Minor issues surface after IE 7 launch

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

A day after its release, some minor issues with Internet Explorer 7 have materialized, but overall the new Microsoft browser appears to be well received.

Microsoft has defused what would be the most serious issue: a first security hole in the browser since its official release. There is a vulnerability, but in Outlook Express, not IE, Christopher Budd, a Microsoft security response representative, wrote on a corporate Microsoft blog Thursday. Security firms, including Secunia, had reported a flaw in IE 7.

Web browsers, including IE 7, can be used as the vector in an attack that exploits the Outlook Express flaw, Budd wrote. Microsoft is investigating the issue and may issue a fix at a later date, he wrote. The problem has not yet been used in active attacks, the software maker said.

IE 7 users are reporting problems with some Web sites that won't display or display incorrectly. Some of these sites use technology from Autodesk that doesn't work with the new browser and causes errors, people report in the Autodesk support forum.

"Our homepage does not run with IE 7," one Autodesk customer writes. "I am looking forward to a fix either from Microsoft or from Autodesk. We rely on DWF and HTTP. Therefore a solution is needed for sure." DWF viewer is an Autodesk tool for viewing and printing 2D and 3D designs in the Autodesk Design Web Format.

Autodesk plans to include IE 7 support in the next major release of DWF viewer, Scott Sheppard, an Autodesk employee, wrote in the support forum. "In the mean time?our customers need to be prepared to disable the automatic update of IE7 which is scheduled for October," Sheppard wrote. Microsoft, however, said the automatic update is planned for November.

Microsoft has warned of compatibility issues and released several trial versions of IE 7 prior to the final versions so Web administrators and software companies could prepare, a company representative said in an e-mail.

"Microsoft has released six beta versions of the product along with extensive guidance on how to get compatible with the new version," the representative said. "We've seen incredible support?and believe that our customers should upgrade with confidence that the majority of the sites and applications will work."

Aside from the vulnerability report, there was another security alarm. At least one person reported that the IE 7 download page was infected with a virus. Microsoft investigated the claim, but found that it was the result of a "false positive" by the AVAST anti-virus scanner. "A thorough analysis of our site has shown that the page is not infected by the VBS:ZULU virus or any other malicious code," a Microsoft representative said.

Perhaps the most significant problem is the apparent popularity of IE 7. Microsoft's servers are buckling under the number of downloads and new installations of the program. As a result, some people who install IE 7 get an error when viewing the IE 7 start page after firing up the browser for the first time.

"We?re seeing such an incredible response to IE 7, that the 'runonce' page is being overloaded at times," the Microsoft representative said. "Microsoft is currently adding server capacity. We expect the majority of people who are downloading IE 7 to have a seamless experience, but will continue to monitor and adjust our capacity as needed."

IE 7 is the first major update to Microsoft's ubiquitous Web browser in five years. The update includes many features, such as tabbed browsing and RSS support, already found in competing software, such as Firefox and Opera.

Security was the No. 1 investment for the update, Microsoft has said. Critics have likened predecessor IE 6 to "Swiss cheese" because of the many security vulnerabilities in it. Microsoft plans to push IE 7 out as a "high priority" update via Automatic Updates in Windows XP in November.

 

Correction: This story incorrectly described the month when Microsoft will push out Internet Explorer 7 to Windows XP SP 2 users via Automatic Updates. That month is November.

[Drewzilla]

article root

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[rcrusoe]

how to get compatible?

You don't code websites for a browser. You code website to the
standard.

And browsers are supposed to be conform to those STANDARDs.

You'd think MS would have someone capable of finding http://
www.w3.org

[DrakeLS]

Wrong on many counts

This particular issue with DWF does not involve 'coding to standards'... it involves plug-in compatibility.

The fact is that MS made the IE7 betas (many of them) available to ISVs and other companies months before its release so that they could ensure that everything would work at the release of IE7.

If you chose to ignore this and wait until the final release, then it is their problem if they expect everything to work exactly the way IE6 does (which probably wouldn't be ideal in some situations).

Regarding standards, yes, the web space does need standards - but if everybody stuck to standards the browser would be a commodity item to its parent companies - and they wouldn't be able to add value to their browsers other than easy-to-use-features (such as tabbed browsing), etc.

When MS introduced the XmlHttpRequest object (not as a standard) - it launched the AJAX revolution a couple years later without even knowning it. Know of course, all major browsers supported it.

