Internet Explorer, December 8, 2005
Published: January 25, 2006
Please note: portions of this chat have been edited for clarity.
MarkL (Moderator):
Hello everyone, we’re going to start our chat now. We are pleased to welcome our Internet Explorer Experts. I will have them introduce themselves now…
Introductions:
Dave Massy (Moderator):
I'm Dave Massy, and I'm a senior Program Manager on the IE team. I'm responsible for some platform technologies including script engines and developer documentation.
Steve Reynolds [MSFT (Expert):
Hi, I’m Steve Reynolds a Program Manager on the IE Team. I started in the Helpdesk and moved on the Program Management. I’ve been on the IE Team for 3 years and at Microsoft for 10.
PaulNel (Expert):
I'm Paul Nelson, a Senior Program Manager for text and foreign language issues.
Levent (Expert):
Hi, I'm Levent, a Test Lead from Internet Explorer Extensibilty Test Team.
Start of chat:
Steve Reynolds [MSFT (Expert):
Q: my computer wont shut down properly....i go to start shut down and it just sits there on the desktop, it also does this when logging out...i have to shut down my computer my holding the power button in......please help.
A: What OS version and SP level are you running?
Steve Reynolds [MSFT (Expert):
Q: My Help and Support won't work. I tried to start it and it won't work. It had an Error 126: The specified module could not be found.
A: Have you seen this? http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;873158
Steve Reynolds [MSFT (Expert):
Q: steve, i wanted to also tell you, that i go to start, shutdown or log off and the box comes up and i hit either shut down or log off, the box goes away and then it just sits there on my desktop as if i never tried to shutdown.
A: Hi Kelly, I found this on help and support:: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822738
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: OK, my IE is not working, I want to reformat my computer to fix the issue, how do I reformat so my IE works???
A: First check that this is not a spyware related issue. http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/default.mspx To reformat your machine you will need the original Operating System disks that came with the computer.
Levent (Expert):
Folks, I see that there are a lot of issues about IE not launching, and IE crashing constantly. This is mostly due to bad extensions, spyware and malicious software that somehow got installed on your computer. To learn more about what spyware is and how to deal with it, check out http://microsoft.com/spyware. On this page there is also a link to Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta, which you can download for free, scan and clean your computer :)
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I have that. I put it in my CD-Rom drive and it tells me that I alread have Windows on my computer...how do i remove it and start over.
A: Sorry You'll need to talk to the people that supplied your machine as to which disks you need and walk you through the process.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I occasionally get a "virtual runtime error" it happens infrequently but when it does it shuts down ie. What is causing this?
A: Does this happen on particular web pages?
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: having problems connectiong media centre and the xbox 360
A: Beerbandit, This is an Internet Explorer chat. Sorry we cannot answer your questions here.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I am currently having a problem with internet explorer completely opening some web pages, even msn.com. I have the latest download of IE and I'm using xp pro. I get the prompt that (1 item is remaining.) The target ad in upper right doesnt seem to dow
A: Rick, Take a look at Levent'd post regarding spyware. This may help.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: can you tell me why use Internet Explorer on my hosting server using phpMyAdmin when I do a record update it does the update but comes back and says page can't not be found
A: Hi beardavid, that sounds like it might be a server configuration issue or possibly a cache issue. If you force a full refresh of the page using ctrl+F5 does it work?
Steve Reynolds [MSFT (Expert):
Q: When I try to access Internet Explorer, I get an error message that says runtime error, microsoft visual C++ runtime library. It won't allow me to access the internet or even get into my documents folder. Any ideas on why this happening and how to fix it
A: Take a look at this, it says something about IE not your default browser.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Any questions of Internet Explorer? If you want to watch progress on IE7 take a look at the team blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: yes, even if I re-click on the table to will show the info again, it only happens when I do the updates
A: Does it always happen? It sounds like there may be a delay when the update has not got through.
Steve Reynolds [MSFT (Expert):
Q: Steve Reynolds, take a look at what?
