• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Microsoft is a pain

H

Helldiver

Charter Member 09
Not knowing any better I signed up for Microsofts Explorer number 8. I knew almost immediately that this was a mistake. The guys who brought us the over ripe Windows Vista went to work on Explorer 8. For one thing I noticed about 3 extra title bars which meant about only a third of the screen was useful. There will be a lot of scrolling in Explorer 8. They have even added Yahoo to the title bars. I managed to get rid of them and then hit "Favorites". Explorer 8 added about 10 new things to my Favorite list including something called Microsoft Slice and of course, Yahoo.
Now when I sign off the internet, I now get a unwanted title bar asking me to close all title bars? I have to answer yes. (That's why I hit the X in the upper right hand corner for.) Now when I close up the computer I'm asked again, do you really want to close all programs?
Now when I went on this morning I was asked did I want to put on Microsoft's New Defender? I had no way out, so I said yes. I was tormented for a half hour while they installed it only after I signed a half dozen agreements with Microsoft that I was the owner of the Windows XP and that I was over 21 and had not been arrested for DUI in the past year. Then I sat still while my system was scanned. It turned out it was OK which I already knew before Microsoft stuck their nose into my private business.
If you have any curiousity about Microsoft's Windows Explorer 8 - forget about it, unless you into whips and boots.


 
I did the same last night, downloaded and installed IE8. I get up this morning, switch on the PC and see if things have improved. Of course they bl00dy well haven't.

I had all the same annoying click this, agree to that crap that Helldiver experienced, spending ages just trying to close pages I didn't want and then, Oh yes, then, after visiting only tthree or four pages, I get zilch, nothing, nowt at all. I could go back and revisit web pages (cookies presumably) but had to reboot to get back online again. After 4 hour trying to fathom out what 'security' function needed altering, I thought "sod it" and did a system restore and guess what, everthing works fine and dandy.

Never thought I would say anything good about IE7 :a1451:

Rant over, for the time being
 
Er ...... I think you must have done something wrong somewhere along the way.

I've been using ie8 since it was released and have no extra toolbars, titlebars, favorites or anything else. Apart from having to reinstall Google toolbar which took all of 30 seconds I'm hard pushed to notice any difference to ie7.

Except that it's faster and hasn't crashed once.

If you already had misgivings with Microsoft it was probably a mistake to install ie8!
Maybe switch to Linux or Apple and use Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari.
Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft are far from the only choice these days.
 
6297J said:
Except that it's faster and hasn't crashed once.

If you already had misgivings with Microsoft it was probably a mistake to install ie8!
Maybe switch to Linux or Apple and use Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari.
Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft are far from the only choice these days.
Click to expand...

Boy when I read that post I wanted to say that but did not have the B*lls.

First thing I thought of was OH Great another I Hate MS Thread.

I agree if you don't like MS's Browser switch to Firefox many like it well. If you don't like their OS switch to Linux I suggest Ubuntu I like it rather well. You can get it here http://www.ubuntu.com/.

I have been using Windows 7 beta for over a month with IE8 and no problems.
 
Hi all,
Running IE8 since RC1.not had any problems,No extra tool bars or anything of that sort.

Buddha13
 
Well 62937, If I was maybe 40 year younger I might maybe switch to Linux or Apple and use Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari. But since I had a stroke and my right hand jumps around a lot, I'm lucky to use what Microsoft has to offer. I'll let you young guys mess around with this new fangled stuff. - Have a good time.
 
I instantly had problems with Internet Explorer 7 on my Windows XP system, when I installed that. It is the only Windows update I have deleted. It messed with the operating system, and never worked well. ( I had to use restore for that as well ).

Recently, I was looking for a freeware web screensaver, and found that the only decent ones that would truely save an entire oversized webscreen was available in firefox. I needed one to use Luis Sa's gmap, which allows you to save huge google maps.

From the get-go, firefox has worked correctly, and is unobtrusive. There are plenty of nice addons. It updates itself and addons and only asks you once if you would like to do that.

The only websites that cause any problems with firefox are Microsoft's! Go figure. But even 99% of Microsoft's sites are fine... just use IE6 or IE7 for Windows Update.

Microsoft had a good product with IE6. IE7 was bad for me... Thanks for warning me off of IE8.

Things are not going well at Microsoft. They are not being careful.

For example, installations of Visual Studio 2008 runtimes actually break some applications written by Visual Studio 2005! This includes FSX, whose Mission briefing then crashes to desktop. There is a fix, but MS doesn't advertise the fix.

Another example is the FSX Autogen Annotator, that is broken by the .NET 3.5 runtimes update. There is a fix for that as well... also not advertised... and I cannot get to the download page for it with either firefox or IE6. I've tried for 2 days ( the page is "unavailable" ).

Shouldn't these two fixes be done automatically with Windows Update? Apparently that's too hard for the geniuses that broke my FSX ( and many other applications I imagine ).