When MS introduced the hover command (that wasn't a standard at the time) - everybody wanted to use it in their pages because it was easy to implement and 'looked cool'.

Consumers and businesses want *solutions* that work and give *added* value to their web users. They DO NOT CARE about standards unless using them gives them some benefit. Web developers *care* about standards because it means they can have one code base that supports multiple browsers.

The goals of businesses looking for solutions, consumers looking for cool sites, and developers coding for a 'standard' are usually not the same.

Frankly, I would rather have browser companies compete in this 'standards' space rather than just letting it stagnate and everybody trying to match the 'standards' as close as possible. Eventually, a de-facto standard emerges and browsers support it at some time later.

The interesting thing is - when MS was clearly beating Netscape - it was because MS was being innovative and adding support beyond the standards to their browsers - that people clearly responded to and liked.

Now, MS is simply trying to follow the standards and it shows - not much innovation in the browser space.

[gernblan]

Here's how you get compatible...

www.getfirefox.com

[gary85739]

So far, its works fine...

If something messes up later, I'll tell ya.

If you would PLEASE tell all of us if there is anything WRONG with IE7, it would be appreciated!

Til then, I'll use it.

ps: atleast TRY to keep this thread about IE7 and NOT other browsers, OS's,etc

[Computer_Guru_SD]

One small problem

IE7 apparently only allows one toolbar per line on startup. I've got a small toolbar (McAfee SiteAdvisor) that I drag on to the right side of another toolbar and lock all the toolbars. But every single time at startup, the toolbars are all shifted so that there is only one toolbar per line (what a waste of space). It just will not retain the layout of the toolbars.

[facerw]

Minor Problem

Just a little glitch in the install machine in a few systems but otherwise it was ok. I'm still debating to do a full deployment at our organization though.

[Lindy01]

Overloaded servers

becuase of high demand.....that has just got to fly in the FACE of all FF loving MS haters that post here.

I wonder if they will make a Mac version of IE7.......NOT!

IE7 has worked fine for me since Beta 3....with zero web site problems.

[justwally]

server overload?

Um, Lindy, servers have getting overloaded long, long before Microsoft was a glimmer in Gates' eye.

BTW, why do you sound so angry?

[justwally]

server overload?

Um, Lindy, servers have getting overloaded long, long before Microsoft was a glimmer in Gates' eye.

BTW, why do you sound so angry?

[jones_8099]

Why bring up Macs?

I mean no one had posted anything about Macs before this. That
just goes to show that Apple users aren't always the ones who try
to start arguments. That being said I like Windows, it has its uses,
and I use it often. I do however use FF instead of IE when I can. Just
because you prefer FF over IE or OSX over Windows doesn't make
you a MS hater. Its a personal preference.

[citrusonic]

IS IE 7 GONNA GO MAC UNIVERSAL BINARY

THAT MIGHT BE COOL?

[unknown unknown]

Probably not

Since Microsoft has ended IE support for Mac. Besides Apple has Safari now, which does a better job conforming to standards. My understanding was the IE on the Mac was not only slow but a resource hog as well.

[rcrusoe]

Why would you want IE on a Mac?

I don't know anyone, with any real knowledge of security, that uses it on a PC.

[umbrae]

No...

Microsoft has already stated that IE7 will never be released as a stand alone version. This specifically relates to MACs, since you do not use Windows Update. Originally, IE7 was not going to be available for XP either (as it is not available for Windows 2000 or ME); however, pressure from XP users that do not plan to upgrade, and critism from security professionals about IE6 vulnerabilities caused them to release it for XP as well.

[bishop375]

IE vs. Netscape

Actually...

Back before IE was bundled with Win, Netscape was the only game in town. MS got into the fray, and IE was actually easier to use for quite a while. IE WAS the superior product before it was bundled with the OS. MS just found a way to make browsing an immediate option when people bought a computer.

[umbrae]

Not true...

Netscape was not the only browser in town. Several other browsers existed, but Netscape was just the most popular. Netscape would claim they created the browser, but this is not true. Mosaic was the first graphical browser and was still very popular during Netscape's rein; although the Team Lead for Mosaic development left to create Netscape.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser

IE 3 was crap comparied to NS3; however, IE4 added features that made it popular with developers: combined with its availability to Windows users and Microsofts very aggressive compaign to rule the browser market, that moved it ahead. However, by the first release of IE5, MS claimed victory and stopped truely giving IE any attention. Since NS was ravaged by the IE war, it could barely keep up at that point. Firefox did what NS should have done, which was to start including popular IE-specific technologies that were friendly to developers; however, NS had too much pride and chose sue MS rather than compete.

