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Time:
01:01 EST/06:01 GMT | News Source:
*Linked Within Post* |
Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum |
Internet Explorer 7 launches in October with distribution through Automatic Updates to follow. Prepare your organization with Microsoft resources.
Overview
Microsoft will release the final version of Internet Explorer 7 (English) in October. Internet Explorer 7 provides significant enhancements in security, platform management and usability and Microsoft recommends that all genuine Windows customers install this upgrade.
Shortly after it is released, Microsoft will distribute Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates to help consumers become more secure and up-to-date. However, to ensure customers are prepared to upgrade, Internet Explorer 7 will not install without user consent. Microsoft recognizes that as part of a managed deployment plan, some organizations may wish to block users from receiving Internet Explorer 7 through Automatic Updates and is providing a Blocker Toolkit.
Internet Explorer 7 runs on Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003. This announcement provides an overview of Microsoft resources and recommended actions IT Administrators should take to ensure your company's Web sites are ready for Internet Explorer 7 and that your browser-based applications will continue to work seamlessly with Internet Explorer 7.
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#1 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
10/17/2006 5:40:17 AM
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Calling out the self-proclaimed technically literate
Who uses IE? That is the latest question from the technically literate.
A: I do.
Like some merit badge, an increasing number of pod and netcasting icons are declaring themselves independent of Internet Explorer - dismissing it even before they have tested IE 7, much less IE 7's Protected Mode in Windows Vista.
The enlightened, Skyping in from their home offices, speak as casually about leaving Internet Explorer for Firefox, or Safari using the same tones and manner they use while sitting around their gated neighborhoods sipping on low carb beer, exchanging baseless rhetoric about why minorities still struggle for justice, or it's somehow our fault we have to fight terrorists - without ever doing a thing to fix it. They don't smoke, but they will "chew" on an occasional cigar, because that's not really smoking. They talk about a lot of things they don't do anymore, and they’re mute about many they wish they could.
I could puke.
I have a few problems. 1) I never sleep more than a couple of hours a day [way too much to do and learn] and 2) I never forget. Not one thing. If I've seen it, read it, or heard it, it's stuck in some weird auto-sequencer that aligns it all up and won't let it out. Good? Hardly. Bad? Not always. Trust me, there's a point to this..
Perhaps the most prolific of the technically literate I speak of is forgetful... while sipping away at that watered down draft of a non-beer, sniping away at Microsoft's browser, he forgets a television spot he was featured in where he gushed all over Internet Explorer 4 - as though it were the second coming. He fawned over COM [the emerging ActiveX that was Microsoft's brand for it]. He excitedly danced around the idea and promise of the active desktop [now he acts like Widgets are new... and Gadgets are a copy?... or is it the other way around???].
Long before Judge Jackson found his gavel, this man, and many like him, trounced Netscape and declared Internet Explorer 4 the clear winner in a browser war that did not yet exist.
For developers it was pure gold and classic ASP made what we now know as a working web, possible - his words, not mine. "No longer will people have to separate the web from their desktop... it's all the same now." - another quote. - Accurate and not a bad idea, but a long way off from intentionally hurting a soul, much less creating the crap-ware he now claims IE to be.
cont...
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#2 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
10/17/2006 5:40:56 AM
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Now our balding, chubby little pundits, all the wiser from their years in tech - and few among them hold so much as one degree, much less two or more scientific degrees, have "learned" what is best all over again - and to them, and for you they declare, it isn't Internet Explorer 7, or 8, or even 9 - show me you've changed, they say and I'll "consider" using IE, "for sites I have to..."
They will forget that Microsoft developed and gave away so much. They will forget their words from just a scant few years ago. They will ignore all the progress made in XP SP2, and that the core team sucked down their emotion and delayed Vista to fix what didn't deserve to be broken in the first place. After all, the "Bad Guys" are the ones that made the net dangerous. They'll ignore any flaws in anything other than IE and Microsoft - just as they seek, find and invent any excuse they can to mitigate the actions of murderers around the globe - somehow it is our fault. Somehow big business and successful people did it [fill in your own blank]. In November, if they vote, they'll pull the lever or punch out a chad for peace and sister Nancy will declare that somehow millions of small business people are somehow just too rich for their own good... They'll never speak of using Vista and IE 7 - as they chirp away on air, or in print about how "Draconian" the licensing model is - as if any of these dweebs ever actually build, much less lovingly mod a case...
Me...? well.. I am going to dance with the girl what brung me. I'm going to remember the devs that made IE 4, and 7.
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#3 By
11888 (67.71.154.72)
at
10/17/2006 7:51:49 AM
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Hooked on phonics worked for me.
This post was edited by MrRoper on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 07:54.
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#4 By
2960 (68.101.39.180)
at
10/17/2006 1:02:39 PM
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I use IE as well. However, if I am on a research project and hitting Google a lot, I'll use either FireFox or my VPC WinXP Sandbox instead.
Microsoft can preach security all they want, but the fact is Spyware is still a MASSIVE issue with IE, especially since they have yet to plug the drive-by install holes.
I've had 3 of the worst infections I've seen in a long time this week. All 3 machines had to be re-imaged as nothing could repair them.
And I would never, ever fire up IE without Spyware Doctor running.
TL
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#5 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
10/17/2006 2:30:42 PM
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Hey TL,
There is a lot you can do for any browser - in the case of IE, please consider running as a standard/restricted user vice a user with local admin rights to the machine.
