What is the best version of IE6?

[Walter R.]

I am using WinXP SP3. This SP did not update the IE6, which I am still
using. Now I am having problems with Netflix because my movie ratings to not
"stick". Netflix tells me that I need to upgrade to a more current version
of IE, like IE7 or IE8.

If I recall correctly, people were having a lot of problems with IE7. Is
this still the case? Is IE8 performing without any problems? Should I
upgrade to IE7 or to IE8?


Thanks for any help

Walter
www.rationality.net

 

[measekite Da Monkey]

The best version of IE6 happens to be IE6!

If you asked about the best version of IE, I think IE7.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

There is one (1) version of IE6 running in WinXP SP2 or SP3.

Despite what Netflix is telling you, I'd very much doubt that upgrading to
IE7 or IE8 would address the problem. The following should:

IE Tools | Internet Options | Privacy | Sites| In the box, type...

netflix.com

and Allow cookies for the domain.
--
IE-specific newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002

 

[Tim Meddick]

Walter,
I'm sure people will tell you of the added security and
compatibility benefits of using both IE7 and IE8, however, I would like to
also add to those who will, undoubtedly, give glowing accounts of both, that
I am for IE6 for one reason. The less the more. It has a simpler
interface, which, with a bit of manipulating, you can get the 'Address Bar '
'Go Button' 'File Menu' and A few selected buttons (Back, Forward, Stop,
Refresh and History) all on one row leaving a significantly larger space for
displaying the web page. In IE7 you can't reduce the menu bars to less than
two rows no matter what you do. I much prefer the simplicity of the
interface and have never had any issues with using it to make me want to
upgrade. In fact I have disabled automatic upgrading to IE8 in Updates.

==


Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

 

[Nate Grossman]

Walter,
I'm sure people will tell you of the added security and
compatibility benefits of using both IE7 and IE8, however, I would like to
also add to those who will, undoubtedly, give glowing accounts of both, that
I am for IE6 for one reason. The less the more. It has a simpler
interface, which, with a bit of manipulating, you can get the 'Address Bar '
'Go Button' 'File Menu' and A few selected buttons (Back, Forward, Stop,
Refresh and History) all on one row leaving a significantly larger space for
displaying the web page.

As webmasters upgrade their code to be compliant with more modern
standards, and stop making their sites backward compatible with IE6,
users of IE6 will find themselves out in the cold. That time is not
far off.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I am using WinXP SP3. This SP did not update the IE6, which I am
still using. Now I am having problems with Netflix because my movie
ratings to not "stick". Netflix tells me that I need to upgrade to
a more current version of IE, like IE7 or IE8.

If I recall correctly, people were having a lot of problems with
IE7. Is this still the case? Is IE8 performing without any
problems? Should I upgrade to IE7 or to IE8?

My suggestion: Update to IE7. It's been really stable on the few thousand
machines I support.

Don't want to update to IE8 yet - that's fine - but IE7 - it's just time.
It's similar to people who have yet to install SP2 for Windows XP - FUD is
the only reason in 90+% of the cases.

Feel free to block the automatic install/offering of IE7 and/or IE8 if you
wish:

IE7 Blocker:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displaylang=en

IE8 Blocker:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...28-5806-4ba6-9e4e-8e224ec6dd8c&displaylang=en

Download and install IE7:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3385-447C-8A30-081805B2F90B&displaylang=en

Your other choice - try using Firefox or another alternative browser of your
choice - see if it will work with the web pages you need to use...

 

[Alister]

As webmasters upgrade their code to be compliant with more modern
standards, and stop making their sites backward compatible with IE6,
users of IE6 will find themselves out in the cold. That time is not
far off.

I would go further, and say that IE6 was / is horribly broken when
handling standards-compliant code, and it will be a great relief when
everyone stops using it as it currently requires a whole set of extra
code just to make a site work properly in IE6.

Unfortunately, I don't know what the global figures are, but 60% or more
of our clients (mostly local government) still use IE6.

Alister

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I am using WinXP SP3. This SP did not update the IE6, which I am
still using. Now I am having problems with Netflix because my movie
ratings to not "stick". Netflix tells me that I need to upgrade to
a more current version of IE, like IE7 or IE8.

If I recall correctly, people were having a lot of problems with
IE7. Is this still the case? Is IE8 performing without any
problems? Should I upgrade to IE7 or to IE8?

My suggestion: Update to IE7. It's been really stable on the few thousand
machines I support.

Don't want to update to IE8 yet - that's fine - but IE7 - it's just time.
It's similar to people who have yet to install SP2 for Windows XP - FUD is
the only reason in 90+% of the cases.

Feel free to block the automatic install/offering of IE7 and/or IE8 if you
wish:

IE7 Blocker:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displaylang=en

IE8 Blocker:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...28-5806-4ba6-9e4e-8e224ec6dd8c&displaylang=en

Download and install IE7:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3385-447C-8A30-081805B2F90B&displaylang=en

Your other choice - try using Firefox or another alternative browser of your
choice - see if it will work with the web pages you need to use...

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

[There's that echo again!]

My suggestion: Update to IE7. It's been really stable on the few
thousand
machines I support.

Don't want to update to IE8 yet - that's fine - but IE7 - it's just time.
It's similar to people who have yet to install SP2 for Windows XP - FUD is
the only reason in 90+% of the cases.

Feel free to block the automatic install/offering of IE7 and/or IE8 if you
wish:

IE7 Blocker:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displaylang=en

IE8 Blocker:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...28-5806-4ba6-9e4e-8e224ec6dd8c&displaylang=en

Download and install IE7:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3385-447C-8A30-081805B2F90B&displaylang=en

Your other choice - try using Firefox or another alternative browser of
your
choice - see if it will work with the web pages you need to use...