Like many other simming hobbiests, I use Windows because that's what Flight Simulator runs on... NOT because I like it. I do expect it to be trouble free, and I do expect updates ( like IE8 ) to work correctly instantly upon installation. And not mess up other programs or the operating system.

I'm really happy I don't have VISTA, and right now I don't think I'll use Windows7. These 'improvements" are too much bull and not enough meat.

Microsoft is constantly blowing their own horn about "silverlight" and new "gee-whiz" features in Office or Internet Explorer or the latest version of Windows.

But mostly the new features are time wasters, or fluff that gets in the way. And how about the phrase "it's not a bug, it's a feature"? What giant software corporation inspired that?

Why are new versions of Windows coming in a dozen different varieties? Wouldn't one OS do the trick? Are they going to be compatible? Are you sure?

Done ranting.

Dick
 
Helldiver said:
Well 62937, If I was maybe 40 year younger I might maybe switch to Linux or Apple and use Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari. But since I had a stroke and my right hand jumps around a lot, I'm lucky to use what Microsoft has to offer. I'll let you young guys mess around with this new fangled stuff. - Have a good time.
Click to expand...

Helldiver, Firefox is an alternative user made browser, and its very good. Many think it's the best around. It's easy to use and to install. Download for free here: http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/
 
I have'nt used any MS IE browsers since IE5 ...... right now I see no reason to use anything other than Firefox.
:jump:
 
I stayed with IE6 until a few months ago when I installed Firefox. I started using FF more and more and now rarely use IE.
 
Years of experience (some good, often bad) have taught me that when I get a message, pop-up, email, flash that contains the words: "new", "...has been upgraded/improved", "would you like to upgrade/install...?" I immediately find the button that says "NO/ignore/flee/ hide/quit!!!" and wait until a few weeks or months or years have gone by.

I ran FF2 happily until FF3 arrived... then saw the bug reports and waited.. 5 months later I installed a very nice, stable FF3. I have an external program that I need for work on both my laptop and desk comp. that requires a Java 5.x run-time. As soon as I let the Java 6.x upgrade happen on my desktop I lost access to the external program and no manipulating would get it back -- my laptop now has "Java update" turned off.

Knowing the propensity for software people to barf out poorly tested, non-legacy products, I guess the question --for the user-- is: "If it works, why change it?" (just 'because we can' is NOT a good reason)

Rob
 
srgalahad said:
Knowing the propensity for software people to barf out poorly tested, non-legacy products, I guess the question --for the user-- is: "If it works, why change it?" (just 'because we can' is NOT a good reason)

Rob
Click to expand...

You change it because it might just be better. If it isn't then you do a system restore or uninstall and go back to the older version.
Jesus if we all thought like that we'd still be using Win 1.0!

I use ie8 and FF3, sometimes both at the same time. There are some sites (my own included) I prefer to look at with one browser, some (such as this one) with another.

Helldiver said:
Well 62937, If I was maybe 40 year younger I might maybe switch to Linux or Apple and use Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari. But since I had a stroke and my right hand jumps around a lot, I'm lucky to use what Microsoft has to offer. I'll let you young guys mess around with this new fangled stuff. - Have a good time.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear that Helldiver.
I had a brain tumour in my twenties and amongst other things have to wear glasses as a result. Every now and then I have an eye test and get told that I need to update my prescription. So I apply the update and guess what - things are much better!

:ernae:
 
HD,

Try Opera. I use it now ALL the time. I even have it in Mac version when I am running in Mac OSX mode.

It can run multiple websites in 'one' browser, which means it can stack (horizontally) the websites in one, single web title bar.

No popups, has its own download manager, has 9 quick saves called Speed Dials that you program yourself. It is awesome.


I highly recommend it. The 'younger' guys showed me this. I tested, it and fell in love with it.




Bill
 
Here is a couple of screenshots of Opera running right this moment. I have 7 websites open and the speed-dial page open.

Note only 3 top bars; one is the address bar, one the toolbar, and the 3rd is the web-pages bar.


Note on the shortcut or speed dial page, one just drags and drops a website into that grid, and then its programmed in. Then just 'Control-1, through Control-9 to go to your fave websites..



Bill
 
Bought a new computer about a year ago with VISTA Ultimate. Installed IE8 the day it came out (guess a couple of weeks ago now). To be honest, I'm a satisifed MS user. Both have been very stable for me! No issues, and customizing IE8 is very easy. BTW, I haven't had IE8 crash on me yet. IE7 crashed (or locked up) on a regular basis.
 
You know, I just can't help but ROFLMFAO that a thread that combines anti-MS bitching with folks complaining about meaningless updates and new-fangled features.

You see, all the confusion and crap is a result of the pathological anti-MS crowd. MS killed Netscape by the time of IE5. Having one standard was too much for some folks if it had an MS label, so back to compatabilty problems with Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Mozilla and IE all fighting a browser war that actually should already be over...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top