SP-3: You will lose the Address Bar toolbar in the Windows taskbar

[VanguardLH]

According to the TechNet posting at
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2589449&SiteID=17,
Microsoft had to eliminate the Address Bar toolbar (available in
pre-SP3) from the Windows taskbar due to legal reasons. I read the
release notes at
http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/d/8/cd8cc719-7d5a-40d3-a802-e4057aa8c631/relnotes.htm.
There is no mention of this legal requirement to remove the Address
Bar toolbar from the Windows taskbar. The claim in the thread is that
the Address Bar had to be removed to eliminate integration of IE in
the desktop. Huh? The address bar relies on the protocol handler.
It parses the string and tries to determine which protocol is best
suited to handle the string. If you enter a folder and file path (or
use file://) then you get Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer.

I think it is a bogus claim. If you select a different web browser as
your default, doesn't entering a URL string into the Address Bar open
*that* web browser and not IE? How is the Address Bar in the Windows
taskbar any different than the Address Bar in Windows Explorer?

 

[SAM-R]

This has been known for a long time and is old news.

 

[-Phil Clemence]

This has been known for a long time and is old news.

Oh , that explains it

 

[VanguardLH]

This has been known for a long time and is old news.

I was mostly interested in finding where Microsoft claims to have
divulged this information in the release notes. I looked at the
release notes. In the latest downloadable version of SP-3 and the
link on that page to the release notes, there is NO mention of losing
this functionality. Can't Microsoft figure out how to retain
information in their release notes between subsequent candidate
releases?

For many developers, the release notes tells them what is different
and that information may not be documented anywhere else. That this
functionality loss is NOT mentioned in the release notes bodes that
other such functionality loss or change is also not documented in the
release notes.

If a service pack changes behavior or deletes/adds functionality then
it should be documented! The indication is that this functionality
loss was mentioned before but got left out in the current version of
the release notes. For developers that are forward-looking to prepare
for this service pack, they can't wait until the release notes get
corrected and made up to date when the service pack is actually
released. That is, saying that the release notes will be correct when
SP-3 is released is not adequate.

Yes, I know programmers make lousy documenters. That may be the
reason for crappy release notes, not an excuse.