[mjm01010101]

Article, surprise, innacurate

"Microsoft plans to push IE 7 out as a "high priority" update via Automatic Updates in Windows XP in October."

Change it to November.

[JorisEvers]

Thanks!

We will fix this error. It should indeed be November. Thanks for pointing it out to us. Joris (CNET News.com)

[espavankumar]

ie7 rolled back to ie6

I installed ie7 last night from yahoo toolbar. it didnot install new ie7 but rolled back beta version of ie7 to ie6. shocked to see that.

[gernblan]

ie7 rolled back to ie6?

Consider yourself lucky.

I'd kiss my mother in law if it rolled back to Firefox though!

[fred dunn]

Minor Issue=Username and Password theft...

Other than that it's just a minor problem.
Let's say your on one website that is taking advantage of the vulnerability and you open another session of IE to go do some Internet Banking, Viola! you have just given away your bank account.

Oh but other than that it's just a minor flaw.

By the way this also exists in IE6 and MS has know about it for months.

[Gnome_kc]

IE7 Install Issues

I was running the IE7 Beta, until upgrading to the final version yesterday. It was SLOW.....I'm running a very fast P4 with 2 gigs of RAM, so I doubt it was a hardware issue. The new version was not an upgrade, but rather a full install, since IE7 completely removed the Beta version first.

The new install took in excess of 45 minutes, which surprised me since I did it within 40 minutes of MicroSlop announcing the availability. The original install of the IE7 Beta was much faster.

I can only imagine how bad it would have been with a slow P3 or a RAM shortage.

Since installing the new version, IE has crashed several times with multiple tabs open. Perhaps 5% of pages it trys to load show up as blank, with no 401 or 404 error page. Refreshing those pages seems to help, but only half the time.

Anyone else seeing similar issues?

[disco-legend-zeke]

try microsoft memory test

i have found the MS memory test finds a few very subtle bit errors related to bank switching.

these errors are the kind that only happen when your memory is being used to the limit, as when many tabs are open on IE7. This might explain the crashes.

The cause of your slowness is more likely a server bandwidth issue. My install took forever, but has operated smoothly.

The phishing filter alone is worth the upgrade!!!

[Gnome_kc]

Login Security?

Fred,

Do you have the MS bulletin on this? I can't locate anything on this on MS's support site. I also checked Symantec, but found nothing. I'm curious if that exploit involves a hidden keylogger being D/L from a site with malware.

I use a PW manager, so there's aren't any keystrokes per se. I wonder if that takes care of it, or if I need to find another solution?

Fred? Anyone?

[phage_dfu]

IE7 crashes Outlook Web Access

Minor, ha! They don't even test with their own products, but will harp on other companies not examing their six betas.

If S/MIME is installed from OWA Exchange 2003, IE will crash when a users clicks on Send.

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general/browse_thread/thread/cac50b591ff4c824/ee1ab2f149db9f8f?lnk=st&q=ie7+crash+send+owa&rnum=5&hl=en#ee1ab2f149db9f8f

[jamest1945]

IE 7 Will Not Run

Yesterday, after receiving an email from Microsoft about its availability I finally installed it.

After getting the .exe file and starting the process,which took over 30 minutes! I was asked to reboot and did. Well nothing happened? No 'welcome to IE7' etc., no new icons placed on my desktop now start/programs directory? Curious. Well I went and tried to find the program which was not where I expected to find it then I launched the execute file.

Well it tried to start for a millisecond then nothing? Fortunately for me I had set my system restore prior to doing all this and now my machine is back to its usual self.

What a complete waste of time! My software was validated no issues at all.

So what gives?

James

[Nunya Bidnez]

You may be p0wned:

Sounds like you may have been caught in a phishing attacck that
is a version of this

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/95877/surfcontrol-warns-of-
ie7-phishing-campaign.html:

SurfControl warns of IE7 phishing campaign 6:01PM

SurfControl is warning of a phishing campaign capitalising on
the launch of Internet Explorer 7 to dupe people into visiting a
site that tries to download Trojan code.
The message appears to originate from [e-mail]
and urges recipients to visit a site in order to download Release
Candidate 1 of IE 7.

