Plugin Lets Users Turn IE into Firefox

An anonymous reader writes "There is a new plugin available for IE that can make Internet Explorer resemble Firefox by adding tabbed browsing capabilities and an integrated search box. Moreover, the plugin improves IE's privacy and security by integrating a firewall designed to block out Internet exploits, phishing sites, spammers, spyware and worms, with a special HTTP filter that removes private data, and an anti-spyware tool that can identify and remove all pests in less then 10 seconds"

Comments

Wrong Way

[fembots]

What I need is a Firefox-plugin that looks exactly like IE (including the lack of tabs and search box) while still providing the same level of security.

Re:Wrong Way

[locokamil]

Try Maxthon.

It's not half bad... and it can be configured to use either the IE or Gecko engine (which, unless I'm completely mistaken, is at the heart of Firefox).

Re:Wrong Way

[iammaxus]

Oops, wrong link from Google. This is what you want: http://www.firefoxie.net/

Re:Wrong Way

[Vadim Grinshpun]

... while providing the same level of security ...

as IE??? That's how I read it at first :)

Re:Wrong Way

[superpulpsicle]

Unless I can change the microsoft flag to the firefox icon I am not interested. Oh wait, I already have firefox.

Re:Wrong Way

[DotWarner]

I feel sorry for any of your victims who eventually purchase and want to install software, and the tech support agents who take the call. The software won't install, the customer won't be able to identify the version of Windows, and the agent may never be able to identify the problem.

Perhaps you could identify common locations that are used to identify Windows versions and leave pointers to a text file explaining exactly what you've done. This would allow tech support to determine that the customer has been deceived and has wasted their money, and to point them back toward you for vengeance (and give you the chance to supply an OSS program that does the same thing for free).

Re:Wrong Way

[jacksonj04]

When you find the linux that works without me needing to persistantly edit config files, recompile applications, maintain complex version dependencies, and is generally a bugger to use quickly unless you have time to spare configuring it first, get back to me.

Re:Wrong Way

[fatcatman]

No, the man has a valid point.

I love Linux. Use it on all of my servers and maintain hundreds of them for a living. I even have a stuffed Tux hanging from my rearview mirror. But Linux is a real pain in the ass on a workstation.

On a server, I expect to recompile my software occasionally. It's a server. It's finicky. It takes time to do right. I don't mind that.

But I won't do that on my workstation. Screwing with dependencies sucks. 9 times out of 10 when I go to install or upgrade some package, it requires a new version of x, which requires a new version of x, y, and z, which each require a new version of h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p, and half of the packages refuse to install and only break my system with I try to force them.

Screw that.

Hey, I'm not defending Windows. It sucks in it's own special way.

Hmm. Now I don't know why I posted this, or what my point even was. Nevermind...

Re:Wrong Way

[b17bmbr]

none of the features, all of the problems.

Re:Wrong Way

[spin2cool]

I think the distro you're looking for is Ubuntu.

Re:Wrong Way

[Dolda2000]

But I won't do that on my workstation. Screwing with dependencies sucks. 9 times out of 10 when I go to install or upgrade some package, it requires a new version of x, which requires a new version of x, y, and z, which each require a new version of h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p, and half of the packages refuse to install and only break my system with I try to force them.

What distro are you using? Red Hat 9? Last I looked, Fedora Core, Mandrake, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, and probably all others as well, do have automatic dependency resolving systems. Ever heard of yum, apt, urpmi or portage?

Re:Wrong Way

[Cerv]

it requires a new version of x, which requires a new version of x

Oh dear, that's not good.

Re:Wrong Way

[Nasarius]

Screwing with dependencies sucks.

How long has it been since you've used Linux?! Every distro I can think of will automatically fill dependencies. They also provide one central point to upgrade all your installed software. The early RPM-based distros where you had to hunt for your own packages were awful, but Linux and the BSDs are now lightyears ahead of Windows when it comes to software management.

Re:Wrong Way

[Foofoobar]

My mom runs fedora and she's a 65 yr old technophobe. It never crashes, she never needs to config things, recompile anything, etc.

I don't know what your problem is.

