Comments on: My painfully poky week with IE 8

There are plenty of good things about the new version of Microsoft's browser. But I found its interface sluggish.

[sparrowhyperion]

I only use IE for eBay. And I only use it because eBay does not play nice with Firefox. I seriously hope they do something about that because after a year with FireFox, I have no plans of ever going back to EI of any version, for my default browser. And it would be great if I could get FireFox to work properly on eBay. I am glad I will be able to opt out of installing IE once Windows 7 comes out, because as far as I am concerned, it's a slow, insecure, buggy, waste of disk space.

[Super2online]

So many people are having a problem with IE being slow, yet for many of those users the problem turns out to be their system rather than the app. Read this article and take 30 seconds to implement the solution and be amazed at how fast IE is afterwards. I was!

Is IE8 really fat and slow?
Ed Bott
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=754

[t8]

It is slow compared with other browsers.
Also, IE8 crashes a lot.

[Inconnux]

If you have problems, switch to another browser and see if that helps. If it does help, then the problem IS IE

[akayanni]

Yea I use FF3 with ebay all the time and have zero issues. IE has a single purpose here. Doing condition comments to cope with it's crappiness for the sake of others. Chrome fails to impress and Safari makes for good looking screen grabs. IE8 will replace IE7 for some but it won't convert anyone who has left the sinking ship of IE. We ain't never coming back MS.

Yani

[Eustov]

Try out Maxthon (though it uses the IE core), in terms of usability its at least a generation or two ahead of most web-browsers on the market.. Super drag and drop, unified search, url aliases, gestures, content filtering, multiple tabs are just a few features that were introduced in Maxthon years ahead of other browsers.. i would probably even say its the most customisable browser on the market, try it.. for me surfying with any other browser just feels like driving with the hand brake on..

[pentest]

maxthon isn't a browser. It is a turd polisher.

[mikeburek]

Maxthon is awesome. It was great when my employer at-the-time, locked the network so that only IE could access the internet. Because only IE was deemed "secure" and rogue programs (specifically FF) had too many "security holes." With the Maxthon tabs and other features, I could always get my work done so much faster than other co-workers.

[ducttape36]

the zdnet blog was great. everyone who uses ie should do the trick he posted:

type the following in the command prompt:
regsvr32 actxprxy.dll

That re-registers the ActiveX Interface Marshaling Library, an obscure DLL that most people (even Microsoft experts) had never heard about. (Update: 27-Mar: Note that if you try this using Windows Vista, you must do this from an elevated Command Prompt window; type cmd in the Start menu Search box, right-click the Cmd.exe shortcut, and then choose Run As Administrator. For detailed instructions with screen shots, see this post.) After restarting her computer, she tried using IE8 again. The results were stunning:...

so much faster!

[ghaff]

The thing I found especially annoying is admittedly something Microsoft would say is a feature--namely my apparent inability to tell it a site is permanently OK even though there's a security certificate mismatch. We have self-signed certs for a couple of internal sites and IE ******* about them every time I tried to use. You could argue this is correct design but it was annoying in my case.

[webdev511]

I have some sites with self signed certs that have the same issue. Amazingly enough, using IE's Help guided me how to fix the problem. Yes RTFM actually solved a problem. Go figure.

[rapier1]

You just have to import them into the certificate store. That takes care of the problem the 'right' way.

[ghaff]

@rapier1 I thought that I did that. But I must have done something wrong--or there may have been some other certificate issue.

[merlefisher]

I use ebay quite a bit on my mac using firefox as my default browser. What parts of the site are not rendering properly for you?

[TotallyMadeUpName]

Merlefisher,
For me, Ebay pages often take forever to display in Firefox. Snappy rendering in imperative when you are trying to win a competative bid.

It's actually nice to hear that others are also having problems with Firefox and Ebay.

[complexprocess]

> I believe the challenges I face on the Web foreshadow what the rest of the world will experience
> as the Internet inexorably encompasses ever more of our work and personal lives. I prefer browsers
> that aim toward where the puck is heading, as the tired but useful cliche goes.

Sounds like you're up to some pretty important stuff. *scrolls down about 6 lines* Oh, I see. Subscribing to Cute Overload. Watch out world, this man is on a mission and you'd better get out of his way. :-P

[Shankland]

Ha! I couldn't find a way to show keystrokes failing to select labels in Gmail, so I figured the lame RSS support would suffice.

Icanhascheezburger.com gets all the love these days, and I have a soft spot in my heart for Cute Overload.

[j_ten_man]

+1 for Chrome
-1 for IE8

I can't even open up IE8 because it is sooooo slow compared to Chrome.

[Lerianis3]

It's not slow on the one computer I have (a gaming class notebook) but on the other that is running Windows 7 Build 7057..... UGH! Slow as heck, though I traced that after disabling ALL addons back to the Java addon, which is apparently incompatible with Windows 7 or IE8 in Windows 7, since I had no problems with it in IE8 on Vista on either of my other two computers.

