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| Question for the PC experts; IE8 - should we bother? | |
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| Topic Started: 12 May 2009, 03:09 PM (172 Views) | |
| Amanda & Simon | 12 May 2009, 03:09 PM Post #1 |
Braiiiiiinnnss
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As a browser I already know the answer, because IE is the one we fall back on when Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera won't work, and generally at least one of them will work just about everywhere except some Microsoft pages. Being intermittent Windows users that doesn't bother me much so if it was just a browser I wouldn't bother with IE8. But since the operating system uses it too I do wonder if, for the occasions we do need to do something in Vista, if it'll be improved at all with IE8. Or alternatively if it's a dog that will make Vista worse. Anyone know? |
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| Nod | 13 May 2009, 07:41 AM Post #2 |
Elite Member
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Simon, According to some ZDNet testing, >>> ZDNet Tests <<<, IE8 running on Vista with a 1gb memory has a smaller memory footprint than Chrome, but on a 4gb Vista system a larger footprint. ZDNet have some fair articles on IE8 that may be worthwhile reading prior to installation. I've been using IE8 for a while now, as my company's main product offering has to support it, as well as other browsers from other manufacturers. I kinda like it. It seems to be faster than IE7. Note that Billy's boys are now rolling IE8 out via Automatic Update on XP and Vista so if you have Updates set to Automatic you'll get it anyway. IE8 tends to stick more to to the Mozilla standards than any IE version previously, so looks like MS is paying attention to the market share the likes of Firefox etc have been gaining because of this functionality. IE8 also has backward compatibility to allow, any URL you choose to use IE7 mode to correct rendering issues etc. So MS have actually made an effort to produce something that'll work on all sites however you wish to view them without having to switch browsers. I had an issue with my home PC, running XP, that it was slower but found a fix that sped it up a good deal. Running "regsvr32 actxprxy.dll" in a command window (without the quotes). This Re-registers the ActiveX Interface Marshaling Library. It also can be used to speed up IE7 also, although I didn't try it until after I installed IE8. John Edited : For spelling |
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| Amanda & Simon | 13 May 2009, 09:43 AM Post #3 |
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Braiiiiiinnnss
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Thanks Jon. Yes, it was auto update that brought the question up - it's set to look for and alert us to updates but not to download until we've had a look. The ZDNet articles are interesting but focus on IE8 as a browser rather than a component of the OS, and that's more what I'm interested in. While we don't use Windows much anymore we had enough headaches with Vista being slow and unstable on an allegedly "Vista ready" HP machine, and having now got it running faster and much more stable (by sticking it on a Macbook and Bootcamping :dur: ) I don't want to take a backwards step. Equally since we had to partition the MacBook's drive and make the Vista partition no larger than we really need for the Windows only applications we have storage is... well, not tight, but it's not like we can easily slap in a bigger drive in the future. What I'm really getting at is whether IE8 makes a noticeable improvement to Vista itself. |
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| Nod | 14 May 2009, 04:27 AM Post #4 |
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Elite Member
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I've IE8 installed under Vista Business on my new work laptop, Haven't had much time to use it yet, still configuring it with Oracle database and my work stuff etc. If it all runs OK with what I'm running on it then It'll run OK for anybody. I'll report back later as I'll be switching tomorrow. John |
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| carlap | 14 May 2009, 09:18 AM Post #5 |
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i like some of the new features of ie8, but there are lots of sites that don't like it yet, including banks. I have been caught out a few times when at the end of filling everything out, the submit button does not do anything. Of course the site says submit only once, so you are then not sure what has happened. Usually for these sites you see a compatibility view button at the top, however when you press this it usually either clears everything out the forms, or will log you out if you are logged in to something. I had to print some virgin boarding passes out using online check in the other day and the outlay looked wrong. so I pressed the compatibility button. Logged me out of web check in, when I logged back in said I had to go to check in desk at airport (one off chance only to print boarding pass) Very annoying, but I wouldn't go back to ie7 |
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| Nod | 14 May 2009, 10:07 AM Post #6 |
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Elite Member
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Using IE8 at the moment it does seem faster, also I've been using IE8 with the CBA Net Banking appiclation for a while now without any issues. John |
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| Amanda & Simon | 14 May 2009, 04:00 PM Post #7 |
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Braiiiiiinnnss
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Thanks for the answers. I'm giving it a whirl, though after a little play with it it's still my last choice when-no-other-browser-works option for browsing web sites. Still doesn't seem to render certain things properly though that's not the end of the world, just a bit odd for a brand new version of the most widely used browser made by the biggest name in computing :shrug: Hard to say if it's made a difference to Vista as it's too soon to say if it's more or less wobbly, but it occurred to me that any new updates MS puts out might be designed with it in mind. Cheers. |
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