Re:Wrong Way

[westlake]

These days I have have adopted a very aggressive attitude to 'correctional computing'

When a "stealth install" blows up in someone's face and you find yourself in court, you will have reinforced all the negative stereotypes of the Geek. God help you if actually try to collect that 120 quid from an "older person," a pensioner, perhaps, who wants his Windows system back in order as you promised.

Re:Wrong Way

[suitepotato]

If you service machines for friends and family try this. Don't ask, just do what is good for them. After all they are putting their absolute trust in your computer knowledge, to do anything less is to fail them in.

THAT is a perfect example of the arrogance that relegates Linux to distant third place on the desktop. More of "the geek knows best". It is NOT your job to do what YOU THINK is best for them, but what you KNOW they asked you to do which is to FIX their WINDOWS machine. Doing otherwise is dishonest and if money or other compensation changes hand FRAUDULENT and should be punished at the very least by word being spread that you CANNOT be trusted to do as asked but insist on doing what you egotistically THINK should be done.

I swear, sometimes it amazes me that the common end-users haven't lynched more geeks in anger over the abuse that they suffer at the hands of know-it-all nerds. Assuming you know better than the end-user whose requirements you are there to fulfill is insane grandiose self-importance. THIS is the sort of thing that kicked off Microsoft's ongoing issues over reliability of Windows 95 with the arrogance of assuming user data loss was no big deal and nuke and pave an acceptable regular task. It goes right back to the 640K RAM joke that endlessly pops up. Or any of dozens of systemic flaws in Unix that to this day are being worked around because of the arrogance of assumption by techies that they knew best and that what they wanted to produce superceded what was expected of them.

If I was busy and farmed such repair work to someone who did this, and I paid so much as one penny compensation, there would be a lawsuit immediately for fraud if only to send a clear message. If plumbers did this, your toilet could end up in the kitchen; if electricians, you might get 312VDC service when you asked for 120VAC; and if general contractors did this, you might end up with your house being built facing another direction and on the wrong lot. All because someone thought they knew better than the customer. It is FIRST AND FOREMOST the job of the geek/nerd/techie to serve the end-users needs and desires and expectations, not defraud them out of pure unadulterated ego.

Re:Wrong Way

[Jozer99]

I have a solution, download "Firefox Setup 1.0.6.exe" from www.mozilla.org and install it. Then launch the default browser from the start menu, and voila, IE looks and acts just like firefox, with all the features and even the bugs!

Mod me -1, I dare you!

Re:Wrong Way

[DrSkwid]

try these :

Free Linux

Open Linux

Net Linux

Re:Wrong Way

[Shaper_pmp]

So you're deliberately deleting a working, legitimate Windows install, replacing it with Linux against the wishes of the user, then (when they complain) trying to charge then £120 for another version of Windows, because you deleted the one they already own?

You, sir, are a fucking disgrace. You embody everything the public finds repellent about the "arrogant techie" stereotype, and are unethical, deceitful and (if any money or reward changes hands as a result of your "service") likely comitting fraud to boot.

"All these users are older people who use their computers for web browsing and printing mostly, and I take my experiences so far as a kind of scientific 'evidence' that this class of users can't tell the difference."

So that makes it alright? Supposing one of them goes and buys a new family-tree plotting app, or garden-design program (to choose two examples my aunty recently bought) - what happens then? They're faced with a long, expensive call to tech support, which likely still won't the problem that you caused them. Eventually they (stupidly) turn to you again, and what do you tell them?

"Oh, right, yeah, that won't work - get your money back from the shop, if you can get them to believe that a version of 'Windows' won't run this certified 'Windows' application. Oh, and (if you're exceptionally lucky) here's a barely-maintained buggy-as-fuck butt-ugly hobby OSS version of something so pathetically niche that it'll never attract any kind of decent development community, to replace the version you just spent half your pension buying."

"If you service machines for friends and family try this. Don't ask, just do what is good for them. After all they are putting their absolute trust in your computer knowledge, to do anything less is to fail them in."

More like: "After all, they are putting their absolute trust in your computer knowledge, so to do this is to utterly and arrogantly violate that trust in the worst way possible."

