Bits from Bill

Technology thoughts leaking from the brain of "Bill Pytlovany"

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

IE 7, click "Don't Install"

I recently wrote how Microsoft was going to install IE7 as part of an automatic update. I provided information on the “Internet Explorer 7 Update Blocker” After a week of using IE 7 I have decided it’s highly overrated. If Internet Explorer 7 is an example of new advanced technology from Microsoft, they will surely have a hard time selling folks on Windows Vista.

This is by no means a full review of new features or problems with IE 7 but I wanted to share a few issues I’ve found very annoying. I won’t even mention how stupid it is that I can no longer drag the command bar around to customize my menu and controls.

The biggest problem for me is how IE7 reacts after I click on any link.
It freezes.
If I click the wrong link or if it can’t find a page I have to click on the Stop X icon before I can do anything else. As far as I’m concerned, this is a dramatic change in how the browser works and is unacceptable on systems designed for multitasking.

The next annoying problem apparently has to do with how cookies are handled. I’ve already had two cases where I was told to enable cookies before I could continue. First, it happen when trying to follow the refund procedure with Norton Internet Security. That may be another whole Blog story but as of now I don’t know if my $69 refund was processed and can’t get the same screen back. Today it happen again with Quicken as I was trying to use my autobill paying service.

Lastly, I’d like to know why Internet Explorer has re-activated the Alternate User Input service that shows up as CTFMon.exe in my Startup list. This is a component of Microsoft Office and I had this option turned off!

WinPatrol users can select CTFMon.exe and then click the “Disable” button. This will tell Scotty to remove CTFMon.exe from the startup list anytime in the future. Microsoft does provide a better solution on the web page Frequently asked questions about Ctfmon.exe .

Ultimately, if you’ve disabled the feature in Office you can unregister the components so it doesn’t continue to run in the background.

1.Click Start Button and then select Run.
2.In the Run… dialog box, enter the following command:
Regsvr32.exe /u msimtf.dll
3.Click OK.
4.In the Run… dialog box, enter the following command:
Regsvr32.exe /u msctf.dll
5.Click OK.
6.Reboot

If you find you need ctfmon you can repeat the procedure above without the /u.

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have been using IE7 for several months and Firefox 2 for a few days.
They are very competitive as far as the UI is concerned.
The biggest problem I have seen with IE7 is not the browser itself but the add-ins and ancillary products associated with it.
Just to get IE7 to load at all I had to disable all add-ins (which is now much easier) and add them back one at a time to find the culprits, which turned out to be one add-in from Microsoft and one from Google.
I still have occasional problems with specific websites either because they are incompatible with IE7 or for some unknown reason related to IE7 itself.
Freezes, failure to start, and abnormal terminations may be due to add-ins.
IE7 obviously should be designed to be much more robust with respect to add-ins to at least report the name of the offending add-in and offer to disable it, rather than hanging or terminating with no clue for the user.

9:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've been getting a lot of script error messages with IE7- logging in to hotmail.com (not possible now), using a program to view live feeds from TV stations (must use the IE engine) and on a page I wrote which uses a DHTML menu (doesn't display). If I click on the script error warning triangle, IE chokes when the pop-up dialogue ('Do you want to continue running scripts?) appears and the only way to kill it is with Task Manager. I haven't changed any settings since IE7 was installed, so I reckon this is a problem with the new version. A Google search for "script error" and IE7 produces countless pages, so it seems others have had similar problems.

12:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have to agree. I am unable to find one thing IE7 does that has not been part of Firefox, Opera and Flock for some time.

11:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I work at a computer store and we have been seeing tons of problems with this browser IE7. The interface is horrible. I have seen streaming video get damaged it now shows negative images and stays that way after you uninstall IE7. We have also seen multiple business accounts unable to access the internet after installing IE7. We revert them back to IE6 and Whala! the internet connection comes right back. Most of the other issues are already stated in the previous posts so I won't rehash.

3:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I installed the latest version of IE7, it stopped my HP Director from loading which meant I couldn't use the scanner etc. also as Bill says it tends to freeze and then you can't do a thing with it.
I use Opera and I've seen nothing in IE7 that would make me want to change.

12:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If IE is so bad and others are better, why does'nt the "Bits from Bill" shown properly in FF2?

5:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This information is very useful. I've seen IE7 run on another PC and have seen the freezing problem talked about. I was still considering upgrading to IE7 but after reading these posts it seems it wasn't due to errors on my part, and so I won't bother upgrading now :( Maybe, as with most software, we should leave it alone for a year or so, until it's patched properly.

4:06 AM  

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