Is IE really that bad?

Layback Bear said:

All the settings in View don't get the job done.

Most of the important settings are in dpi and zoom,
Which my sweet spot is 140% dpi and 150 zoom.
You might even try Internet options/ Advance/ Use software rendering instead of gpu rendering ?

dc2000 said:

1. Chrome runs in its own sandbox. Which is a major security advantage in my book. In other words Chrome runs with security permissions of your logged in Windows user -- and I pray to god that you're not logging in as an administrator to your Windows account :)

Other browsers, as far as I know, IE and FF, run in a "tiered mode" -- they have their "kernel" executing with admin privileges and then the UI part runs on a user-mode level. Which is OK, as long as the browser doesn't have security loopholes in the code, which as we well know, is not the case for all of them. So if there's a new browser exploit in IE or FF that may give some rogue site access to your system, an attacker may gain admin rights to your computer because of the web browser's architecture. With Chrome, all they would get is the same low privileged access as your logged in user. Big advantage in my book.

Internet Explorer 8+ runs in a Sandbox by default, just like Google Chrome. In IE it is called Protection Mode and was the first browser to make use of the sandboxing features in Windows Vista. Btw, if you turned UAC off then sandboxing is disabled for both IE and Chrome as both require UAC to function.

2. Each tab in Chrome runs in its own process. I know that IE and FF do not do that (at least the versions to date.) The major advantage here is reliability. If one tab becomes unstable, slow, etc. a browser itself, or you, via a built-in task manager can simply terminate the bad tab without losing the rest of your open tabs.

Your information is really out of date. IE8+ Runs tabs in multiple processes. The only different, IE runs tabs in groups on different processes. Again IE8 was the first browser to do this.

10. Also, I'm not sure if I can mention it here, if you install Adblock Plus plugin for your Chrome or FF, it will be the best thing you ever installed on your system. Commercials on sites and especially in online videos (YouTube for instance) will be a thing of the past :) And, no, it doesn't come for IE.

IE9+ Has the Adblocker builtin.

11. This is very technical stuff, but it's important concerning online security. IE has a bad implementation of Extended Validation for SSL certificates, or HTTPS connections. Read here, especially where it says "The Trouble With Internet Explorer" in the middle of the page.

That doesn't effect internet pages, only the local intranet network. GRC is trying to over sell this. In order for an attack to put EV status on a certificate in order to fool IE, that attacker must have compete control over your computer in order to add their certificate to Windows. This alone requires administrative power. It cannot be done remotely. This is not a "bad implementation" of EV certificates. Again, this is not a vulnerability, the certificate must be added manually to the computer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../dd759060.aspx

The Extended Validation tab is used by administrators to add an Extended Validation (EV) certificate policy to root certificates that are distributed by Group Policy. Adding the EV certificate policy to root certificates and certificates issued to intranet [AKA. Local Network] Web sites provides a visual indicator that a [Intranet] site is trustworthy.

This is for corporate networks, if you have not yet guessed. So hopefully that clears that up.

I use a program in Firefox but I don't remember the name and I can't find it. It was given to me a long time ago by Greg. It just has a - and a + on the tool bar.
I have Bookmarked the NoSquint page to look at later.
Thankyou.

dc2000 said:

Just want to shoot a quick comment. All of this is totally wrong.

Afraid not. none of it is wrong. The only mistake I made was thinking of the wrong version that introduced Protection Mode (Sandboxing) it was IE7 that first introduced it not 8.

You need to understand what sandboxing is. What you quoted there is not sandboxing, that is an end-user nuisance and a security vulnerability to browser exploits.

I know exactly what sandboxing is. You don't seem to understand what UAC does, you think popping up a UI dialog is all UAC does. You are mistaken. Mandatory Integrity Control is the core function of UAC which is used to create sandboxes on Windows Vista and future versions of Windows.

Internet Explorer 7 introduces a MIC-based "Protected Mode" setting to control whether a web page is opened as a low-integrity process or not (provided the operating system supports MIC), based on security zone settings, thereby preventing some classes of security vulnerabilities. Since Internet Explorer in this case runs as a Low IL process, it cannot modify system level objects—file and registry operations are instead virtualized. Adobe Reader 10 and Google Chrome are two other notable applications that are introducing the technology in order to reduce their vulnerability to malware.

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IE indeed does group some tabs and some doesn't. That is not a solution though!

What is not a solution? Isolating a website from another website in different processes? IE does that. Tabs are grouped per-site. (For example, multiple tabs of sevenforums.com would be one group, multiple tabs of another site would be another group.) Google Chrome is just over-zealous in its approach, over kill, and it doesn't need to be.

Also, that is news to me that IE9 has Adblock Plus plugin built in :) Have you even looked at what that is? You're probably confusing a popup blocker with it...

In IE9 it is called Tracking Protection List, the same list that is used by AdBlocker can be used in IE9: Fanboy Adblock Homepage

And lastly, I hope you read through that GRC page, because from what you wrote there, it's clear that you didn't understand it.

No, it is clear that you DO NOT understand. The problem GRC talks about is not a problem in the real world of security. Fooling IE into thinking a certificate is EV even when it is not, requires special modifications to the certificate's entry and only then it will only work for certificates that are set up by group policy. Again this whole thing does not effect consumers and the internet, only corporate environments.

IE hate was ingrained when it was a featureless piece of garbage while Firefox was in beta before even 1.0 making it look PATHETIC.

That's the genesis of the hate for IE imho, and I for one am not looking back.

I did go back on Firefox to version 14.0.1 and sticking with it for now, mainly use it on one screen and Maxthon's latest version on the other.

Kind of like the hate on 8 due to: WTH is my start button/menu?

This might be of some help.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...=vs.85%29.aspx

Internet Explorer 10 gets a new sandbox : Enhanced Protected Mode