Look, if you're sick of fixing computers for family, friends or others, just fucking tell them. Give them a choice of either switching to (your special version of) Linux or compensating you for the time you waste fixing their Windows boxes.

Alternatively, they can stop coming to you altogether and instead pay to have a computer shop fix it.

Under no circumstances is it ever ethical to violate their trust, especially not because you think you've got away with it so far.

For comparison, suppose you went to the doctor, and he told you you had gangrene. You'd expect some explanation of the options and some (pretty strong) recommendations, but ultimately it's your decision what happens.

You wouldn't expect the doctor to simply club you unconscious, chainsaw off your leg and bandage the stump.

"So what?" he might say - I've prevented it spreading to the rest of your system and killing you! You'll retain the use of your other limbs, and for anything you can't do with them, here's a half-arsed prosthetic replacement for your missing limb. Sure it might look a bit nasty, and doesn't always work too well, and sometimes breaks, but look - you can take the cover off and mess about with how it works inside! Ok, you're not a prosthetics expert, and so probably never will, but this clearly makes up for my complete lack of consultation before my arbitrarily rearranging your entire physiology!"

Jesus. Whatever happened to professional ethics?

You're the kind of person that gives us geeks a bad name.

right...

[silverkniveshotmail.]

or they could just use firefox.

Re:right...

[linguae]

Yeah, but there are certain occasions where Firefox is of no help (e.g., IE-only web pages, ActiveX stuff, etc.). An IE plugin with these security features would tremendously cut down on some of the major malware problems that many people are currently facing. All without having to switch browsers, too.

Don't get me wrong, I love Firefox as much as the next Slashdotter, but don't we all want a more secure Internet Explorer for our Windows-using friends as well?

Re:right...

[lambent]

I know a number of people who refuse to use Firefox. I fought the good fight, told them they were being foolish, promised them newer and better capabilities ... but they simply refuse. One person simply refuses to switch because the browsers 'just don't look the same'.

I know what's good for them, so if I could conceivably trick them into using a better tool, we can chalk up another victory for (more) secure browsing.

Re:right...

[rolfwind]

Don't get me wrong, I love Firefox as much as the next Slashdotter, but don't we all want a more secure Internet Explorer for our Windows-using friends as well?

This is going to sound completely selfish but I say no - because in the longterm, I want people to have more of an incentive to turn away from Microsoft - not keep using it. Or at least not give companies an excuse to design IE-only compatible websites.

I think any other free alternative is better than a MS dominated future. Hell, MS didn't even make this plug-in so how can I trust them to secure the rest of their apps?

Re:right...

[truesaer]

Actually, every fucking internal webpage in my company doesn't work with firefox. I really can't even explain how they've done it. They're not using ActiveX or other complex technologies, they've just managed to write such terrible code that it flat out doesn't work.

So I have to use two browsers, one for regular browsing and one for internal website (expense reports, hr, timesheet, etc. etc). I'd love to be able to have tabs for IE so that I don't end up with multiple windows for intranet sites. I'll probably try this tomorrow.

And no, I can't get them to change the sites. We're a "major" company, but not large in the sense that IBM or Intel or Microsoft are. Yet the buerocracy on stuff like this is extensive enough that suggesting a change would just go into a black hole. I'll have to wait until I'm a vice president or something to make this happen (ie, never).

Re:right...

[fanblade]

or they could just use firefox.

IE is faster. So assuming this had all the same features and security (it doesn't, but hypothetically) why would you want Firefox again?

Alternate download link

[Drooling Iguana]

In case the main site is slashdotted, you can also download the program in question here.

10 seconds? I doubt it.

[notdanielp]

The article's claims of "and an anti-spyware tool that can identify and remove all pests in less then 10 seconds" are exceedingly hard to swallow.

What heuristics are they using that can find and zap all unmentionables in 10 seconds? Has "anonymous reader" ever run a virus/spyware scan before?

How about a plugin that turns Firefox into IE...

[ferrellcat]

So I can make best use of my favorite Active X webapp... RemotelyAnywhere. (and yes, I know that RA uses Java as well, but the ActiveX interface is SO much nicer!)

Misleading title.

[RealisticCanadian]

Mods be damned, Scuttlemonkey's submissions are getting more and more similar to mass-media headlines. This title has the express purpose of starting a flamewar on the world's most popular anti-ms site.