A: Sorry http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311265
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: IS there any way that I can control which cookies are placed on my computer. For eample when I want to remove cookies I have to clear all cookies. I want to protect certain cookies from being deleted. Also can cookies be removed when IE closes?
A: Hi KaZon, there's currently no individual control over cookies. You can block specific sites but this is good feedback that I'll pass on to that part of the team.
Steve Reynolds [MSFT (Expert):
Q: Steve Reynolds, thanks, I will check that out.
A: :-)
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: The Virutal runtime isn't specific to a particular web page that I have found but usually happens when I am tabbing between text fields.
A: Can you send us the specific error message. If you don't have it now then it may be worth trying the newsgroups later http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/support/newsgroups/default.mspx
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: their tech suport was able to do the same thing with internet explorer but when using firefox it didn't do it.
A: Who's hosting software are you using?
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I don't understand your question. The hosting company is bluehost.com
A: Thanks. That's what I wanted to know. I don't know of any issues there but will see if we can reproduce the issue.
Levent (Expert):
Q: The suggestion about the spyware check did not work. Does anyone else have an idea about the Pages not completely opening in IE
A: Hey Rick. What kind of connection you have?
Levent (Expert):
Q: T1
A: Well, does it go through a proxy server?
Levent (Expert):
Q: I believe so
A: Ok, this is most likely due to your proxy. Try switching to another one, if you have an alternate one. I assume this is in a work environment, so contact our IT staff for more info.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: WHERE DO I START finding IT job have no experience and done my MCDST
A: Monster.com is a great place to start. Microsoft open positions can be seen at www.microsoft.com/jobs. We're always on the lookout for great people. Good luck.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Do people here have many toolbars and extensions installed for IE? It's always interesting to know how people have their machines configured.
Levent (Expert):
Q: Task Manager has very limited function. Even when all poss. cmd switches are used it is nearly imposs to get decent info on processes incl. context, origin, files, reg keys and particularly if a Trojan were to mask as a well known Windows process. This
A: Hi f22. For advanced functionality similar to task manager, check out Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com. They also have filemon and regmon which might also be useful.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Does MS ever invisage a time when IE will not be completly tied to the OS? In other words the OS will not ship with IE built in?
A: IE is part of the OS because parts of the OS rely on IE functionality. We see browsing as an essential part of the Personal Computer experience and it is important that we ship a great browser as part of windows.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Do toolbars such as the ones Yahoo and Google offer make my browser more susceptible to adware and spyware? Or are they dangerous to use with IE for any other reasons?
A: Extensions by their very nature need to be secure or you are risking making yourself vulnerable to a security attack since the extension runs as part of the IE process. Companies such as Yahoo and Google have good reputations and can be trusted (although it is always a good idea to make sure you have their latest versions). I'd certainly make sure you trust the publisher of any software before you install it on you machine.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Is there any help that IE will incorporate (besides a head fake toward tabbed browsing in IE7) any of the many fine options deployed in Firefox as extensions?
A: Can you be more specific. the tabbed implementation in IE7 is going to be discoverable, secure and very usable. I don't think that counts as a "head fake" whatever that is supposed to mean. :)
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Can IE do a better job of communicating IE security zones in the future. There is a ton of confusion about this in the bell shaped curve of end users reflected by questions we get here and on the IE MSFT group? http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/ Dude, where’s my intranet zone?
A: Can you be specific? We're always looking to improve our documentation and specific examples of where we can improve would really help.
Levent (Expert):
Q: This offers steps in the right direction. Some of us will suggest it to Vista teams. What do you think? DL and take look. http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html
A: Yes, there are quite a few useful utilities from sysinternals. Some of this funcitonality is out of scop of task manager, and is better suited for standalone apps. Nevertheless, I'll let the right folks know about this request in that team :)
Levent (Expert):
Q: My internet exploper close on it own can some one help
A: Hi this can be due to badly written and/or malicious extensions or spyware. Try downloding Microsoft AntiSpyware from http://microsoft.com/spyware. This page also has a lot of useful info about spyware in general.
