Internet Explorer 8 and Virtual PC 7.03 on Mac OS X 10.4.11

[Windows User #330250]

Hello everybody!

I just purchased a copy of Virtual PC for Mac, version 7. It included
Windows XP Home. My Mac hardware is a Power Mac G5 "Late 2005" (IBM PowerPC
970MP @ 2.0 GHz) running Mac OS X 10.4.11.
Virtual PC is updated to the latest version 7.03.
Everything went okay and the speed of Windows inside the virtual machine is
quite good. (It feels like a moderate PC from back in 2002 when Windows XP
originally came out.) After activating the copy of Windows XP Home I went on
to do all the updating using the "manual method" via the Windows Update
homepage. SP3 worked, all security udpates worked, Internet Explorer 6 worked.

Only Internet Explorer 8 (which obviously replaced the previous installed
version) makes trouble:
* The window remains empty, regardless which homepage I visit.
* Only that part where the homepage should be shown is affected, all tabs,
menus, buttons, ... work.
* The window is filled with white colour at the start (and when restoring
it), but doesn't get redrawn when a window (such as the download window) is
drawn above it or when the frame of the main window is resized (the original
boarder remains if the window is enlarged).
* Underneath everything seems to be working, I can see the cursor change
it's shape and the links are shown in the status bar - only I don't see over
which link I'm hovering. I had to download Mozilla Firefox by pressing the
left mouse button in the middle of a big white void, knowing where the link
should be by heart and checking the link which is displayed in the status
bar. (Works only if a link is not obscured.)


So -- help appreciated,


IMHO it could be a bug in
* Virtual PC 7 for Mac
* Internet Explorer 8
* Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP Home
* Windows XP Home
* My specific system specs (I doubt that possibility)

All other programs work as far as I can see.
Most notably Mozilla Firefox 3.0.10 works. Still, this situation leaves me
with no Windows Update as it needs Internet Explorer's ActiveX support.


Ah, just to make it clear: I obtained Mac OS X 10.4 and Virtual PC 7 with
Windows XP Home legally, so the licenses are in force. I would have Mac OS X
10.5 at hand (also legally), but I want Classic support so this isn't an
option for me.


Excuse my English - my mother tongue is German.


Cheers,
Windows User #330250 aka Andreas

 

[Malke]

I just purchased a copy of Virtual PC for Mac, version 7. It included
Windows XP Home. My Mac hardware is a Power Mac G5 "Late 2005" (IBM
PowerPC 970MP @ 2.0 GHz) running Mac OS X 10.4.11.
Virtual PC is updated to the latest version 7.03.
Everything went okay and the speed of Windows inside the virtual machine
is quite good. (It feels like a moderate PC from back in 2002 when Windows
XP originally came out.) After activating the copy of Windows XP Home I
went on to do all the updating using the "manual method" via the Windows
Update homepage. SP3 worked, all security udpates worked, Internet
Explorer 6 worked.

Only Internet Explorer 8 (which obviously replaced the previous installed
version) makes trouble:
* The window remains empty, regardless which homepage I visit.
* Only that part where the homepage should be shown is affected, all tabs,
menus, buttons, ... work.
* The window is filled with white colour at the start (and when restoring
it), but doesn't get redrawn when a window (such as the download window)
is drawn above it or when the frame of the main window is resized (the
original boarder remains if the window is enlarged).
* Underneath everything seems to be working, I can see the cursor change
it's shape and the links are shown in the status bar - only I don't see
over which link I'm hovering. I had to download Mozilla Firefox by
pressing the left mouse button in the middle of a big white void, knowing
where the link should be by heart and checking the link which is displayed
in the status bar. (Works only if a link is not obscured.)

IMHO it could be a bug in
* Virtual PC 7 for Mac
* Internet Explorer 8
* Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP Home
* Windows XP Home
* My specific system specs (I doubt that possibility)

All other programs work as far as I can see.
Most notably Mozilla Firefox 3.0.10 works. Still, this situation leaves me
with no Windows Update as it needs Internet Explorer's ActiveX support.