It makes IE look somewhat like firefox, and adds some lacking functionality that makes it work somewhat like firefox. The two are neither identical nor interchangable.

Re:Misleading title.

[DysenteryInTheRanks]

I am shocked that a Slashdot editor named "ScuttleMonkey" is not more dignified or intelligent in his postings. Now if you'll excuse, someone just threw poo at the back of my head.

Re:Misleading title.

[maelstrom]

Did someone named "DysenteryInTheRanks" just criticize someone named "ScuttleMonkey" for not being dignified, and is somehow surprised that someone threw poo at his head? :0

Nice, but

[jcrash]

any chance this has spyware, etc?

Or you could just use Firefox...

[badmammajamma]

What's the point? There's numerous add-ons for IE that have been around for a long time now that give this kind of functionality. The only difference is that they don't try to emulate the look of firefox

Mom always said

[Recovering Hater]

that you can't polish a turd. I guess somebody thinks you can.

Returning to IE

[QuantumPion]

I used FireFox for a while, but I recently returned to using IE. The reason is that there were too many websites that displayed incorrectly or used plug-ins that weren't supported by FireFox. Also there were a lot of minor annoyances that weren't fixable with plug-ins alone.

As a tech-savvy net browser, I am able to avoid/repair any spam or malware I might pick up with IE, so displaying pages correctly and avoiding the various small bugs of FireFox was what led me back to Microsoft. I'm sure there are many people out there who think like I do, and this plug-in will certainly bring more people back to IE from FireFox. Adding tabbed browsing and security fixes to IE will be the deciding factor in slowing the migration to third-party browsers. Why compromise surfing if plug-ins like this give all the functionality of FireFox to the correct** rendering capabilities and ease of use of IE?

**I know that many web pages are indeed programmed "incorrectly" and suffer from many programming errors, which is probably the cause of Firefox's rendering issues. However, as the end user in no position to fix such problems on the web site's end, I have little alternative then to use IE's sloppy but visually correct rendering.

Re:Returning to IE

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I'm glad to know I'm not the only person out there who's used Firefox and still prefers IE, though I use IE because of speed and simplicity (couldn't care less about tabbed browsing).

There are a lot of people that do this, though I think it is unfortunate.

As for speed, I'm OK with Firefox all the way down to a 400MHz Pentium II. Sure, IE is faster but for the IMO minor speed increase you get the malware risk. I'd rather spend another sub-second waiting for a page to render than spend an evening removing malware or weekend reinstalling the OS.

As for simplicity, I use adblock and flashblock to hide the excessive ads. There are ad and flashblockers for IE too, but those aren't as elegant, IMO.

Momentary layout change?

[stevejsmith]

Did anyone else see that for a second (or maybe longer?) the format of Slashdot changed? "Read more" was replaced by the headline title, the right sidebars were gone...?

I don't think it could have been a glitch in the rendering; it looked too orderly and intentioned. ...even, good!

Re:Momentary layout change?

[SamSim]

*fwash* There was no alternate Slashdot layout. What you saw was light from the planet Venus, refracted through swamp gas.

Why bother?

[FireFlie]

I don't see the point. If you want it to look, feel, and act like firefox, why not get firefox. Yes that is the redundant part. As for the office (scuttlemonkey's idea for a place where this can be useful): if you're equipment is being held so tightly that you can't install firefox, don't you think installing this will get you fired? Many companies keep really tight control over such equipment. Seriously, this is interesting for any ie fanboys, but I don't see any practical application for such an extension (nor do I envision a market for such a thing).

Re:Dead

[truckaxle]

Or maybe their Apache/Linux server is just mimicking IIS/Windows

Plugin Control

[the eric conspiracy]

Will it remove disable all the plugins that were installed without my permission, including Genuine Advantage?

What about fixing IE's broken rendering engine?

[Anonymous Coward]

A big part of what makes Firefox good is its Gecko rendering engine, which happens to be much better at rendering web content according to w3c specifications than IE does.

Does this plugin address any of that? I'm guessing not, since it wouldn't likely be possible to do that with IE through a simple plugin. At any rate, that makes this thing much less interesting IMO.