Levent (Expert):
Q: since i have donwloaded my SP2 when my IE tryies to open a fileX.doc or fileX.xls exported from Crystal Reports a window asking me if i want to open or save the fileX.do appears why IE recognize it as a .do extension?
A: This is curious. What extension do you get when you save the file on your Desktop?
Levent (Expert):
Q: Somehow italics are the text for nearly every web page i visit. How do I undo this?
A: Hi Jahan. What IE version are you using?
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Is ie going to ever support full css2?
A: We're moving towards improved support here. In IE7 we are addressing a great many consistency issues as well as support for selectors, fixed positioning and hover on all elements. It's important to note that no browser currently supports CSS2.1. CSS2 is in fact a slightly flawed standard which is why we have CSS2.1 to replace it. We expect to further improve in support for standards in IE8 and beyond.
Levent (Expert):
Q: 6.0.2900.2180
A: Ok, try launching IE and going to Tools | Internet Options | Accessibility button and clear all check boxes if any is checked.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Head fake meant that MSFT noted tabbed browsing in Mozilla for years. They finally adopted it Also if you take any box and put up equal windows in IE and FF and monitor CPU you are going to see that you can get 2.5 X the CPU efficiency in FF that you do in IE. Head fake meant superficial tabbed browsing cf.to firefox and the functionality in its extensions. And I'm a huge MSFT fan not a detractor. I spend my time helping with XP/IE/Office not Mozilla.
A: Tabbed browsing first appeared in netcaptor a browser based on Internet Explorer components. If you are seeing performance issues against FF then it is a good idea to check if you have any unwanted extensions for IE installed.
Levent (Expert):
Q: If have service pack 2 on your CD for xp do you need the update from Microsoft
A: Well, the SP2 CD has the same update as Windows Update. However, even after you install SP2, I strongly recommend to still go to Windows Update and get the latest security updates.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: The New IE7 BETA That is being released next year, To me and to alot of the community it seems to be a copy of the tabs in mozzila? What are your opinions on this?
A: IE7 has a great many enhancements beyond tabs which first appeared in an IE based browser. IE7 focuses on security, user experience and platform enhancements. Examples are printing improvements, RSS support, Protected mode on Windows Vista, improvements to the SSL user experience etc. Anyone claiming IE7 is a simple copy of FF probably has not tried it :)
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I don't think that RTMs are really anything but a line of an advanced Beta spectrum.
A: Hi f22, Do you have any specific questions. RTM stands for Release To Manufacturing and represents a quality level above that of prerelease beta builds where we are looking for specific feedback prior to release.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Will password management differ in IE7? In other words can I protect my saved passwords with a master password. Currently I see the password manager as a security risk as if I accidentally leave meslf logged in and walk away I leave my saved passwords open.
A: We are introducing in IE7 a "clear my tracks" feature so that all your session details are erased at the end of your session. This is for where the machine is in a shared user environment and we'd still recommend having separate user accounts.
Levent (Expert):
Q: when i save the file on my desktop i get the same .do extension, i have to add the extension by my own
A: Hi Elena - this is quite unexpected. Are you sure this is related to XPSP2 upgrade? Have you tried with another machine if you get the same thing? IE should obey the MIME type that the server sends, so there might be an issue on the server side.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: I have heard the Eolas case (embedded applications) may affect ie versions in the future can you speak to what kinds of changes these could or will be?
A: Hi. take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/activating_activex.asp for details of upcoming changes to ActiveX control activation.
Levent (Expert):
Q: get the messge "" system appliction has generated an execption that could not be handaled,process id=0xa88(2696),threat id=0xed8(3800).click ok to terminate the application and cancle the application. "" on clicking on Media Center... Please help...
A: Have you installed all the latest updates from Windows Update? The latest update may solve this issue.
Dave Massy (Moderator):
Sorry we are out of time today. I've really enjoyed the chat. We'll try and make these a once a month occurance and hope to see you next time. Happy holidays!
Levent (Expert):
It was great talking to you folks. See you at our next session!
