IE 11: Time to Say “Sayonora”?

[George Tyndall]

I’ve clung to IE for a very long time for a number of reasons. One of the most important is that IE has always worked flawlessly with Norton Internet Security (NIS), including the Identity Safe (IS) feature.

Especially important, to me, is that IS still allows all my user names and PWs to be stored “locally,” i.e., on my machine rather than in “the cloud.”

Problem is, IE11 has been giving me lots of issues lately, while FireFox (FF) has not. The complicating factor is that the local version of IS does not work on the current version of FF.

Solution: the free version of Blur, which is available at http://www.abine.com, not only works locally but also has some very elegant features that IS lacks.

And FF has the fabulous capability of importing all of one’s IE Favorites with precisely the structure that one has created in IE.

Does all this mean that I am completely abandoning IE?

The answer is “not yet,” and here is the reason: Woody the expert at http://www.askwoody.com states that, although he does not recommend actually using IE as one’s browser, it’s nevertheless important to attempt to keep it up to date for as long as one has it on one’s machine.

Question: does any muvipixer know why a program that may never be used should nevertheless be kept up to date?

[Bob]

Question: does any muvipixer know why a program that may never be used should nevertheless be kept up to date?

In IE's case, it's because it is not an independent stand alone program. What most people think of as IE is the user interface to the browser services. The html rendering engine and various other components are part of IE but are integrated into the Windows Operating system and are used by other Windows components and some 3rd party software. It is essential to keep IE updated in order to keep security exposures in these integrated pieces patched.

[George Tyndall]

It is essential to keep IE updated in order to keep security exposures in these integrated pieces patched.

Thanks for a very clear explanation.

Does that mean I should ignore Woody's advice re Windows updates?

Concern: I've just encountered some banking websites that FF/Blur cannot handle but that IE11/NIS-Identity Safe can, which means I would still want to use IE11 occasionally.

Problem is, there have been occasions when I've accepted all the important Windows updates but then been unable to reboot my machine. Luckily, RollbackRxPro has been able to restore me to the system that existed prior to the update. It's because of this experience that I've not been updating when so advised by Woody.

[Bob]

Does that mean I should ignore Woody's advice re Windows updates?

No. Woody advocates installing security and critical patches and has been good about telling you which are causing problems and when it is safe or prudent to install them. I hope you saw the Defcon 3 notice last week and installed the patches subject to the caveats Woody gave. He's back to Defcon 2 now.

Concern: I've just encountered some banking websites that FF/Blur cannot handle but that IE11/NIS-Identity Safe can, which means I would still want to use IE11 occasionally.

Same here. I have been using another browser as my primary browser and most web sites work fine, but a small number of sites I frequent are unusable if I don't use IE 11.

[George Tyndall]

I hope you saw the Defcon 3 notice last week and installed the patches subject to the caveats Woody gave. He's back to Defcon 2 now.

Whoa! I somehow managed to miss that--and I might be fortunate that I did, as here is what Woody states at the moment:

We’re seeing numerous reports of problems with the March Internet Explorer Security-only patches. These are the patches that you have to download and install manually – what I usually refer to as “Group B.”

The following is what I see on the Windows Update screen at the moment:

Win Update for Bob.JPG

I do in fact have all those 2010 programs, but I've never updated them as they are only optional.

According to Programs and Feature, the last date that I installed a Windows Update was early Oct. 2016.

Am I walking on thin ice, despite ALWAYS running NIS's Live Update immediately after booting?