Crashing Browser

[dwross]

largeformatphotography crashes my Microsoft Internet Explorer when I try to open any of the threads. This doesn't happen on Mozilla Firefox.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Any suggestions for stopping it?
Thank you.
d

[willwilson]

Which version of ie?

I have pretty much shifted almost 100% of my browsing to firefox. It builds css more completely and just plain loads pages faster.

[Ash]

I would recommend any browser over IE. Mozilla browsers are more secure, and more intelligent when it comes to blocking spam/adverts.

Stick with Firefox :)

[dwross]

My IE in ver 6.0. Old, I know. I agree about doing most of my browsing with Firefox, which I keep current. But, IE seems to be a permanent fixture - at least for Windows users.

To anyone with a good experience with IE, what version do you recommend?

Thanks again,
d

[Preston]

DW,

IE 7 does a pretty fair job. It does have tabbed browsing, and is much less quirky and handles CSS much better than IE 6. IE 8 is still in beta testing, so I'd hold off on that one.

If you decide to install IE 7 be sure your OS is up to date. If you are using XP SP2, update it to SP3 before installing IE 7*. When you install IE 7, be sure to turn off your anti-virus.

*If you install SP3 over IE 7, IE 7 cannot be uninstalled. At least, that's the caution from MSFT.

-P

[roteague]

I would recommend any browser over IE. Mozilla browsers are more secure, and more intelligent when it comes to blocking spam/adverts.

Stick with Firefox :)

That is actually not true. IE is just as secure as any other browser on the market. However, FireFox is much easier to configure - for example, I can turn off JavaScript quite easily in FF. I use both IE8 and FF 3.0, but prefer IE.

[roteague]

To anyone with a good experience with IE, what version do you recommend?

99% of my browsing is done with IE. I have no problems with it. As others have pointed out IE 6 IS NOT RECOMMENDED as it is quite outdated. Use IE7. Do not use IE8 unless you willing to put up with the bugs - it is still in Beta, and won't be released to the general public until the end of the year. The reason I use it, is because I'm a senior programmer and I try to keep up on all the latest tools of the trade.

[dwross]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I'll be upgrading to IE 7 asap (and then using Firefox!:) )
d

[eddie]

i use IE on my "new" machines just so i can download FF......then i hide th IE icon and never think about it again....

[Ernest Purdum]

I have just downloaded FireFox at eBay's suggestion because AOL would drop out every time I tried to put up a picture. Now I can't find FireFox. Where can all those megabytes have gone to?

[Kirk Gittings]

Maybe a dumb question......FireFox is like an industry leader given how popular it is, but how does it make money?

[roteague]

Maybe a dumb question......FireFox is like an industry leader given how popular it is, but how does it make money?

Sorry, but FireFox is not even close to being an industry leader ... either in technology or market share.

[Preston]

Ernest wrote: "I have just downloaded FireFox at eBay's suggestion because AOL would drop out every time I tried to put up a picture. Now I can't find FireFox. Where can all those megabytes have gone to?"

Ernest, do a search for firefox.exe. If you are on a Windoze box, it should be in your Program Files\Mozilla Firefox folder. Once you find it, right click and select 'create shortcut'. A shortcut will be created in the Fire Fox folder. Drag the shortcut to your desktop, and you should be good to go.

-P

[Ernest Purdum]

Thank you, Preston, I'll do that.

Regards,

Ernest

[roteague]

Thank you, Preston, I'll do that.

Regards,

Ernest

The decision on which browser you use, should be based upon your likes/dislikes, not what the clueless tell you. There is certainly nothing wrong with FireFox 3.0 - it is a great browser, then again, so is IE7 (FWIW: IE8 is coming, and it is much better than IE7, and FF for that matter).

[Preston]

Robert, I have read that IE-8 will be much less tolerant of sloppy site coding and use of old html attributes. As I understand it, pages may not display as they were orginally written under the old html 4.01 transitional doctype, since IE-8 will be optimized to parse documents developed under the XHTML 1.0 Transitional doctype. Is this true?

