MSIE 7 – But not for me
Fri, 20 October, 2006 – 10:56 pm
Microsoft have finally released the long awaited Internet Explorer 7. However I won't be using it for some time as I run… Windows 2000. Clearly my operating system is obsolete as far as MS are concerned. If I want to use IE7 I have the pay however much it costs for XP Pro to get the same options as 2000 offers. It also means I then have to use something that has a default look of something off the Teletubbies. I'm sure if you stare at the default WinXP background long enough you'll see the purple one with a makeshift aerial on its head pop up and wave.
Luckily I don't really browser test these days as I don't do much frontend development (XHTML, CSS, design) so I assume it's already tested. I guess I'll just have to install it on my spare laptop, however considering running IE6 sends the CPU into 100% usage I'm guessing IE7 isn't going to make much difference (and it'll be Firefox to win out!).
Still, if you run WinXP I guess you should go upgrade, and then you can see how many websites break with it's new 'standards' which are probably still only halfway there 
What would XP Pro do that XP home doesnt for you? an OEM version of XP is about £80 all in, which isnt that bad.
As for IE 7, its a huge improvement on IE6 (although the blogscene site does break in it
)
If you hate xp, your going to loathe Vista
By Matt on Sat, 21 October, 2006
Wouldn't have a clue but I just heard that Pro had more features than Home and I have 2000 Pro. It's not that I hate XP but I don't see why I have to upgrade an entire operating system which isn't obsolete in my opinion for a flippin' browser!
Not looked at Vista so haven't a clue how it looks
By Sarah on Sat, 21 October, 2006
You wouldnt benifit from going for Pro, the main difference is for joining domains and shit for business and like at my work.
Vista looks really nice, but everyone ever is going to need to upgrade to get a decent performance out of it.
By Matt on Sat, 21 October, 2006
I need to join domains at work and with the VPN stuff. If I go to work I have to log on to their domain n stuff. This is all above my head…
However, that's besides the point as I have a legit copy of XP Pro. My main point is that MS are effectively forcing people to upgrade to use their new very slightly imrpoved browser. If you want IE7 you must upgrade.
I wonder if someone will be able to hack it to work on 2000?
Can't wait until Firefox 2 is released
By Sarah on Sat, 21 October, 2006
I'm using IE7 since being unable to run the penguin on me new lappy and it works a treat. It's now my browser of choice over the fox.
By Chris H on Sat, 21 October, 2006
I've seen IE7 when it was in beta release on Dave's laptop but I've also tried Firefox 2 (until XP blocked half the web for me and I thought it was the upgrade to FF2 and uninstalled it – you can see my love for XP!) and FF2 is look gooooooooooood
As for Windows – I'll admit I am thinking about upgrading the OS purely because there are so many security fixes now on the 5 year old w2k that a new OS would probably run quicker on my laptop with less security patches as I know the laptop is perfectly fine.
I'll have to look at Vista a bit more and decide if it's worth waiting for that or just putting (dare I say it) XP (uuurrgghh) on this.
By Sarah on Sun, 22 October, 2006
What spec is the lappy? I had vista running on a decent current mid range pc at RC2 and it was shockingly slow, it needs at least a GB of ram to run comfortably – particuarly if you have shared graphics – so Id imagine that youd be better off with XP… (Before you buy it give me a shout btw – I can get discounts)
Ive now got FF2 didnt realise it was anywhere near until you posted, gotta say its good. Only thing that is annoying me is the movement of the close tab button, I liked it at the end, if I wanted to close a particular tab Id just right click it….
By Matt on Sun, 22 October, 2006
My laptop? it's a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB RAM, although I may upgrade to a 1GB once I've paid for my car
I have XP so no need to buy – I just don't run it (yes it's a legit copy)
I don't know how Vista will look or whether it's even more controlling than XP appears to be. XP assumes the user is a lot thicker than previous versions of Windows. Whilst the average literacy is lower there should be a way to switch between having more or less control depending on your intelligence when it comes to using Windows. I can do certain things so much quicker in w2k and XP makes you jump through so many hoops at times. If Vista relaxes a little then they may redeem themselves.
As for the close tab, well I have the tab mix extension which puts a close tab on every tab anyhow, so that was fine to me. There is an extension to move the close button back to the top right and take it off each tab, however I'm so used to it being on the tab now. You can also double click the tab to close it but I don't like that as a quick spasm could close your tab!!
FF2 will also spell check your forms on the page etc. which i didn't realise until recently, something that may come in handy as my keyboard doesn't always seem to register every keystroke and leaves the odd letter out!
By Sarah on Sun, 22 October, 2006
I'm stuck with 2k at work, so guess IE7 wont be rolled out anytime soon there.
Havent tried IE7 since RC1 and didnt like it much the but might give it a try later if I get a minute between work, football and website updates.
By Granty on Mon, 23 October, 2006
IE7 Gold is a lot better then the RC1 gotta say Granty.
Sarah – Your going to hate vista. It assumes your an idiot. And you cant (to my knowledge) tell it otherwise. Now security requests et al blank out the whole screen until you deal with them…
I can see things like that getting annoying…
By Matt on Tue, 24 October, 2006
I like Firefox, and it has been my default browser for over a year (I also have Opera and Netscape to test web pages). I tried to upgrade MSIE from 6 to 7, and was unable … the setup program apparently runs without error, but after the required reboot, I'm still at MSIE 6. I wondering if having Firefox ad my default browser would be part of the problem … in any event, I can't figure out how to make MSIE my default, so for me, MSIE 7 is a moot point ….
By Bob on Sat, 25 November, 2006
If you want to make MSIE the default browser, go into Tools and Internet settings wtihin IE (also available in your control panel) and in there somewhere it says check as default browser. This is probably unticked, so tick it and then when it runs again it will ask you.
As for the upgrade, Firefox shouldn't be preventing the upgrade as I know my other half upgraded to IE7 without a problem despite running Firefox as his default browser. So I guess there's either an issue with your windows updater or your windows installation. Probably your best bet is going to be to reformat and run windows update straight after. Not ideal but I know I had to do this before my windows 2000 would work with windows update first time around.
By Sarah on Sun, 26 November, 2006
Sarah, under MSIE 6 Program Options > Programs, there is a button "Reset Web Settings" that you have to click to make MSIE the default once again ….
So, I made MSIE 6 the default browser; however, when I again tried to install MSIE 7, I continued to get Error Code 0×05 … as indicated on the error screen, I forwarded the problem to "Microsoft Online Assist Support" (advertised by MS to be at no-cost for issues related to getting updates).
We'll see what happens …
By Bob on Sun, 11 February, 2007
Have you searched on the error code on the microsoft website? This could give you some ideas to try whilst you wait for a support answer.
Let me know how it goes.
By Sarah on Sun, 11 February, 2007