Can it...

[SharpFang]

Can it replace the broken rendering engine with Gecko too? Simple PNG transparency support, unbroken absolute positioning, this kind of stuff?
Does it support popup blocking? Find-as-you-type?
well...

Re:Sheep in Fox clothing

[m50d]

Faster startup and rendering. It's not worth it to me - better to render it slowly and correctly than fast and wrong, and I won't even start on security - but firefox can be a real dog on older machines.

Re:10 seconds? I doubt it.

[spyder913]

format c: /q /x /y

Re:Sheep in Fox clothing

[rob_squared]

Because people LOVE their software. Actually, some of them are afraid of using new software. I've seen people use DeadAIM instead of Gaim and other such modified programs instead of using the program its trying to mimic.

Not that I need for firefox to "take over the browser market," but it'd be nice if people would just take a chance.

Re:Sheep in Fox clothing

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear you, borther.

It's like... like... choosing a guy over a girl for rough anal sex.

Sure, with the guy you get the job done, but sheesh, you feel dirty afterwards.

The latter, however, gets the job done AND makes you feel like a man.

--
Laugh, damn it! It's a joke!

Check out Avant Browser

[Xenophon Fenderson,]

I am the only hacker I know who actually prefers IE (security zones are a killer feature once you fix the stupid defaults), but I do miss tabbed browsing. A while ago, I went looking for tabbed browsing for IE and came across Avant Browser. It's an MDI interface for IE, each tab containing an IE web browser control. My only complaint is a user interface bug where it loses focus in the browser control itself when I alt-tab to a different application. I'll have to try this new plug-in and see if it's any better.

Merry Christmas

[Anonymous Coward]

Ho ho ho!

http://www.websitepromotion.ws/firefoxie/

Trademark infringement?

[Niten]

Trademark infringement, anyone? Did you see their logo? And the layout of their web page is clearly designed to blur the distinction between the Mozilla Foundation and whatever organization or company owns this project.

It appears to me that this group is trying to piggy-back on the success of the Firefox name and image in order to further their own product.

Re:Trademark infringement?

[truesaer]

I'll just bet you weren't saying this about Lindows when Microsoft was sueing them.

Full mirror of article

[winkydink]

here

It wasn't obvious to me if you needed to be admin to install. If so, it kind of blows the argument of giving corporate types who are locked to IE an alternative.

OK, have installed it. Report time:

[Plug]

There appears to be nothing in the EULA that makes it claim to be spyware/adware.

It's heavily tied in with Ask Jeeves; it comes bundled with their desktop search, and you can't change the search button to go anywhere else.

It comes with a desktop firewall, spyware cleaner and privacy shredder (cookie/temp files deleter) but I'll leave someone with a clean VM image to try those things on thankyou!

While it would be nice to have tabs and a search box in IE, those are not the features of Firefox that make me use it. If you did something like "block ActiveX in IE", you'd get close, but then all those things that require IE wouldn't work.

The adblocker works. It displays boxes with "Ad blocked" rather than no ad at all, and lets you show them by clicking on them.

I look after a lot of people who need to keep using IE for various sites, but I still think that Firefox for general browsing and icons on the desktop for broken sites is the best option.

Hats off to the Foxie people though; it's not OSS and it's likely to be funded/sponsored by a search engine, but will be interesting to see if it gets better. It might be worth throwing on the PCs of people who need to use IE for regular browsing.

Enough!!

[seriesrover]

of the "just use Firefox" comments. I pressume using this train on thought we should scrap WINE, OpenOffice and other "Linux emulating Windows" software.

Just for one second PLEASE realize that there are legitimate reasons for this plugin. They might not be reasons you would choose, or it could be that are forced on you (businesses), but they are valid nonetheless.

Variant Trials

[WED Fan]

I've tried FireFox and Moz flavors, Opera, Maxthon, IE 7, and IE6 with MSN tabs.

• FireFox - Nice, does most of what I want, some plug ins tend to fight one another and pop up blocking stopped working for me.

• Opera - Sloooooow, and not entirely a nice UI for my tastes.

