July 24, 2010

Solve Internet Explorer 8 Crashes

By Rick Broida, 07-21-10, PC World
Reader Srinivas is having a problem with Internet Explorer 8:
"Whenever I try to access mail.yahoo.com, the page shows up and immediately IE 8 crashes. It happens with most [other] Web sites, too."

Browser crashes can be tough to troubleshoot--especially when you don't provide information about your PC, operating system, etc. (ahem). That's something everyone should remember when asking for help with system problems: the more details you can provide, the better.

You did mention that these crashes don't happen in Firefox, meaning you already know the smart short-term workaround for any browser problem: try another browser.

Anyway, you've got two likely culprits here: a corrupted add-on or a bad Flash plug-in. I suspect the latter, so let's start with that.

You'll need to uninstall the Flash Player plug-in and its ActiveX component, which you can do with a small utility from Adobe. Reboot after you've run the utility.

Next, close Internet Explorer and reset it to its default settings (which will also remove any problematic add-ons). Here's how (for Vista/7 users):

1. Click Start, type Internet Options, and then press Enter.

2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click the Reset button at the bottom of the window. (Do not check the box marked Delete personal settings.) Click Reset to complete the process.

3. Restart Internet Explorer and head to Adobe's Flash Player page. Follow the instructions to install it.

Now try signing into Yahoo (or whatever site was giving you trouble). I'd be very surprised if IE continued to crash. Assuming it doesn't, reinstall any add-ons that you were using--but do so one at a time, checking to make sure everything still works before proceeding to the next one. 

July 2, 2010

Internet Explorer 8 Growing Three Times Faster than Chrome

By Tony Bradley, PC World, 07-01-2010


After months of consistent declines in overall market share, Internet Explorer had an overall gain in May, but only in the United States. The latest browser market share trends show that Internet Explorer continues to reverse its losses and make gains in market share--this time globally. More specifically, Internet Explorer 8 is leading all competitors and gained more than three times as much as Google Chrome.

Broken down by browser version, Internet Explorer occupies three of the top four market share positions--with Internet Explorer 8 leading the way. Internet Explorer 8 market share grew .66 percent over last month to 25.84 percent of the market. Internet Explorer 6, unfortunately, is still the number two browser with 17.17 percent, while Internet Explorer 7 is in fourth behind Firefox 3.6 with 11.79 percent of the market.

Combining all versions of Internet Explorer together, the overall market share for the Microsoft Web browser grew from 59.75 percent to 60.32 percent. The gains came primarily at the expense of Firefox, which dropped .51 percent. Chrome had a slight gain of .2 percent, but still drags in with only an eighth of the market share of Internet Explorer.

Ryan Gavin, senior director of Internet Explorer business and marketing for Microsoft, elaborates on the Net Applications browser statistics in an Exploring IE blog post. "In June, Net Applications shows overall Internet Explorer share growing by 0.57% worldwide. Internet Explorer 8 share continues to be the fastest growing browser with a 0.66% increase in share, more than 3 times the growth of Google Chrome, while Firefox share declined."

Other than bragging rights, is any of this even relevant? As companies explore the myriad of browser options available, there is something to be said for going with the flow and choosing the browser with nearly two-thirds of the market.

Despite claims by Web development purists and Microsoft bashers that Internet Explorer doesn't follow accepted Web standards and conventions, when a browser dominates the market place the way Internet Explorer does, it more or less dictates the standards.

To Microsoft's credit, though, it does try to work with the established Web standards. Development of IE9 is underway, and Microsoft is working to embrace HTML5, and font-rendering standards, as well as striving to improve the performance of Internet Explorer on accepted Web browser tests like Acid3.

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and other Web browsers are all equally capable of surfing the vast majority of the Web. However, as developers create custom apps and add-ons to extend the functionality of a given browser, or provide additional interactivity and expand the Web-surfing experience, they are more likely to invest that time and effort developing for the platform that has two-thirds of the market.

The reality is that malware attackers may also target Internet Explorer for the same reason--larger pool of potential victims. However, many Web-based attacks tend not to be browser-specific, and recent testing has demonstrated that Internet Explorer 8 actually beats all competitors in guarding against Web-based socially engineered malware attacks.

Given the vast variety of browsers out there today, I doubt we'll ever see Internet Explorer return to its virtual monopoly glory days of 90-plus percent market share. But, the reversal of fortune over the past couple of months demonstrates that Internet Explorer is also not going to just slowly die away.

You can follow Tony on his Facebook page , or contact him by email at tony_bradley@pcworld.com . He also tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW .

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/200283/internet_explorer_8_growing_three_times_faster_than_chrome.html?tk=hp_blg