The site mimics a legitimate page on Microsoft's own website,
and attempts to exploit a flaw in earlier versions of Internet
Explorer to automatically download the Trojan Win32.Small.cxz.
This installs a backdoor to communicate over the Internet, and
reports to a remote server.

SurfControl says it is still analysing figures for the attack,
although it does not appear to be widespread in the UK at the
moment.

I would not be certain the restore would have gotten rid of any
bugs, a scan with up-to-date Anti-Virus might be a good idea...

[dknewberry]

IE 7 Stalls when launched

After waiting for 30 mins for IE to install and when I re-boot, I never see the configuration windows like when you upgraded to IE 6.0...

How can this problem be resolved. The XP Home Edition has all the latest fixes.... so HELP.

[BigBopperII]

But why would i care

Interesting reading, but I can't imagine ever going back to IE after using FireFox. I use IE at work because I have to - and there is a staff of dozens of people to make sure we don't get attacked. But at home I just can't handle the pain. Try FireFox; you'll like it.

[jamest1945]

Why Would I Care

BibBopperII

I do indeed use Firefox all the time. I was just curious, but no more!

James

[gernblan]

All these years of development, for this?

1) Still not standards compliant. 2) Even more bloated. 3) Ugly interface 4) LESS customizable 5) Full of security holes (in time you'll see what I mean).

[gernblan]

...and...

6) NOT even compatible with itself!

[Ryo Hazuki]

All these years to get excuses, for this?

1) As standards compliant as the 2nd most used web browser, Firefox (plus the average user doesn't care about standards compliants, cares about how well it handles the web pages, and IE does that better than any other browser). 2) Not bloated (read/watch any review, even the one from "any non-Microsoft software is better than Microsoft software" biased Robert Vamosi). 3) Beautiful organized easy interface (practically the same scheme as in Firefox, but, interestingly enough, supposedly ugly for some). 4) Less customizable = MORE security (address bar cannot be removed/hidden so you always know which website you're in). 5) 0 security holes (fact, no matter what people argue).

[1-2-3_GO]

Correction?

"Correction: This story incorrectly described the month when Microsoft will push out Internet Explorer 7 to Windows XP SP 2 users via Automatic Updates. That month is November."

I know that's what was reported, but to my surprise on Friday when I started my computer, what Automatic Update began to download!!

Go figure.

[chucker111]

IE7-What if?

I'm thinking about installing IE7 to get a look at it.But,what if you install it,don't like it,UNinstall it and go back to IE6?What happens when your system automatically puts it on on it's own several days later? do you just have to UNinstall it over again?Or does it remember??,Thanks,Chucker.

[the_webninja]

Virus Alert!

Virus Report

I know the people who keep up on all the Viruses probably know a lot more about them than I do,
But I got a Virus yesterday, so I wanted to let everyone know How I got it, what it does, and what I did to clean it, and the Companies who are involved with the Virus I received.

I got the Virus on Myspace, someone requested to be my friend, and when I went to their Profile page to check them out to see if I wanted to be their Friend or not, another page auto-loaded on top of their Profile Page, with a Link on it that said ?Download Myspace Adult Viewer? I assumed this was because this particular Girl had Nude Pics of herself or something and this was the way that Myspace regulated adult viewers. WRONG!

I Clicked on the Link and Downloaded the Program which I THOUGHT was some kind of Myspace Adult media player, and after it installed, I realized I just made a terrible mistake. The link I had Clicked on that said ?Download Myspace Adult Viewer? downloaded a Virus into my Computer, which immediately took over my Internet Explorer. I wasn?t even USING internet Explorer for the Internet I use Firefox, so I thought I was safe, but I forgot that Internet Explorer still exists on your Computer as long as you are using Windows. Regardless of what Browser is your default browser, the Virus will take over Internet Explorer and begin to Launch Internet Explorer and use the Back Door Channels in Internet Explorer to stream you Endless amounts of Pop up ads.

Then it wants you to BUY a particular Software Program called ?Virus Burster? to fix the problem. This leads me to believe that the people at Virus Burster CREATED the Virus (which Mcafee could not clean) just to Force you to buy their Program. And if you buy their Program, then they have all of your Credit Card Information, and judging from the way they marketed their product I don?t think I want to trust them with my Credit Card Information.

