as obvious a choice as anything else, and arguably the single buggiest component in all of Windows."

Run, Don't Walk, from Internet Explorer By Brian Livingston in Datamation July 12, 2004

Internet Explorer Dips in Popularity eWeek July 12, 2004

 You know you've got a browser problem when … CERT and even Slate say that users should switch to another browser until IE is secure by Oliver Rist in Info World July 9, 2004 

IE May Be Hazardous To Your Computer's  Health July 9, 2004. Very well written article. By David Strom and Bob Matsuoka. 

July 6, 2004. In Windows XP SP2, IE6 gets a new Information Bar for configuring many IE options on a web site by web site basis. Dealing with this is likely to be more hassle and confusing than configuring a firewall.  

Why I'm Staying Away From Internet Explorer The browser's endless security woes make it dangerous to use by Stephen H. Wildstrom Business Week July 12, 2004 issue.  

Mozilla Feeds on Rival's Woes By Michelle Delio in Wired July 2, 2004 

Frequently Asked Questions About Malicious Web Scripts Redirected by Web Sites from the CERT Coordination Center Last updated: July 2, 2004

Are the Browser Wars Back? How Mozilla's Firefox trumps Internet Explorer by Paul Boutin June 30, 2004 in Slate

Experts suggest ditching Microsoft Web browser by Lou Dolinar in Newsday June 30, 2004

Internet Explorer Is Too Dangerous to Keep Using By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols in eWeek June 28, 2004 

IE flaw may boost rival browsers June 28, 2004  CNET News.com

Why You Should Dump Internet Explorer by Daniel Miessler for Lockergnome June 15, 2004. Quoting: "What makes other browsers better than IE at protecting vs. spyware and other attacks? Well, it’s simple really - most other browsers don’t make it so easy to install malicious software on your system without you knowing about it."

From Woody’s Windows Watch Newsletter June 16, 2004 by Woody Leonard. 
“Microsoft has let Internet Explorer languish for years. The company managed to trounce its opposition through a combination of marketing muscle, a deep pocketbook (so it could afford to give IE away) and some pretty good features, features which had IE leading the browser pack for a while. Well, once the browser wars were won and most of the opposition was off licking its wounds, Microsoft promptly abandoned development of its browser. The result is that almost every other browser on the market leaves IE for dead. IE lacks basic elements such as tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and password management that most decent modern browsers wouldn't be seen dead without.

I HATE Internet "Exploder" by Matt Hartley May 4, 2004. Not having IE security configured correctly, the author ends up with malware and, long story short, he had to re-install Windows. Lost everything. 

Internet Explorer Is a Dinosaur--Dump It by Steve Bass in PC World magazine. Biggest gripes and most wished-for browser features.

Sick of IE? Scrap It Completely or Beef It Up PC World magazine. No date. Mozilla's release of Firefox this month prompts us to reconsider: "Should IE be put out to pasture?" 

Explorer Exposed! The weird and wonderful world of Internet Explorer  a fully explanation of 11 bugs in IE5 and IE6 regarding CSS. By Holly 'n John. 

April 13, 2004. The application of bug fixes (patches) via Windows Update seems to have wiped out the saved userids and passwords in Internet Explorer 6. I can't prove there is a direct link, but it happened on both a Windows XP machine and a Windows 2000 machine on the same day that I ran Windows Update. Too much to be a co-incidence. This is a second Tuesday of the month and on this day Microsoft released five critical updates to Windows via Windows Update. 

Firefox fills the IE void By Jon Udell March 19, 2004 Microsoft has abandoned IE. So stop complaining and choose a better browser. Quoting regarding IE: "Bugs didn’t get fixed. Standards support didn’t improve. New features didn’t appear. And the last vestige of cross-platform ambition evaporated when IE for the Mac was killed last year. The message is clear: Internet Explorer is dead in the water."

