25 replies to this topic

[kobrakommander56]

IE proclaims that they are trying to regain the glory that they once held. I read a very light article on how they are trying to regain competition over firefox. I realize that they are making no profit becuz IE is freeware, but does anyone actually know what the hell they are doing.


Eye M
sofa king
wee tod id

[rridgely]

IE still holds like 99.99 percent of the browser market so they arent trying to regain competition. I think they are just trying to improve its image.(how people think of it.) What they need to do is throw away active x but thats never going to happen.

[kobrakommander56]

What does Active X do?

[Mike Rochip]

kobrakommander56, on Dec 30 2005, 04:24 PM, said:

What does Active X do?

Active X is software a site downloads onto your PC for both good and evil reasons. A good example is many online virus scanners use Active X controls. Internet Explorer allows Active X to be downloaded onto your PC without your knowledge unless you specify very restrictive security settings. Firefox does not support Active X which is one of the main reasons it's considered to be much more secure than IE. This is also the reason many scanners don't work with Firefox.

One of the things that HiJackThis is very useful for is listing Active X installations on your PC that you may not know are there. They are often found in the Downloaded Programs Files Folder. Often they have names that are confusing or intentionally misleading. This is an example of one that is OK:

O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage) - http://go.microsoft....467&clcid=0x409

It is the MS Verification Utility (or something like that).

One of the big pains about Active X is that it can be very hard to remove from a PC.

[JohnDemolition]

it's very easy to remove from the PC. there's a folder that contains every activex control somewhere.

IE also has a built-in tool to see every activex control installed. also gives an option to remove.

@The topic. i think it should be renamed to, "What is Microsoft doing" because we all know that IE is just a program that has no life.

[Andavari]

Like rridgely stated removing the ActiveX would be what I would want, of course if that were the case they'd probably have to create a separate tool for allowing Microsoft Updates/Windows Updates or just allow any browser to download them via a plugin. Also making it separate from the system and not so tightly integrated could greatly decrease the possibility of it being the cause so many systems get malware or hijacked from using it.

[mps69_1999]

rridgely, on Dec 30 2005, 10:00 PM, said:

IE still holds like 99.99 percent of the browser market so they arent trying to regain competition. I think they are just trying to improve its image.(how people think of it.) What they need to do is throw away active x but thats never going to happen.

Sorry to disagree rridgely, but when FF released 1.5 there was an artical which stated that it was used by 15% of net users, and I think with those kind of stats MS have to sit up and take note.
What they do another thing. Personally speaking I think the damage has been done. They are now fire fighting. I don't think FF will ever take over IE but they will keep eating into their market.

[kobrakommander56]

what if mozilla and IE cut a deal and worked on a joint project, its not like they make money anyway.

[mps69_1999]

I don't think that will ever happen, thank gawd. MS likes to keep things in-house, "We've got a secret and we're not tellin' you". Unlike Mozilla who by their very nature is open source and rely on the goodwill of the public fixing many of the little problems that seem to occure. Which is one of the main reasons why I think people take them to heart.
The quicker computer firms stop bundling up IE and let the public choose which browsers they want MS will get the biggest shock of their lives.

[kobrakommander56]

well MP, with things becoming more open, more freeware, like linux, i think MS and corps will start coming out of their shells.

[Vanguard382]

I heard some where that Microsoft was planing on buying opera browser to try and improve there browsers and push FF down on the favorites scale.

[Eldmannen]

They are going to play catch-up with Firefox.
Implementing RSS reader, tabs, etc.

[kobrakommander56]

IE should just kill all the other browsers and regain supremacy. Kill em boondock saints style.

[gunner]

[attachment=426:attachment]What is a boondock saint? Is it a holy person lost in the woods?

[JohnDemolition]

Vanguard382, on Jan 1 2006, 09:28 AM, said:

I heard some where that Microsoft was planing on buying opera browser to try and improve there browsers and push FF down on the favorites scale.

wont happen

[Andavari]

Vanguard382, on Jan 1 2006, 11:28 AM, said:

I heard some where that Microsoft was planing on buying opera browser to try and improve there browsers and push FF down on the favorites scale.

If MS were to buy Opera (I sincerely hope they don't) I'd stop using Opera completely, although Opera has been my browser of choice for almost five years.

[lokoike]

Quote

IE should just kill all the other browsers and regain supremacy. Kill em boondock saints style.

kobrakommander56

I truly sincerely hope you were joking. Obviously MS could never come out on top by writing stable, intuitive code, as they are incapable of doing so. The only way they could possibly triumph is by designing some program to prevent compatiblities with any other browser. That is basically the idea behind Trusted Computing. Real trustworthy, huh?

If you are still using IE, please accept my condolences. And click on this link while you're at it. You won't regret it.

[rridgely]

lokoike, on Jan 3 2006, 03:15 AM, said:

I truly sincerely hope you were joking.

Obviously he was.

[lokoike]

rridgely, on Jan 3 2006, 04:36 PM, said:

Obviously he was.  

Well, obviously he was joking about the killing part (awfully hard to murder a browser). What I was referring to is "IE should... regain supremacy". I hear this all the time: MS should write all of the world's software, then we wouldn't have to worry about compatibility issues, bugs, etc.

I suppose if everyone in the world had infinite hardware resources to work with, and had hours every day to devote to recovering from crashes and viruses and a poorly designed interface... then MS would be a perfectly logical choice for all of one's software. But until that day comes, I think I'll stick with my easy to use, non-hardware-hogging, FREE software.

[rridgely]

Your on windows right? Well get over it!

Just kidding I love freeware and I believe it can be just as good as the paid versions but you just have to get the right ones.