• Maxton - (IE based) Fun, pop up blocking was erratic, and did not like to work with SharePoint in a page design mode.

• IE 7 - Barebones. UI is currently crap, but it works with SharePoint.

• IE 6 w/MSN Tabs - Almost good, but closing a single tab could result in the entire browser shutting down.

Over all, for play browsing, I use FireFox, for work I use IE becaus, well we are a SharePoint shop and I am, after all, the SharePoint Evangelist.

Maxthon ain't half bad...

[duguk]

Not even heard of Maxthon (by the makers of MyIE2 apparently) - I've just tried it for a good hour or so and its actually quite slick.

Supports multiple proxies, autorefresh (these are available as addons to firefox), and has tabs (inc undo), switchable disable of activex, download and ad managers.

Took me a while to find the Gecko engine, but there's details at their forums. Unfortuately its a bloody ActiveX plugin with the Gecko engine in, and its huge!

I'm impressed - Its certainly better than IE - and suitable as a replacement for it, and very quick. Surprisingly, it actually runs WindowsUpdate faster than IE6 does on my PC [after Disabling Windows Advantage, naturally] :)

There's some faults that let it down but working with IE, its probably the best they could do :) - and its good! [although theres no close button the right, which confused me somewhat :)]

Having said that and having used it, I'm still going to stick with Firefox!

Though I am going to keep it installed along with OffByOne - [thanks to Artifakt who i saw mentioned it yesterday] not many features (no iframes, even!) but small enough to run on a floppy! Comes in very useful occassionally!

Duguk

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[MixPix]

Are you talking about the close button on the tab bar? Maxthon does have that. Actually it has "close tab" and a "close all tabs" button. (Right click the maxthon window and enable the System Bar)

Or you can just double click a tab to close it. That's a big seller for me. I hate having to right click just to close a tab.

Maxthon also has the ability to open the last page that was viewed or if the brower crashes you can resume all of the paegs your were looking at!

Just a question. Why not turn off active X and scripts if you want IE to be more secure??

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[Idealius]

IAAT (I am a tech)

I've used MyIE2 and it didn't bundle with spyware at the time (this was about a year ago.)

I'm pretty sure you're thinking about Cool Web Search..

Which changed to My Web Search..

and is probably Nude Web Search by now.

And yes that guy is a parasite from hell, and I would bet at least 30% U.S. homes have it installed as an IE toolbar and don't even realize it because it was installed as part of a hidden package from the 'HUGE NEW SUPER GREAT EMOTICONS FOR MSN' or from one of the MANY other packages distributed through partners with an appealing free product.

Just another reason to switch to Firefox.

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[DigitalHammer]

Unfortuately its a bloody ActiveX plugin with the Gecko engine in, and its huge!

That's what she said.... :P

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[jez9999]

Please explain to a luddite like me why you would want a bloaty browser that contains two other browsers' engines (one of which is guaranteed to be installed with the OS) when you could much more easily install those 2 browsers side-by-side?

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[rilian4]

It's still called CoolWebSearch or CoolWWWSearch and it is still a pain in the a$$ to remove and yes it is on at least 30% of US Homes.

IAAT also and I just recently cleaned a home system of a colleague of multiple spyware/adware/malware and it took 4+ hours to get it clean. CoolWebSearch was a big part of the length of cleaning time. I ran 3 or 4 different removal tools, did 2 manual removal procedures and had to literally tear a registry key out of the registry by force to get the thing clean. This key had all the rights stripped out of it so that no user could automatically remove it. I had to go in manually and add admin group w/ full privelage to it in order to delete it.

Anyone care to guess what OS this thing was running?

Choices:
1)windows 2000
2)windows xp home
3)windows xp pro
4)MacOSX
5)*nix


If you guessed #2, you are absolutely correct!..Big shock, I know....

-rilian

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[AdamWeeden]

One of the things about Maxthon is that you can simple higlight any text on the page and do a small "drag and drop" to part of the page and it'll open up a new tab with the google search results for the text you highlighted and dragged.

You can do the same thing with less effort in Firefox without a plugin.

1) Highlight the text.
2) Right click.
3) Click "Search web for "
4) PROFIT!!!

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[Andrewkov]

>but small enough to run on a floppy!