[mjconver]

I just uninstalled it, like you said it was slower than before. And for me, there were no new worthwhile features, extra nags that were almost Vista-like, and previously fine websites that I used every day got broken.

[Lerianis3]

That is a concern for me as well. ZDNet and CNet were having problems posting my replies to things....... I finallly had to re-login at the first page, and clear the browser memory.... that fixed my problem, as did putting these two pages in "compatibility mode".... which I didn't have to do in IE8 RC!

[listenup2]

How can I uninstall?

[HamInTeeTown]

Chrome is the new standard, period.

[mjconver]

No, Chrome is not the new standard, it doesn't have AdBlock Plus, and likely never will.

[Pluberus]

Firefox is the standard...

[Shankland]

@mjconver: Chrome extensions are getting closer--they exist in rudimentary form at present but are maturing--AdBlock Plus is one of the use cases that Google mentioned by name as a reason to add extensions. So I wouldn't be too hasty about that assumption.

[celticbrewer]

Yeah, I'm sure Google will allow people to block thir cash cow. Maybe AdBlock will block all competitor's ad networks.

As for Chrome... can't stand it. Or Opera. Firefox has what I want and works how I work. I did try IE8 and had zero technical problems, but I just didn't like the user interface. It was definitely faster than firefox, though.

[Ilgaz]

Chrome is Google managers "we can do it too" toy with "threaten Mozilla" feature. It is nothing else. They can't even scale the code to other operating systems than Windows and you know the funny thing? That "state of art" javascript engine ONLY runs on x86.
Even MS wouldn't do such a mistake, I also bet they even manage Mac IE secretly while they declared EOL long time ago.

[ddcool1124]

All desktop computers only use x86.

Chrome is awesome because it dynamically generates binary machine code for javascript rather than interpreting it.

[Ilgaz]

all mobile devices , especially iPhone uses ARM, RISC architecture. Now what?

[exactlyy]

what standard are you talking about ? having feeds 6 months after it was officially released? or not having master password to protect your saved passwords ? or maybe being naked is the ultimate standard for you :P
cmon Firefox is undefeatable,and opera is second ,it starts as fast as chrome and its feature-packed.

[firefoxluva95]

Gecko rendering engine is the standard, not Webkit.

[pablouk1]

Its ok but not worth upgrading from 7-8 ...yet.
Give it about 3 patches and i think it will be worth it.

[Lerianis3]

Patches aren't going to change much, and aren't going to change the speed in the slightest. If you are looking for that to happen.... forget it.

[DKrudop]

Perhaps you should try Safari as well.

[webdev511]

Safari looks and acts like poo on windows. It's fine on OSX, but not so much on windows.

[Shankland]

I've been thinking about it since the release of the Safari 4 beta. I use it a few times a week and generally like it, but it's not revolutionary to me, and there are some UI issues I don't like.

[seven7dust]

safari 4 on windows sux
I used to use safari 3 a few months back but have now replaced it with chrome
and as usual I use firefox 3 as well
I hope there comes a day when we can have a browser with the customisability of firefox and the speed efficiency and UI of chrome

[Seaspray0]

Safari is malware in my book. It attempts to load two other programs (quicktime, itunes) that have nothing to do with browsing.

[pentest]

Than by that definition Windows is malware. It forces you to install, IE, WMP, and messenger, none of which have anything to do with an operating system.

[softwarewillalwaysbebuggy]

Then by your definition, isn't OSX also malware. It forces you with Safari, Quicktime, iChat, etc., none of which has anything to do with an operating system.

[monkeyfun14]

@software

Yes but no other software nags me to install other programs when I try to update it.

[PColigist]

I can agree with some of your comments reference IE8 I found it very slow to start some 10-12seconds some times. Once started it worked well it only crashed once closing that tab. I still think it is buggy and there is still fine tuning to do. I certainly agree with you about Firefox I think it is an excellent browser though it does have some limitations.As for Chrome this is a very basic browser which is liked by some users my opinion is its a bit infantile for my use as a web master. One thing to remember about using laptops as a main machine you must appreciate that whatever the processor is called it is still a tiny mobile processor and as such has limitations. Good article enjoyed the read.

[Lerianis3]

Most of those 10-12 second start times are happening because a control called actxprxy.dll is getting unregistered or not properly registered. Run regsvr32 actxprxy.dll and that SHOULD fix the problem.
If it doesn't, and you have Java installed on your machine....... disable the add-on that is installed for that in IE8. That solved my problem with slow speeds and I have informed Java about this problem. Supposedly, according to the reply I got, they are aware of this issue on some computers and are looking for a fix.

[sciontcya]

NIce acid3 score IE!