A few small alternatives, like Opera, are thriving Mon, Mar. 22, 2004 By Mike Langberg Mercury News. Quoting: "Internet Explorer 6 for Windows was introduced in August 2001 and hasn't been significantly upgraded since then. IE 6 was an excellent browser three years ago, but I'd now only rate it ``good'' as the competition come up with new features. Microsoft is likely to continue dozing for at least two years; a fully revamped Internet Explorer isn't expected until the next version of Windows, now scheduled for 2006 or beyond..."

Internet Explorer Double Whammy by Peter Deegan at Woody's Windows Watch. February 4, 2004. About the bugs in IE current at the time it was written.

The Microsoft Crash Gallery for IE (another griper). 

FYI: February 8, 2004. Google is, of course, a great way to find information about IE. Fred Langa suggested this Google search to learn about repairing IE6 under Windows XP:     http://www.google.com/search?q=repair+ie+explorer+6+xp 

FYI: IE6 FAQ from Microsoft. Includes this: How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP (318378). If you try to remove IE6 via the Add/Remove Programs thing in the Control Panel, you will prompted if you want to Repair IE6. 

Bugs, Old File Dates in New Microsoft Patches  By Larry Seltzer in eWeek November 14, 2003. About security patch MS03-048 / 824145 from November 11, 2003. 

Internet Explorer falling behind two other Windows browsers, Mozilla and Opera By Al Fasoldt August 17, 2003 

You May Be Using the Wrong Browser by Anne Kandra in the August 2003 issue of PC World magazine. Sick of pop-ups and patches for IE? Try a different window on the Web. 

FYI: Bob Cerelli's Internet Explorer Tips  

The WinXPnews newsletter wrote about a problem viewing the source code of a web page and a problem saving a picture by right clicking on it (same issue that Mark Minasi wrote about below) April 22, 2003. 

FYI: You Cannot Open New Internet Explorer Window or Nothing Happens After You Click a Link from Microsoft. 

FYI: The Internet Explorer support center web site from Microsoft. 

FYI: My IE5 gripes have a section on webcheck.dll and loadwc.exe. A reader (Kevin) wrote with an update on this for IE6. On Windows 2000 with IE6 SP1 and no subscription to web sites, he found webcheck.dll was running at boot time. This was shown with the free autoruns program from SysInternals. A startup key
   HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ShellServiceObjectDelayLoad\
includes webcheck.dll which shows that the program is autoloaded. It does not appear in the Task Managers process pane. He deleted the startup entry for webcheck.dll with no ill effect.  May 16, 2003. 

In the March 9, 2003 issue of his newsletter, Mark Minasi writes about a problem he ran across with IE. In brief, he discovered that when the IE cache fills up, it can no longer save pictures in any format other than BMP. A full cache also causes IE to give up completely on saving MPEG and MP3 files. You can clear the IE cache with Tools -> Internet Options -> General tab -> Delete Files button.
While on the subject of the IE cache, version 6 (like version 5) defaults to a cache size that is larger that necessary. I have read that 20 megabytes is plenty and have used this for a long time with no obvious problems. Also, on Windows XP, each user gets their own copy of the IE cache. Lowering the cache requires logging on to each user's account. This is probably true on Windows 2000 and NT4 also. 

Media, play thyself. Brian Livingston. InfoWorld magazine. February 21, 2003. Windows Media Player may no longer access password-protected files after you upgrade to IE 6. This was tested on Windows 2000. 

Unpatched IE security holes by Thor Larholm  

FYI:  Jonathan Dahl has written a free program, the IE New Window Maximizer which I read about in the February 2003 issue of PC World Magazine. 

Microsoft fixed over 80 bugs in Internet Explorer in 2002. As many as 30 IE bugs remain unpatched. PC World Magazine. January 3, 2003.  