What's a floppy?

Don't worry, they have pills for that now..

Re:Maxthon ain't half bad...

[Suppafly]

Didn't MyIE2 become Maxthon due to being caught embedding spyware and wanting to get away from the known bad name?

No, they changed the name because it had IE in it.

It's Like...

[robwmc]

A 16 year old putting on a fake mustache to buy beer.

I have made IE work EXACTLY like Firefox, like so:

[Drake42]

1) create an IE plugin. In side of this plugin put a full, decompressed, working firefox install
2) when your site detects IE, try sending your page as data for the plugin you just had the user install.
3) the plugin passes the rendering of the HTML to firefox which renders inside of the IE window. Your IE window appears to have all of the benefits of firefox while your users still think they're using IE.

You laugh, but I've done it before and it works. The only problem is the big install and making sure that your site uses the plugin if its available.

IE-only web pages...

[Draconix]

Encouragement to use IE is the last thing we want to give Windows users. If IE weren't the dominant browser, web designers couldn't get away with making pages that only work in IE. If a web page uses ActiveX, and you're not using IE and Windows, you're out of luck.

One possible implementation for defanging ActiveX?

[argent]

While it would be nice to have tabs and a search box in IE, those are not the features of Firefox that make me use it. If you did something like "block ActiveX in IE", you'd get close, but then all those things that require IE wouldn't work.

Copy the MS HTML control, binary patch the copy so it has its own registry keys and profile and doesn't get confused with the original. That includes its own HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT!

Using these patched keys, configure it so it will ONLY run ActiveX controls from %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\%GENSYM%\chrome - I guess it might be safe to make everything not in that directory "internet zone" and set its version of "internet zone" to disable scripting, the whole kit and caboodle.

Now you can copy the controls you know are safe to use and necessary for to function as a web browser into that directory, and put a bare minimum of applications in its HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

Then patch the IE "shell" and Outlook to use this control.

Site is Slashdotted but..

[Badfysh]

..you can still get it from www.download.com

Plugin Lets Terrorists Turn Firefox into Firefox!

[Leffe]

Why just modify the GUI when you can replace it entirely and still use the Worst Rendering Engine(tm) ever? Oh, wait, that is Lynx.

Internet Explorer rendering in Firefox.

NOTE: I haven't tried it out or anything (you'd probably have to read the entire thread and use the unstable branch of Firefox -- 1.0.5), so I can not guarantee anything.

Double Wrong Way

[Mudcathi]

I'd like a plugin for Firefox that automatically sends hate mail to webmasters who actively block anyone not using IE or Nutscrape Aggrivator.

Re:10 seconds? I doubt it.

[yuri benjamin]

Ah, but have you run a rootkit scanner?
I run linux, and admittedly I haven't got around to it, but I do know of linux boxen getting cracked, so root kit scanners and tripwire stuff is almost as important on a *nix box as spybot/adaware on a windows box.

I can think of one good reason...

[zogger]

...freeking hardware. It's precisely because windows is the dominant OS that other OS users are constantly forced to suck hind tit when it comes to hardware and drivers. Don't know about you, but that got old a long time ago.

Making IE "better" so that people stay on windows is just like giving an alcoholic another drink, you aren't doing them any favors in the long run. It's called being an "enabler". You are enabling Microsoft to keep postponing actually going to work and doing something worthwhile, and you are enabling the vast herds of MS users to stay dumbed down and to stay in the economic thrall of that criminal gang of bogus software peddlars.. The users aren't learning anything new, they aren't accomplishing anything new, all they are doing is continuuing the great sucking sound of peoples wallets emptying in the direction of a pack of already zillionaires, who long ago got a case of the eXtreme lazies. These poor people need to know THERE'S MORE BRANDS out there. You AREN'T helping them by giving them some crutch, by doing microsofts job for them. Would you keep people on one brand of car or camera or something? EGADS most people don't even know there's anything but windows and this is 2005, it's ABOUT TIME the vast herds started bingoing to HOW MUCH they have been getting ripped off by the convicted monopoly abuser.

Virus?!?