[pentest]

So lerianis, you have to go to the command line to fix it? LOL

You have informed Java? Too bad their is no entity called Java.

[a_flores]

I am disappointed with IE8. One of its tab always hang almost every hour. It is much slower compared to Chrome, Safari 4 Beta, and Firefox. It still uses old style to open an html file from computer (file, open, browse, ok). I abandon and ignore it and go back to Chrome, Safari4 beta, Firefox and Opera.

[massfat]

There are some known compatibility issues with certain IE8 addons and windows 7 addons. These problems are causing huge lag times for IE8. IE8 by itself actually runs quite fast.

[kelmon]

Overall, I'm reasonable happy with IE as a browser that I MUST use for work (at home it's Safari on a Mac - go figure). My only real issue over the past week or so is that IE8 doesn't play nicely with all of our web applications. For example, for some odd reason it seems to be unable to download attached documents from our PeopleSoft 8.9 instance; both IE7 and Firefox seem quite happy to do this. I'm hoping that these quirks are sorted out. With IE8 a new Tab will be opened and then immediately closes without providing the option to download the file.

With respect to the article, I am right with you on the Control+L issue. Why IE still persists with this Open URL dialog rather than moving focus to the URL field of the browser like every other browser is quite beyond me. It's not a problem but simply an unnecessary irritant.

[Seaspray0]

@kelmon. I suspect that the application uses an active x control. Try this to correct the issue: add the website of your web applications to the intranet or trusted zone. Adjust the security on that zone to allow the features that your website needs. It will not interfere with the security level used for the rest of the internet.

[BogusBasin]

I wish everyone would refuse to embrace products that ignore open standards. Open standards are the only way we maintain freedom of choice. If you could open all sites with all browsers, you would be free to choose which one you prefer. As it is now, you can not fully get rid of IE because there are still sites that are written to take advantage of non-standard proprietary IE. MS is to blame as well as the Site developers. Things are getting better though. Amen

[celticbrewer]

Yeah, and we should boycott flash sites because it requires a proprietary plug-in.

/sarcasm

[Shankland]

Standards are important, but are you really going to blame a Web dev for supporting the browser with majority market share even if it's not standards-compliant?

Also, IE 8 moves Microsoft a huge step toward standards compliance. And Microsoft is working on establishing better CSS compliance, too, by submitting test cases to the W3C:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/03/20/more-web-standards-tests-submitted-to-the-w3c.aspx

[Lerianis3]

Ah, but IE doesn't HAVE a majority marketshare anymore. That is squarely in Firefox's corner, and since it IS standards compatible, sites should start only supporting standards compatible browsers.

[pentest]

"Standards are important, but are you really going to blame a Web dev for supporting the browser with majority market share even if it's not standards-compliant?"

Yes, because their is no reason to explicitly support any browser. In fact, it is more work, time, and money to support a specific browser.

[monkeyfun14]

@Lerianis

Point out a article stating firefox has majority marketshare.

[ppgreat]

I know that most companies just stay with IE (don't get me started on that topic), even though the IT folks generally play with Firefox or Chrome, but I've really been surprised with the performance of the Safari 4 beta on OS X and Windows. It's worth a look.

[mossad67]

I don't know why, but Safari 4 beta just sucks terribly on my Macbook Pro, especially displaying Flash sites with external assets and a container movie, or xml driven. I hope they fix it because I really like some of the new features. By the way, I find it amusing that IE8 is trumpeting features that have been existent on Safari and Firefox for at least 2 years now. Good ol' MS - ahead of the curve as usual.

[monkeyfun14]

@mossad

What features does Safari and Firefox have built in to the browser that IE is just now trumpeting?


And with FF addons you can't claim that they copied firefox if the feature is not built in..

[jriebe]

In regards to the following gripe: "Another gripe: on many pages, including Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Google Reader, clicking a link opens the page in a fresh tab in my preferred browsers. In IE, it would open a new window, making a mess of my already bursting-at-the-seams attempt to manage browser sprawl. The solution: get used to middle-clicking to keep the new page in an associated tab."

Just update your tab browser settings for IE8 (like you can for IE7) to force new content to open in a new tab rather than a new browser window. Sheesh... It appears you have not done your homework.

[timber2005]

Thanks... saved me making a new comment on that.
It's been a setting since IE7, and since you probably didn't have it set in IE7, it didn't move over to IE8.
The default was left at open in new window because of feedback on IE7. People weren't used to tabs (remember this was back in FF1.0 days!)

[ducttape36]

I've been using firefox for a few years now, and i just recently switched over to IE to test it out. I agree its slow compared to firefox or any other browser, but i really love the accelerators. ANd i do love when a tab crashes the whole browser doesnt crash, and it often recovers within seconds without any input from me. Overall I find stability to be on par with firefox (firefox 3 has been crashing more and more for me, I dont know why...) but firefox is faster. Right now I'm evenly split between the two.

