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IE 7 or 8?

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by it2md 2 views

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ok I know this is gonna sound like a stupid question...but I'm not big on change so, for the last maybe 5 years I've been using IE6...finally after all these years, a lot of the applications i use are phasing it out because of chrome, firefox, and of course ie 7/8...so my question is this...

which do i upgrade to 7 or 8, or neither, and just use chrome, or firefox?

I've used chrome, and while i do like it, its still kinda new...if you know what i mean...

so what do you seasoned veterans suggest for the new year, as far as web browsers?

thanks

7 replies

by thumbsup2

If you're going to upgrade, go through the upgrade path correctly... chronologically... upgrade to 7 and do all the patching.... THEN and only then... upgrade to 8 if you want. You will eventually need 8 anyway. If you're going to end up there, don't skip directly from 6 to 8 or you'll be sorry. There WILL be bugs and you'll end up uninstalling 8, which returns you to 6, then installing 7.

Of course, you can always install another browser along side of it. Most of us do for various reasons. Some web sites don't work right in one browser, so we have 'others' to use. Since I do some web site design once in a while, I keep several browsers installed just so I can see what works/doesn't work.

by mamies

Move to IE8, It is supposed to be more secure according to microsoft. Also I run another browser because I am not a fan of IE.

by mejohnsn

always keep your operating system and browser(s) up to the latest upgrade/patch. For IE, that means IE8.

But if you are currently running IE6, it really is safer to upgrade to the latest patch of IE6 before going to 7 and then to 8.

As for alternative browsers, Firefox is still a great alternative, even though they are becoming more like Microsoft in a few ways (frequent new releases to fix newly discovered security problems, performance not as good as it was in earlier releases...)

Chrome is, as you say, new, but they had all the benefit of the Mozilla Firefox experience -- with fewer of the Firefox mistakes;)

Even so, the most secure browser choice is the latest upgrade of Mozilla Firefox PLUS the Firefox plugin known as 'NoScript'. The latter is necessary for defending yourself from "cross-scripting attacks".

by kate_ie8_team

Hi there, this is Kate with the IE Outreach Team. IE8 is safe to download and has many security advancements over previous versions. Have you seen the recent study conducted by Cenzic that shows how few vulnerabilities IE8 has compared to other browsers?

You can check it out here: http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3847461/Firefox+Tops+Vulnerability+List.htm

Or read more about browser security here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/safer.aspx

by who am i really

Make absolutely sure that your machine has no software, programs, etc. installed that can be broken by updating past IE6
IE 7 is the browser shipped with Vista
IE 6 is the browser shipped with XP
IE 5 is the browser shipped with Win2k
etc.

updating to IE 6 on win2k is not near as drastic as updating to IE 7 & 8 on XP

for instance if you update to IE 7 on a system that has Nero Express 6 installed, Nero Express will not function ever again on that system, when attempting to run it on the same XP Machine it was already installed and functioning on, it pops up the window:

"This Version of Nero is Not Compatiple with this version of Windows, contact your vendor for an updated version of Nero"

Strange dialog since the windows version wasn't changed only IE

for some strange reason it will work the other way around though:
a Fresh XP install with all the updates applied first including IE and install Nero Express 6 after, then it works
but the program is permanently broken if it's already installed and then the system is updated to IE 7 & up

I always recommend using IE only for sites that need it, such as winupdate, etc.
and for those routers that can't be configured with any other browser, such as certain D-Link routers.

by charlesetheridge

I've updated my IE8 as such options were released, and am entirely happy with the results. Microsoft offers extremely competent protection with the browser, and Microsoft Security Essentials is not only free, but completely compatible with IE8 and from what I can tell is highly competent. To my way of thinking IE8 is the best of the browser options, as Windows 7 si among operating systems. Both systems are kept thoroughly up to date.

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