Any Important Reason to Install IE9?

[George Tyndall]

Windows has been pestering me for some time now to install this "important" update.

Ditto for the Silverlight update.

Given that my machine already can do everything that I need it to do, is anyone aware of an important reason to install either?

[Steve Grisetti]

Well, it's supposedly faster. And more secure.

[ed]

I downloaded it. It seems faster, and the interface is more streamlined. I like it.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[mark hansen]

Ever sice I back out my IE9 to 8, my IE has shut down many times... even on web sites I always go to.

[George Tyndall]

Ever sice I back out my IE9 to 8, my IE has shut down many times... even on web sites I always go to.

Why did you back out, Mark?

[AVITRY]

Quite a while back I read that no matter what version of IE you use it is far more likely to be the target of malware or virus or whatever it is these hackers do to it. So, it seemed a no brainer to just use Firefox.

Has all that changed over the versions or do hackers still point their guns at IE more than FF?

[Chuck Engels]

Yes Joe, that is correct. I still fight more malware and viruses on users machines that prefer IE over Firefox. I am sure that the same goes for hackers, anything Microsoft is more vulnerable than anything else, PC vs MAC, IE vs Firefox (or Chrome, Safari, or any other browser), Exchange or Outlook vs Thunderbird or anything else. When over 70 percent (or more) of computer owners use Microsoft products that's what you get.

[Bob]

What should be a no brainer is to upgrade to the current release of whatever your favorite brower may be and stay current with security updates. People seem loathe to do that.

Security vulnerabilities will continue to be discovered in all browsers and the bad guys will continue to exploit them. However, one of the current trends in malware is exploiting old holes that take advantage of users that don't upgrade or apply patches regularly. And, don't forget, the browser is just part of the story. There are many types of exploits that don't involve browser vulnerabilities.

This is an interesting article if you are interested in the market share of the different brower: http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2011/05/web-browser-market-share-upgrade-analysis.ars

Microsoft does have the lion's share of the market so it will be a major target. But, what's interesting is that, according to that article, about 11% are still using IE 6 -- probably the most vulnerable browser ever. I won't even comment on those people that don't use any anti-malware programs.

Chuck, just out of curiosity, what is the dominant version of IE that your company is using? What version(s) are giving you the most trouble?

[Chuck Engels]

Most everyone is on at version 8.0.6001.18702 and we run a corporate version of ESET NOD32, we however do not have any anti malware software (which I have requested many times). Guess they would rather pay me to fix and clean the machines rather than spend a couple hundred dollars on good software licenses.

There might be a couple of people still on version 7 but not many.

It's just that most of the computers I get shipped to me for cleaning are the ones that the users prefer IE. As a rule we request (but don't enforce for various reasons) users to make Firefox their default browser, but not everyone does that.

[RJ Johnston]

I went to download IE9, but then read in the requirements that it's not for Windows XP.

[Ron]

What should be a no brainer is to upgrade to the current release of whatever your favorite brower may be and stay current with security updates. People seem loathe to do that.

My sentiments exactly.

[ed]

The IRS still uses IE 6. They kept pointing out style issues on a web app I'm working on, and I had to tell them we no longer support that browser. I couldn't believe it.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[George Tyndall]

What should be a no brainer is to upgrade to the current release of whatever your favorite brower may be and stay current with security updates. People seem loathe to do that. ....

Bob, your usual advice when a new version of whatever is rolled out is to wait a while to see whether problems emerge before downloading.

1. It's never before happened that "upgrading" one's browser has turned out to cause a problem(s)?

2. What browser do you most often use?

[George Tyndall]

Yes Joe, that is correct .....

But Chuck, what about those of us who use Windows Media Center every day? Do those other OSs offer similar capabilities?

And what about all the sites that state, "Use of this site require IE[x] or later?

[Bob]

Yes, George, I do wait a while before installing a new release of a core product. But, I'm not talking about a long while, just enough to determine if there are significant problems. And, word travels quickly on the Internet if there is. I installed IE9 some time ago and that's what I'm using.

Installing a new browser definitely has the potential to cause problems -- some minor, some major. Web sites that detect which browser the user has and makes adjustments based on that may not recognize the new browser. How the browser processes the html that it reads can differ. And, plugins or controls that run in the browser may be partially or completely incompatible. There may be changes in functionality. And, that's not counting the bugs that may be present. That's not unique to Internet Explorer, other browsers have the same issues. In addition, Windows itself uses some of the Internet Explorer library modules so the potential is there to affect the OS -- but, that type of problem is usually caught early in the alpha and beta testing phases.