Microsoft Responds to IE Criticism

darthcamaro writes "Looks like there was an online free-for-all on Microsoft's chat servers yesterday with Internet Explorer engineers. Several interesting things come out in the story including the fact that the IE big wig thinks that all of his engineers should have other browsers installed to see what they can do and, catch this...he thinks they're the underdog. 'I've worked at Microsoft for 14 years and I have always felt like the underdog,' said Hachamovitch. 'Maybe the road behind us looks easy, but at the time going it wasn't. I welcome the feedback today. Getting informed is the only way I know to get better. The day we don't get heated feedback I'll be concerned.'" Reader nkodengar notes that "Microsoft has posted an article on MSDN listing everything that will be affected by the the updates to Internet Explorer in Service Pack 2. This will be particularly important to developers who use ActiveX controls, pop-up windows and file download counters in their websites..."

Comments

Re:Well

[rice_web]

Quickly looking at that MSDN article, I must say that they are taking some extremely important steps:

• Does your Web site launch automatic download prompts?
  Microsoft will now suppress downloads not initiated by the user directly.
• Does your site launch a pop-up from a pop-up?
  Along with other things like this one, Microsoft is effectively blocking pop-up ads this time around. It's should at least rival the offerings from Mozilla, OmniWeb, etc.
• Do you launch the setHomePage() dialog automatically?
  This is finally gone! No more shithole websites set as the default
• And then you have to love these suggestions
  • Do not install ActiveX controls using a pop-up window or HTML dialog.
  • Do not suggest to users they should lower their security settings to install an ActiveX control.
  • Do create an instance of the ActiveX control on a standalone page describing the purpose and end-user impact of the control.

Re:What about the file download counters?

[Zone-MR]

What's so special about file download counters that will cause them to break in the new version of IE? I thought they were server-side anyway?

Since it's more difficult to configure a web server to count downloads of all file types, people often use a PHP script which redirects to the target file.

For example http://server.com/getfile.php?file=test.exe

The PHP script updates the server-side counter and then redirects the user to the real file they wanted.

Ever seen those "Your download should start in 5 seconds..." messages?

The new behaviour will make it impossible to automatically pop up a file download dialog, rendering this type of download counter/anti-leech script usless.

Default System Browser

[Foofoobar]

"People choose," replied Hachamovitch (IE lead engineer). "Hundreds of millions of people actively use Windows and they get to choose. Nothing in Windows as it ships keeps them from downloading other software that extends their browsing experience (e.g. the Google or Ebay toolbars) or changes it (e.g. an alternative browser)."

What a load of shit. I spent 8 hourts on line with MS tech support trying to disable IE entirely from my system. You see, when you remove it, the system recreates it. And even when it isn't there, it uses a default installed version which is integrated into the system.

Microsoft tech support has NO CLUE on how to remove it so I messaed around and came up with a way to have all Microsoft apps default to using Firefox instead

Popups and Returning Null

[Beige Tangerine]

Actually, returning null when window.open() is blocked is the usual behavior for Firefox, and I assume for most other popup-blockers, as well. If memory serves, window.open() returns the window it creates so that you can further manipulate it from your code. Thus, no windows created --> null return value. Those of you with popup blockers can test the functionality here.

Re:IE to block popups.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

This pretty much means that the popup window will be officially dead in a year's time.

Actually, it simply means that window.open() popups will be dead in a year's time. It's an arms race, just like spam vs. antispam. Popups will simply move from JavaScript to CSS. The popup window appears as a CSS layer which is above the layer showing the main page.

To see an example of this, go to http://www.tek-tips.com. The first thing you'll see is a popup sailing across your screen and bouncing a couple of times off the bottom before giving you the opportunity to close it.

This is the near future of annoying adversiting, folks.

Re:Interesting comment about feedback...

[anethema]

Also, for top speed, put these lines in your user.js

user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequ ests", 8);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
user_pref("config.trim_on_minimize", false);

And..watch your page load times fall dramatically. Especially on a page with a lot of images.