Ah, just to make it clear: I obtained Mac OS X 10.4 and Virtual PC 7 with
Windows XP Home legally, so the licenses are in force. I would have Mac OS
X 10.5 at hand (also legally), but I want Classic support so this isn't an
option for me.

Excuse my English - my mother tongue is German.

Your English is exquisite, far better than many native speakers. Uninstall
IE8 and install IE7. If you want to discuss IE8 further, post here:

microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general

Malke

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Hello everybody!

I just purchased a copy of Virtual PC for Mac, version 7. It included
Windows XP Home. My Mac hardware is a Power Mac G5 "Late 2005" (IBM PowerPC
970MP @ 2.0 GHz) running Mac OS X 10.4.11.
Virtual PC is updated to the latest version 7.03.
Everything went okay and the speed of Windows inside the virtual machine is
quite good. (It feels like a moderate PC from back in 2002 when Windows XP
originally came out.) After activating the copy of Windows XP Home I went on
to do all the updating using the "manual method" via the Windows Update
homepage. SP3 worked, all security udpates worked, Internet Explorer 6 worked.

Only Internet Explorer 8 (which obviously replaced the previous installed
version) makes trouble:

* The window remains empty, regardless which homepage I visit.
* Only that part where the homepage should be shown is affected, all tabs,
menus, buttons, ... work.

Let's first try getting a working Home page.
Try changing your Home page to About:Blank.
(E.g. via the Internet Options, General tab)
Hint: Run... (e.g. press Win-R and enter control inetcpl.cpl

Also, assuming you have tabs enabled and your New tab tab is
About:Tabs, let's verify that that works too. E.g. press Ctrl-t
(assuming the same keystroke is used in the German version
as the English version.)

* The window is filled with white colour at the start (and when restoring
it), but doesn't get redrawn when a window (such as the download window) is
drawn above it or when the frame of the main window is resized (the original
boarder remains if the window is enlarged).

Probably because the real problem is connectivity and the window
is in a hung state because of it. ; )

In that case the symptom you are seeing is often attributed to
a misconfigured firewall--e.g. a third-party program which blocks
outbound connection requests based on certain criteria such as
whether it has been told anything about the programs which may
be issuing those requests; otherwise it interprets those requests
as coming from a "Trojan" (some other program disguised for some
legitimate purpose and not intended for making network connections.)

If you have any such program installed and operating you should either:
1. make it accept requests from the IE8 version of iexplore.exe
2. disable or uninstall that program but make sure that you have
at least the Windows firewall enabled before connecting to the Internet


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Fred Horvat]

I can confirm that IE8 Does NOT play well with VPC 7.03 and XP Pro SP3. My
machine is a late model G5 dual 2.0 OSX 10.5.6 with VPC 7.03. XP SP3 and
Office 2007 SP2 with all patches applied before installing IE8.

IE8 does load pages but not display them to you. It acts like the
Application is hung. I don't know the technical Windows but for those
Windows users when an application hangs and you attempt to bring it to the
foreground you get just a white screen. This is what IE8 is doing as is
Windows Explorer is hung up.

I have not really attempted to see what Service or setting is holding it up.
What I did as a test is to uninstall IE8 and go back to IE7 which appears to
work properly. I will attempt to install IE8 again and play around and see
what I can find.

My suggestion for those who want to attempt to go to IE8 is to make a copy
of your VPC XP hard drive image under OSX before starting. This way
recovering is much less painful...

 

[Windows User #330250]

Your English is exquisite, far better than many native speakers. Uninstall
IE8 and install IE7. If you want to discuss IE8 further, post here:

microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general

Malke

Thanks, that's what I did. Internet Explorer 7 works well.

I'm new to the way Microsoft handles such bugs, so I just ask straight out:
Is there a way to report this particular bug to Microsoft? Preferably from
outside Windows (Mac OS or Linux).

Thanks for you help,
Windows User #330250 aka Andreas

 

[Windows User #330250]

Hi!

Let's first try getting a working Home page.
Try changing your Home page to About:Blank.
(E.g. via the Internet Options, General tab)
Hint: Run... (e.g. press Win-R and enter control inetcpl.cpl

I forgot about that. But I tried a couple of URLs and they all are NOT
displayed as they should.