There are also some great tools that people can use to explore how secure, or not secure their browsers of choice are in different scenarios. A simple to use, and decent one was written by a great young dev at, http://www.explabs.com/index.html - I'd try it out on all browsers you use. [I would not necessarily disbale Java Script entirely - all browsers make use of it, and many/most sites do, too].
I am a big fan of commerical software and essentially wrapping your broswer sessions in a shielded area is the way to go - IE 7 in Protected Mode [its default] in Vista does this - and most effectively. That said, the best program I have seen for this type of protection is, "Socket Shield" from Exploit Protection Labs, http://www.explabs.com/index.html
Some ActiveWin staffers have very wisely recommended programs like "GreenBorder" for IE in XP SP2. You an check it out here, http://www.greenborder.com/
Either is great, but I prefer how Exploit Labs looks at and addresses the issue. There's way too many words about how SOCKS and TCP work to go into it here - I'll likely get dinged on for writing this much.... :)
In any case, securing IE is very easy - always has been. It begins with basics - user type and management - use the IEAK from MS in your business network to help you control how to deploy and run IE in your business. Found here, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/ie/ieak/default.mspx
If you have a larger company, I'd also add enterprise scanners/filters at the edge and perimiter of your business network - many are low cost options for nearly all popular firewall appliances, or as add-ons for Microsoft's own ISA Server firewall products [my personal favorite - but never deployed alone and never.. never... never without a picket-line of honey-pots and some GEMS we like to call, SLAP [more on that at another time].
I think you will find that you can entirely secure IE, or any browser and surf without as much concern for malicious software.
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#6 By
2960 (68.101.39.180)
at
10/17/2006 3:56:57 PM
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I really wish I had control of all this because what you say is quite true.
TL
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#7 By
13030 (198.22.121.110)
at
10/17/2006 5:21:50 PM
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#1, 2: I have a few problems.
Even a proselytizer can have diamonds among the abundant soil in the sluice of rambling speech. (I do agree that low carb beers are ridiculous and that people who think "it's somehow our fault we have to fight terrorists" are ignorant.)
...the core team sucked down their emotion and delayed Vista to fix what didn't deserve to be broken in the first place
You reap what you sow.
I am going to dance with the girl what brung me. I'm going to remember the devs that made IE 4, and 7.
Once the girl starts getting drunk, slurring her speech, falling down, flirting with other guys, and throwing up I'll ditch her for someone who doesn't disrespect me.
The real issue I have is that IE stagnated over several years. MS cornered the browser market and, like any greedy monopoly, said it's good enough. It took Firefox to kick MS in the rear and do what they should have been doing all along: innovating. I started using Firefox years ago because I saw the potential--I could care less that it's OSS. If MS made Firefox, I'd still use it.
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#8 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
10/17/2006 5:24:41 PM
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#7,Mr. TL, I do, too. As I have shared here, recently, we are working around the clock to change a few things. Much of what I may add here, will be a reflection of what we will add to our new, "Community Center" - less of course the practical meat [this just isn't the forum for that].
We exist to provide people with that control - solutions that work and direct connections to the engineers that design and build solutions. Removing any and all sales and accounting people from the pathway from user to engineer. In simple words, "help the customer first, and keep score last."
As I shared, we're going to try and provide a direct extension to small business people and others, to what we assess are great solutions to the real challenges people face when using technology to "ehance human performance, or advance the human condition."
Examples included will be many, but more than that, they will be attended by both real people and real-world working models to help people - and that help will be free.
We're doing this, because I want to elevate the standard people can expect from our industry. The means to deliver is out here - it has just been so badly clouded by a lot of people that can't actually do this stuff, but instead write, or speak about it as though they can.
A lot of negative energy has been let loose and we intend to add some good to balance it out.
From every level, we are going to offer an alternative that embraces the idea that in our industry, none of knows very much at any given time and that at any time, all of it can change in a second.
That allows one to approach the creation of a solution with great honesty and humility that will allow people to find solutions that do work - centering on the business owner and the people that they care so much about - their team mates that follow them.
I am also very worried about the next three years. I sense a lot of bad things that mirror the irrational behaviors of the first internet boom. This one coming will be ten times that size, but just as dangerous to business owners. I survived the last one, by sticking to what I knew - right from wrong and the science - God knows I knew exactly duck about business.
I am also very tired of just pure rubbish being held out as fact. We're going to take aim at that and end it where and whenever we can. We will not speak to that which we do not have direct experience with. We will instead simply say, "we don't know, yet." We're not going after people directly - on the contrary, we'll write them privately and offer to help, or simply offer some proven research and examples. The object is to get and keep the standards where they need to be. I am sure that you will be able to find us on the net and I am hopeful that what we are about to try will work - because I just don't want to see another bust hammer the great people that make technological solutions possible. We worked too hard to learn this stuff.
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#9 By
23275 (68.17.42.38)
at
10/17/2006 5:33:20 PM
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#8, Awesome post! :) and you're using Firefox for all the right reasons - because you chose to... not because it was "in" and reflected well on you, or anyone else.
I really think that the people at Microsoft did not intend to lay off IE or any other development.
The only comparison I have is war - hundreds of thousands of soldiers deployed - we fought - we won and we came home. As an entire Army, we were tired. For an entire year, we didn't do a great deal. Sure, we trained, but not like it mattered as much. We were just bushed.
It may be a stretch, but I think that the entire anti-trust war had a similar impact on Microsoft, and the people that fought for IE were tired. They were human. Winning in a big fight is like that - it's hard to top and the next big thing is hard to see.
I could totally wrong, but I refuse to believe people are bad - who was it? Socrates?
I sure liked your post, though.
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