On top of all of this, while you are Busy trying to fight off all the Pop Ups and make sense of what is happening to your Computer, the Hackers have complete access to your Computer through the Back door in Internet Explorer, allowing them to collect information such as Passwords from your Cookies Folder, or Addresses and Phone Numbers from Software Registration Forms stored on your Computer, all of which they can use to either Hack your Sites and Spread their Virus by Posting their Virus on YOUR Myspace Profile, and or, hacking other Sites you have passwords stored for in your Cookies Folder, or Using your Personal Information from Software Registration forms to engage in Identity Theft.

I tried cleaning the Virus by using Mcafee. Mcafee at first detected the Virus, then said it Cleaned it, but the Virus Self Replicates, and then Mcafee doesn?t try to clean it anymore. It just forgets about it, or the Virus contains something in it to disable Mcafee. I Tried using Ad-Aware Scanner to remove pieces of the Virus, it Cleaned parts of it also, yet, the Virus still functioned. Then I went through every single File associated with the Virus in my Registry and tried to Manually Clean it, but even with the related files were deleted from my Registry the Virus Still functioned.
I unchecked all my windows Services to Block the Hackers from Remote Access to my Computer, but the Virus still functioned even though it could not access the Internet. I tried unchecking all the things in my Start up using msconfig one by one to determine what was infected. It appears that the file ctfmon.exe was related in someway to the Virus, and that is how the Virus was unable to be deleted or removed. I am not a Software programmer, so I can get that specific, I can only tell you the behavior of the Virus and by process of elimination which files I found were associated with the Virus. I can tell you that the Majority of the Files were hidden, so I could not even FIND them on my Computer. But the Virus still functioned so I know it was there. It seems to infect any Toolbars that you have such as Yahoo or Google, to access your Computer.

The Companies Involved with this Virus either by paying these people to Create it, or paying them for Advertising in USE with the Virus are:
Virus Burster.com
Greatdate.com
*****************.com
Mmedia Codecs
Spyware.Cyberlog-X

I Received the Virus from Myspace, and the Following Display Names on Myspace were also found to contain the Virus:
Tessa
Madalynn
Bena
Pearl
Bronwyn

If you know about Viruses or if you are involved in helping Protect people from Viruses, please address this Problem. I would really like to see these people arrested for the aggravation they cause others.

The only way I was able to Clean the Virus was to Delete the Partition, Format my Hard Drive and Completely re-install everything. I want to see these people arrested.

Thank you,

Mark Evans
[e-mail]

[thedreaming]

Not a virus

The problem with trojans is that they can sneak right past your defenses. That's what happened with you. You were tricked into running a trojan pretending to be a media player.

When it comes to myspace and any other spyware infested systems, I run under linux. Since such spyware/malware only runs under windows, running under linux prevents them from running in the first place.

[greg3305]

Umm, how about...

...don't be a complete **** and download everything that pops up a window on your computer?

[Leria]

I don't think so

I don't think so. This is something that ANOTHER person on another forum also said, and he turned out to be lying.

I think that you are as well. There have been NO reported problems with IE7 being rolled back to IE6. None whatsoever. Perhaps the reason that your system did this, if you are telling the truth, is because you are running a autorun key monitor that kept IE7 Final from autoruning on the next boot in order to install IE7.

IE7 Betas and RC need to be removed before IE7 Final can be installed, that is why when you are installing it, if you have one of those installed it tells you "Please Restart because an earlier version of IE7 has been removed".

[pspatterson]

IE7 breaks MS Access

Windows XP SP2 desktop
MS Access 2003
Default Open Mode is Shared
Default Record Locking is Edited Record
Database resides on NetWare 6.5 file server

IE6+:

Double click shared database file or access via an icon pointing to said file, database opens as expected, multiple users can edit records.

Install IE7:

Double click shared database file or access via an icon pointing to said file, MS Access will not start. ONLY way to open shared database is to first open MS Access via Start Menu then navigate to directory where shared database resides to open file. MS Access and database work as expected after opening in this manner. This holds true for all users except the first user to open the database file and create the .ldb file. All subsequent users experience the problem.

Uninstall IE7:

MS Access and database can again be opened via double click on file or icon pointing to file and multiple users can edit records.