Also, assuming you have tabs enabled and your New tab tab is
About:Tabs, let's verify that that works too. E.g. press Ctrl-t
(assuming the same keystroke is used in the German version
as the English version.)

Yes, it's the same. I have to say that Virtual PC and it's prepared version
of Windows XP Home is in the English language. (Only VPC doesn't bother and
comes in German as well - the Mac OS X/Unix way...) Windows XP Home is
entirely in English.

Probably because the real problem is connectivity and the window
is in a hung state because of it. ; )

In that case the symptom you are seeing is often attributed to
a misconfigured firewall--e.g. a third-party program which blocks
outbound connection requests based on certain criteria such as
whether it has been told anything about the programs which may
be issuing those requests; otherwise it interprets those requests
as coming from a "Trojan" (some other program disguised for some
legitimate purpose and not intended for making network connections.)

If you have any such program installed and operating you should either:
1. make it accept requests from the IE8 version of iexplore.exe
2. disable or uninstall that program but make sure that you have
at least the Windows firewall enabled before connecting to the Internet

Nope, no such. It's a vanilla - oh, sorry, Linux slang - it's a clean
installation, no software installed except SP3, all security updates and IE8.
No other software involved, expect of course that it's running inside Virtual
PC's virtual machine.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle

Thanks, Internet Explorer 7 works well now. I'll have to stick to Firefox
for the time being, until they fix Internet Explorer 8 on Virtual PC for Mac.

 

[Windows User #330250]

Hello!

I can confirm that IE8 Does NOT play well with VPC 7.03 and XP Pro SP3. My
machine is a late model G5 dual 2.0 OSX 10.5.6 with VPC 7.03. XP SP3 and
Office 2007 SP2 with all patches applied before installing IE8.

I'm glad someone encountered the same bug. So it's not my specific machine
but Virtual PC with Windows XP and Internet Explorer 8 in general.

IE8 does load pages but not display them to you. It acts like the
Application is hung. I don't know the technical Windows but for those
Windows users when an application hangs and you attempt to bring it to the
foreground you get just a white screen. This is what IE8 is doing as is
Windows Explorer is hung up.

No, it's not hung, it just doesn't update the content of the window. To me
it looks like the rendering engine has stalled or something, because you can
continue to use IE8 - provided you know where to click on a specific internet
page.

I downloaded Mozilla Firefox with Internet Explorer 8 like if I was blind.
The only help was the status bar, showing me when the mouse was actually
hovering over the right link. The download then worked perfectly.

I have not really attempted to see what Service or setting is holding it up.
What I did as a test is to uninstall IE8 and go back to IE7 which appears to
work properly. I will attempt to install IE8 again and play around and see
what I can find.

My suggestion for those who want to attempt to go to IE8 is to make a copy
of your VPC XP hard drive image under OSX before starting. This way
recovering is much less painful...

I'm now also with IE7 - no bugs here. The idea of duplicating the hard drive
image is a good one - I'll try so as well, when spare time permits.


Thanks for confirming this bug.
Windows User #330250 aka Andreas

 

[Malke]

Thanks, that's what I did. Internet Explorer 7 works well.

I'm new to the way Microsoft handles such bugs, so I just ask straight
out: Is there a way to report this particular bug to Microsoft? Preferably
from outside Windows (Mac OS or Linux).

Thanks for you help,
Windows User #330250 aka Andreas

I don't know if this would be a bug in IE8 or in Virtual PC. I use VMware
Fusion to run virtual machines on my Macs so I can't help you there.

If you want to pursue it, I'd post in the IE8 newsgroup and also if there is
a newsgroup or a forum for Virtual PC. Here's the VPC newsgroup but I don't
know if it covers the Mac version or not:

microsoft.public.virtualpc

Malke

 

[Harry Johnston [MVP]]

One random thought: have you tried disabling hardware acceleration for the
virtual graphics adapter? Control Panel, Display, Settings, Advanced, Troubleshoot.

Harry.

 

[Fred Horvat]

OK, tried this and it made no difference except to slow down screen redraws.
I also tried disabling the "Disable Write Combining" check box just below
and that did not help either.