[pacoboyd]

Just wanted to let you all know that when I went to install this plugin to test it out, Anti-Vir definitely found a deleted a Keylogger. WARNING: Contains suspicious code HEURISTIC/Trojan.Keylogger! C:\PROGRAM FILES\FOXIE SUITE\SWEEPER.EXE File has been overwritten and deleted! No thanks, I'll pass.

My recent horror story

[PIPBoy3000]

Sunday night, I was browsing the web in IE via my Windows 2003 Server that hosts my web site (and is conveniently located next to my main computer). I had turned on JavaScript, ActiveX, and a few other things to make the browsing experience less annoying (I hated having to put every site I visited into the list of Trusted Domains). Since there's no free AV software for Windows 2003, I was running with a firewall, fully patched, but with no anti-virus running.

Well, fate finally caught up to me. I was browsing a Google cache of a discussion group. Within seconds, the IE toolbar had been taken over, icons were installing on the desktop, and my computer rebooted, only to never come up again.

The aftermath was really messy. I got about four hours of sleep that night, trying to clean and fix things. By the next day, I'd mounted the drives on another computer and cleaned it, but it still wouldn't boot. I then had massive problems with Windows Activation, getting stuck in Microsoft call center Hell. Eventually I managed to install the Windows 2003 Server setup from an inactivated Windows XP Pro installation and it worked.

Needless to say, I've added additional security, as well as switching to Firefox. Going through that level of pain and suffering is the biggest motivator to moving away from Microsoft that I've experienced in a long time. My guess is that since the Windows 2003 Server browser is so locked down, they don't bother fixing holes.

Re:10 seconds? I doubt it.

[GlL]

As a tech who currently has 4 machines on his bench right now with spyware problems, I have these words of reality checking: 10 seconds my a$$!!! Who are these morons trying to fool here. To remove spyware/malware/trojans from a machine, it usually takes me 3 days without a format and reinstall, and I usually have to boot up with an NTFS Dos boot disk (Hirens)http://www.9down.com/modules.php?name=Down loads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=172&ttitle=Hire n's_BootCD_v7.2_With_keyboard_Patch and delete manually what the removal tools miss. I have found that deltree removal of all temp and content.ie5 directories knocks a day or so off of my scanning.

This Program is a Hoax!

[jgallagher]

This "foxie" installs iun6002.exe (desktop surveillance personal spyware) on your computer. I just ran Ad-Aware SE with the latest difinitions. Before I had installed this program I didn't have this nasty spyware installed. I could be worng but I don't think I am. Following links: http://www.lavasoftnews.com/ms/display_main.php?ta c=Favoriteman http://www.auditmypc.com/process/iun6002.asp http://www.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/microsoft.publ ic.inetserver.iis.security/2004-06/0260.html

Re:10 seconds? I doubt it.

[myslashdotusername]

If you don't scan the hard drive or the registry sure ;) if all you're doing is scanning the memory and IE's toolbar folders, and all 'downloaded files' before they're installed, then yeah it only takes '10 seconds' if it finds an adware that infects ie, then it can remove it from the registry/hd by searching for it then rather than the other way around. sure, you don't have as complete or through an examination, but most adware infects ie, so it leaves enough of a trace behind for a 'quick' scan to find out what spyware it is.

for a browser integrated anti-spyware it's just right, for a 'stand alone' anti-spyware it falls far short of what is needed for compherehensive spyware protection.

I love Maxthon!

[MtViewGuy]

Having using Maxthon since version 1.14 (they're now up to Version 1.3.3), I actually really like this program, mostly because they include a lot of stuff in the program such as the very nice AD Hunter function that blocks most popups, popunders, Flash animation ads, many online ads in general and even ActiveX objects! Since running Maxthon I've had very little (if any) spyware/adware loaded on my system. :-) Also, Maxthon includes mouse gestures, which makes even a cheap two-button plus scroll wheel mouse very useful in web page navigation.

If you've seen the Internet Explorer 7.0 betas it appears Microsoft pinched a lot of ideas from Maxthon, that's to be sure.

Doesnt MAKE it firefox.

[cra]

Saying that the tabbed windows make IE into FireFox is like saying that a fat guy's man-tits makes him a woman. It doesn't, although in both cases some twisted people might think otherwise.