Fire Fox 3 is also less forgiving than IE-7, as I understand it.

Fun and games in web development land, eh?

-P

[roteague]

Robert, I have read that IE-8 will be much less tolerant of sloppy site coding and use of old html attributes. As I understand it, pages may not display as they were orginally written under the old html 4.01 transitional doctype, since IE-8 will be optimized to parse documents developed under the XHTML 1.0 Transitional doctype. Is this true?

Fire Fox 3 is also less forgiving than IE-7, as I understand it.

Fun and games in web development land, eh?

-P

IE8 will be optimized for XHTML as well as fully implementing CSS 2.1. It is expected that a lot of sites will break once it is released. However, IE8 (like FF and every other browser) will have the capability of working in quirks mode. there is a new meta tag for IE8 that will tell the browser to work in IE7 mode, so that will help.

BTW, IE8 Beta 2 was just released today, so I'll have to give it a try. Yes, fun and games in web development....

[Preston]

Hi Robert,

You said, "...there is a new meta tag for IE8 that will tell the browser to work in IE7 mode, so that will help."

Do you know what the syntax is for this meta tag? I would like to add it to a site I'm currently developing, as well as to an existing site.

Thanks!

-P

[roteague]

Hi Robert,

You said, "...there is a new meta tag for IE8 that will tell the browser to work in IE7 mode, so that will help."

Do you know what the syntax is for this meta tag? I would like to add it to a site I'm currently developing, as well as to an existing site.

Thanks!

-P

Sure, here it is:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7">

I use it on one of my sites (TraditionalPhotographer.net), and works with IE 8 Beta 2 - Beta 1 understands, but ignores it.

[Preston]

Robert: Thanks! This will be most helpful.

It should also help others here who have web sites.

-P

[SaveBears]

Robert,

Do we have any indication of how this will affect the current websites out their, how it will mess them up for display, I am curious as I am developing a new website now also, and want to make sure it is compatible.

Thanks

[Preston]

Some HTML tags will not work properly. To site one example; <bold> will no longer work. It has been replaced with <strong> in XHTML. Also, tags without closing markup will not work. For example using <p> without </p> may cause the content within the tag to not display at all. This is why the meta tag that Robert provided was created; so that IE-8 will mimic IE-7, which will allow it to recognize HTML 4.01 and ignore some sloppy coding and also to parse older CSS.

I used FrontPage for a long time, but recently installed MS Expression Web-2 which fully supports CSS 2.1 and XHTML. The program has a 'validator' that will warn you if you write HTML or create style sheets that are not compatible. If you have MS Office, FrontPage and/or Dreamweaver you will qualify for the upgrade price of $99 (list). Since it is a stand-alone program you can install it alongside FrontPage or Dreamweaver if you need to keep it. EW-2 is a nice program and comes with a 'development server' so that you can test your work before uploading it to your production server. Note, that you will have to install the (dot)Net Framework v3.5. for Asp.Net functionality. If you already have .Net 2.0 you'll be good to go.

-P

[roteague]

I've been running IE8 Beta 2 since yesterday, and I have to say that I'm quite pleased. There are so many little things, like lightly colored tabs, a new browsing mode called "InPrivate" along with a number of other, more technical things that make this browser, quite nice.

[roteague]

Robert,

Do we have any indication of how this will affect the current websites out their, how it will mess them up for display, I am curious as I am developing a new website now also, and want to make sure it is compatible.

Thanks

As Preston says, there are quite a number of little things that will cause a lot of site to not render correctly. The current version of IE8, Beta 2, has a little button that you can push that will also force a site to go into IE7 mode.

If you are a professional Windows web developer, you really need to be running IE8 Beta 2 - it is stable enough for daily use. The reason I recommend it, is there are built in Developers tools that will help you validate your CSS - you can find out what CSS is affecting what screen item by clicking on it (with the developers tool running, of course).

[roteague]

Here is a very good write-up of Beta 2: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/ie8_beta2.asp

[SaveBears]

Thanks guys, I will make sure to do some reading to be sure my new website, maintains the standards of the new browsers.