Bugs and Fixes: Gaping Holes in Internet Explorer. From the February 2003 issue of PC World magazine. Quoting: "Plugging holes in Internet Explorer is a perpetual whack-a-mole exercise--as soon as Microsoft patches one hole, the bad guys (or avid security researchers) expose new ones. Late in November, a massive security flaw in Internet Explorer prompted Microsoft to pump out a fix. On the heels of that patch, the company had to take care of six other, separate holes--and then a seventh one, two weeks later."

John Dvorak, writing in PC Magazine on November 26, 2002 explains why he walked away from Internet Explorer. Quoting: "Microsoft has simply dropped the ball, and there's no reason I should suffer for it...For most purposes, Mozilla is a better product than Internet Explorer...I don't think IE has improved since version 4". 

FYI: Service Packs: Service Pack 1 for Windows XP includes IE 6 Service Pack 1. IE6 SP-1 is available in different versions for Windows XP, 2000, Me, 98, and NT 4. 

FYI: PC World Magazine, in a story posted to their web site on October 23, 2002,  mentioned Java bugs that need to be fixed, even if you have applied SP-1. October 27, 2002.

FYI: Microsoft has an Internet Explorer Repair Tool. It is documented in Knowledge Base article Q194177. As of this writing (August 12, 2002) the article was last reviewed August 6, 2002. Does it apply to IE6? It's not clear. At the very top, it says the article applies to IE6 for Windows 2000, NT4, Me, 98 and 98 Second Edition. However, the summary says "This article describes the Internet Explorer Repair tool that is included with Internet Explorer 5. You can use the Internet Explorer Repair tool to diagnose and help fix problems with Internet Explorer 5." Which is right? Ask Microsoft. Billions of dollars in the bank and they can't find someone who realizes the inconsistency here. Either way, it does not apply to IE6 running under Windows XP. For that, there is a KB article: How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP  
Run the repair with Control Panel => Add/Remove Programs. On the Install/Uninstall tab, click “Microsoft Internet Explorer,” then “Add/Remove.” Finally click on “Repair the current installation of Internet Explorer” and click OK. 

FYI:  IE6 is not supported under Windows 95. 

FYI:  I also have gripes about IE version 5.  

This came from a reader (Alan), as such I can not verify it. Environment is Windows Me and Norton System Works 2002. After upgrading from IE 5.5 to 6, the reader found that only a few pictures displayed on web pages and that most appeared as the a box with the red "X". The red X picture boxes could be individually displayed by using the right hand mouse and selecting "show pictures". Google pointed him to the firewall in Norton System Works 2002.  From the Norton System Works dialogue box, select "Personal Firewall", then Internet Access Control, then find "Microsoft Internet Explorer_1" in the list of applications. In his case, it was set to "Automatic".  He changed it to "Permits All"  and then re-selected "Automatic". That fixed the problem. The same problem happened in Outlook Express and the same trick fixed it there too. June 25, 2003. 

IE6 (and IE 5.5 SP2) 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. 

The initial release of IE6 did not include Java. SiliconValley.com August 27, 2001

The WinInformant web site reports that IE6 for Windows XP creates problems for Outlook users. September 8, 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. 

November 9, 2001. There is yet another security hole in IE. The bug exists in IE6 and IE 5.5 SP2. This is another bug that you can be affected by just by reading an email message without having to open an attachment. 

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. 

Win XP Download Bug June 5, 2002. From the Windows Support Center web site by James A. Eshelman (look on the page for "THE STRANGE WINDOWS XP DOWNLOAD BUG"). 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.

Trojan Horse Technology Exploits IE. PC World Magazine. August 5, 2002. A new technology could let a Trojan horse disguise itself as Internet Explorer and let hackers steal data from your PC by fooling firewalls into thinking it's a trusted Microsoft application. Researchers called on Microsoft to change the IE features that permit it to operate. The Trojan horse exploits a standard feature in IE that lets invisible browser windows open and connect to the Internet. The browser windows open in the background and don't appear on the desktop, so you can't see what they're doing.