[keith.r.benedict]

IE 8's UI is definitely much slower than Chrome or Firefox. The biggest problem, however, is the fact that there's no built in spell checker.

I tried Safari 4 beta and generally like it until I discovered that, even with with only 4 tabs open, it chewed through 1GB RAM. As with most Apple software that runs on PC's, the Safari developer haven't figure out Windows memory management.

[seven7dust]

try safari 3 it was really great with ram usage
but chrome is the best when it comes to memory usage

[rapier1]

Safari 3 on OS X is a big with memory. I don't reboot very often (you shouldn't need to reboot an OS) and I don't fully close applications unless absolutely necessary (again, you shouldn't need to close an idle application). After a couple days of usage Safari is usually hitting 2GB+ of vmem. This leads to a *lot* of swapping and really slows things down a lot. Of course, this problem seems to be across the board - no browser seems to be very good at cleaning its resident cache.

[1363nd0f1337]

Tried IE 8 and couldn't get it to launch without setting of the DEP for some reason and had to turn off the "protect from attack using buffer overflow" thing in the Internet Options to get it to load a webpage successfully and that's BS. Uninstalled and back to Firefox.

[lonestarState]

I did notice after testing Internet Explorer 6-8 that the browsers have a ridiculous bug with certain ajax functions... In the following test Internet Explorer fails to dynamically paint a given <div>. Test it yourself, it works with all browsers except IE... http://89.233.173.91/bug/

[bayden]

As you can see in IE8's script debugger, your problem has nothing to do with AJAX. The problem is what you try to do with the response.

Using %hhhhh is not a valid color format; you need to use %hhhhhh instead.

[Suboculis]

Your IE8 is slow because it's probably not registered properly.
Do this tweak and youll notice a difference.

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=2443

[Lerianis3]

Yeah, that sped up all the computers I installed IE8 on as well..... Microsoft needs to EXPLICITELY re-register that .dll when IE8 is installed or when IE8 is started for the first time.

[sroussey]

ALT-D = Location Bar in every browser. Not sure why Firefox added CNTL-L. Maybe to confuse people and make them use their own keyboard shortcut to get people to lock in with them. Worked on me.

[sillygoosen]

ya exactly. i just posted a rant about this too. writer lost some credibility with me for not bothering to look up what the shortcut was in IE. Kind of a bogus article if you aren't going to bother to look up how to do something in the browser your using. I was used to CTRL+L but it only took a day to get used to ALT+D.

[cnet_user_0]

@sillygoosen

I agree with you completely when you say that the write lost credibility. I think his main aim was to flame IE8 'cause he wants other browsers to follow his favorite browsers, ignoring standards left and right.

I installed IE8 on my Lenovo Vista-based laptop with 2GB and it rocks! As long as it is faster than its predecessor, that's enough for me. I certainly don't care for Firefox and Chrome.

For me, I use IE8 'cause the OS is by Microsoft and it gives a sense of assurance that Microsoft will act if there is a problem with IE8 or its OS. I can't say the same for the makers of Firefox and Chrome.

[sillygoosen]

cnet_user_0: you hit the nail on the head. i can handle a split second longer loading speed for a web page for the advantages of IE8. IMO anyway.

[Shankland]

Dinging me for Alt-D (or F6) is fine, since I harped on it, but my main gripe was sluggishness.

[nyolsson]

cnet user --

"and it gives a sense of assurance that Microsoft will act if there is a problem with IE8 or its OS. I can't say the same for the makers of Firefox and Chrome."

dude, i'm not gonna fan boyishly bash what ya just said, i love ms, well windows inparticularly.... but sense of assurance?

google is constantly coming out with updates for chrome. i mean, its basically an alpha build browser, that is 99 times out of a 100, faster (safari's up there), more reliable, and simply put, easier than any other browser. Chrome's management platform for downloading could use some work but man,

Chrome has barely been around for 8 MONTHS-ish and smokes the what, 8th VERSION of IE....

.

[nyolsson]

im not saying chrome is perfect. but i mean come on. i remember using IE to open .jpgs and other pictures in v2.0.

like i said, chrome has been out since, what like early fall / late summer-ish 08, on the second beta build of its existence, and smokes IE.

dragging tabs out of the browser..... the find feature is awesome! you guys notice it adds a little color to the browser's scroll bar as to where the "found" word(s) are located... thats if ya dont want to hit enter to find the next listing. ha.

[pmchefalo]

Then there's the venerable Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V copy / paste combo that the genius Mr. Shankland doesn't know about as well. Poor article, the guy is a neophyte.

[steven3x]

Also, F4 will highlight the location bar in IE (or F6 in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome), so either that or Alt-D as mentioned both avoid the need to use to mouse.