 

[db]

the genuine one.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @hotmail.com
"share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Nate Grossman]

I would go further, and say that IE6 was / is horribly broken when
handling standards-compliant code, and it will be a great relief when
everyone stops using it as it currently requires a whole set of extra
code just to make a site work properly in IE6.

Unfortunately, I don't know what the global figures are, but 60% or more
of our clients (mostly local government) still use IE6.

Alister

Globally, it's at about 16%

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Globally, it's at about 16%

Source, please?

According to
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0, IE is
66.1%, FF is 22.48%, Safari is 8.21% and Chrome is 1.42% as of 03 May-09
1:44:13 AM UTC -4.

"...60 percent of companies use Internet Explorer 6 as their default
browser, according to Forrester Research."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=17290 (30 Apr-09)

 

[Nate Grossman]

Source, please?

I was off by about a point (the number is rapidly declining).

Was quoting from memory but found the site (first hit) I'd seen by
simply Googling "IE6 market share":

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

 

[Wallace Morgan]

I was off by about a point (the number is rapidly declining).

Was quoting from memory but found the site (first hit) I'd seen by
simply Googling "IE6 market share":

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Hmmm! There's a lot of difference between 16% and 66.1%

 

[Twayne]

I am using WinXP SP3. This SP did not update the IE6, which I am still
using. Now I am having problems with Netflix because my movie ratings
to not "stick". Netflix tells me that I need to upgrade to a more
current version of IE, like IE7 or IE8.

If I recall correctly, people were having a lot of problems with IE7.
Is this still the case? Is IE8 performing without any problems?
Should I upgrade to IE7 or to IE8?


Thanks for any help

Walter
www.rationality.net

IMO IE7 is excellent and I do like the addition of tabbed windows.
Don't know about IE8, haven't tried it yet. Mozilla FireFox3 is also
very good. I use both, actually, but mostly IE7.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

Walter,
I'm sure people will tell you of the added security and
compatibility benefits of using both IE7 and IE8, however, I would
like to also add to those who will, undoubtedly, give glowing
accounts of both, that I am for IE6 for one reason. The less the
more. It has a simpler interface, which, with a bit of manipulating,
you can get the 'Address Bar ' 'Go Button' 'File Menu' and A few
selected buttons (Back, Forward, Stop, Refresh and History) all on
one row leaving a significantly larger space for displaying the web
page. In IE7 you can't reduce the menu bars to less than two rows no
matter what you do. I much prefer the simplicity of the interface
and have never had any issues with using it to make me want to
upgrade. In fact I have disabled automatic upgrading to IE8 in
Updates.
==


Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

I can pretty much agree that makes sense. Personally I wanted the tabs
option so, once I discovered how to turn on the "classic" menu or
whatever it's called, it's been a long time, I liked it and stuck with
it for that reason mostly. 7 is good about wasting real estate, you're
spot on there! Fortunately I have a large enough screen I seldom
maximize any windows though so real estate isn't a big issue for me.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

As webmasters upgrade their code to be compliant with more modern
standards, and stop making their sites backward compatible with IE6,
users of IE6 will find themselves out in the cold. That time is not
far off.

I don't think that's the case because IE6's Quirks mode is so much
greater than 7 or 8. AFAIK there is nothing you can write for 7 or 8
that 6 can't display properly when it switches into Quirks.
That said however, it is true that I haven't seen an IE6 browser in
my web sites' stats in a very long time; probably like a year now but
don't quote me on that. That's like saying never write code to
accomodate the old 56k analog modem speeds because there are none left:
Not true. I have one rural site in particular where the 56k users
outnumber the DSL users.
It would be very difficult, if even possible at all, to write code
that 7/8 will handle and 6 won't.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[db]

the recent release
of ie8 is pretty good.

I think you will find
it accomadating.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @hotmail.com
"share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Twayne]

I would go further, and say that IE6 was / is horribly broken when
handling standards-compliant code, and it will be a great relief when
everyone stops using it as it currently requires a whole set of extra
code just to make a site work properly in IE6.

Unfortunately, I don't know what the global figures are, but 60% or
more of our clients (mostly local government) still use IE6.

Alister

If you want fully compliant code rendering, you won't get it even with
IE 7/8, but I know where you're coming from. FF and several others beat
the pants off IE for insisting on compliance. Although compliance is a
good thing, it's not really what your average surfer wants: He wants to
see the text and pretty pictures and doesn't care how they got there.
Full compliance WOULD be nice for the code writers and we wouldn't
need a gazillion different browser tests, but the average bear doesn't
care about that; he cares about seeing something on his screen and if
it's not quite as the author intended, who cares, he doesn't know the
difference as long as it works for him. So <center> fails (as it will
eventually), why do they care? All it does is push the content sideways
on them - but they still see the naked lady, wild animal, whatever, and
maybe it's poorly spaced, but the text is still there too. Most aren't
going to have a reference to know that what they see is "wrong".
I have to wonder about the global numbers too. You have 60%, I have
zero %. Mine are small, mostly non-profit, geographically local sites
so the global numbers aren't important for most of them, but ... it'd
still be good to know. IMO the best thing to do is watch stats and
react accordingly.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

Hmmm! There's a lot of difference between 16% and 66.1%

Typical whenever you look at "averages". Depends on too many things to
be accurate, including the definition of "global" and "market".

Cheers,

Twayne