IE7 in Windows 7

[Firseal]

I am aware that there is no direct way to install Internet Explorer 7 under Windows 7. Is there any indirect way? Because I really do dislike IE8, and while Opera has many of the features I would use, I would prefer to have all of them without the shackles of the IE8 limited address bar.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Why do you dislike IE8? Anything we can help you with?

 

[Qdos]

I also intensely dislike iE8's bloat over iE7's clean lines and functionality.

So much so that Microsoft lost themselves a long-standing browser customer, and I went across to Opera instead.

That said, there is no real safety in using iE7 any longer, even if it were possible to add it to Windows 7.

 

[Firseal]

The address bar functionality truly drives me nuts. It functions poorly, often giving bad returns, limited answers, and even when directly expanded only gives a small (and for me, yes, twenty is a small) subset of options to browse. Further, the way the address bar chooses to display its options - page title, followed by address, puts the information I find to be important when actually trying to use it to the side. I don't browse by page titles, I browse by addresses and memorization. I know that this functionality is supposed to be more aestetically pleasing, but I don't care much for how nice a thing looks if it cannot be modified to provide me the options and wealth of information I would nominally use.

Or, in simpler terms, I am very much not a fan of the 'smart address bar', since it is almost by the numbers everything I do not want in a primary browsing feature. The nominal fix - turning on just address bar and browsing history - doesn't fix the underlying problems I have with it. I realize I am griping, but it is the singularly most frustrating issue I have with Windows 7, because under this OS I haven't the option to not deal with any Internet Explorer but 8. (Well, IE6, if you bejigger a lot, but it is as large a step back that I might as well just go third party)

In a lesser issue, I also find that, while tab groups are useful, IE8 doesn't tree as good as IE7 - that is, if I open two tabs (B and C) from a root tab (A), then one from B (D), then one from C (E), then B (F), then C (G), in IE8 the tabs would be ABCDEFG, while in IE7, if I remember the functions correctly, they would be arranged ABDFCEG. IE8 doesn't recognise naturally produced subsets within a tab group, just shunting every new tab to the end of the group. Or at least so much as I have found. This isn't really as large a concern as the prior - one affects how I use the internet the vast majority of times I move between, and even within, websites while the other is a desire for cleaner organization of pages opened - but it limits how well I deal with the system.

Anyhow, that's a quick thumbnail of why I find this particular browser to be highly frustrating.

 

[Qdos]

+1 (and I can think of many other annoyances too!)

 

[Fluffy]

People may call me a fan boy but try Firefox?

 

[Firseal]

People may call me a fan boy but try Firefox?

Unless I simply cannot find a way to turn it on, Firefox doesn't have any options in its address bar. I may hate the really bad implimentation of the IE8's options, but its better than nothing.

Depending on the day, not much better mind. But better.

Also, what is the sense of having history organize by title for pages within a website? It is like whoever designed this didn't actually use it afterwards.