Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

BS. Yes, IE can be improved, but part of it is ignorance of users and the wide-spread use of IE.

IE is also used in a variaty of Win apps. MS provides a control to developers that is basically IE.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

Says who? Microsoft? It's wide know to have TONS of flaws and holes that other browsers don't have. Just because a browser/OS isn't as popular or wide spread as IE or Windows dosn't mean that Windows has the same number, or less, flaws than the rarer OS or browser. It's vodoo programing, the idea that wide spread use=flaws. It's false, plain and simple. Also, Apple also provides SDKs to their products and their browsers, but very few are found to have problems (trust me, loads of people are looking for problems in Apple software). Plus, that's just an example, it applies to all other programs.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

I use Firefox and IE interchangeably. I have NEVER had a problem with IE. In fact, I have never had a problem with any of those worms or trojan viruses which seem to get so out of control. Astronouth is right in saying that if you know how to protect your pc, etc. you should be fine. The people who get this stuff seem to be, in general, the most ignorant or careless computer users.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

sure am glad i use Mozilla :D

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

That's not really a fair judgement to make. Yes, the people with the most junk are often the most ignorant, but there are plenty of cases where very informed and cautious people are infected by various trojans and spyware. I work in a computer shop where 80% of the problems I see are directly related to viruses and spyware. While it's true the bulk of the problems are had by people who don't know otherwise, I do also see a surprisingly large number of infections on well educated and very net-savvy users machines. I've seen a few things try to attack my own system here in one of the few times I fired up IE to check something. It was a pop-up for an X10 camera or something, but my AVG virus scanner immediately identified the code in the pop-up as a downloader trojan (which would have opened the door for any number of crapware programs to install themselves). There are many, many vulnerabilities in IE that can allow arbitrary malicious code to be run on a target machine, and while Microsoft has been halfway-decent about patching them, I find the number of current exploits, nevermind as of yet undiscovered exploits, somewhat unsettling.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

I've been using IE and havn't had any problems I couldn't fix. McAffe catches all the trojans and AdAware gets rid of all the hijackers and such. I don't download things I didn't ask for and I keep my security settings fairly high.
Eric

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

I agree with you here. Although MSIE might have a ton of flaws which allow stuff to get in that you'd just rather not, there is almost never a situation where a utility program can't remove it.

Some of the things I use on my computer: (all free!)

• Spyware Blaster - Don't let a lot of the spyware out there get in the first place.
• Spybot Search and Destroy - Allow you to scan for spyware already on you computer. This includes stuff that got in through IE and stuff installed by a program you downloaded (which can happen no matter what browser you use)
• Anti-virus software - Avast! Home edition - The home edition can be used for free with only a registration. I've used this for 6 months now and never had a problem. It is frequently updated and the program itself is still under active development, unlike (at least, so I hear) AVG. A 60 trial is available.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

If you know what you're doing and know that IE has something installed with it, Hijack This! http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/ has been one of my all-time favorite debugging tools. If you see something in there you can't recognize, google for it.. and you'll generally find a forum with other HJT results and someone will generally identify it.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

I've heard this can be very helpful tool.

However, a warning to anyone who isn't "computer literate/really good with computers :D:" EVERYTHING HIJACK THIS FINDS DOESN'T NEED TO BE REMOVED!! When in doubt, don't delete. If you accidentally removed something important to a legit program, you can have difficulties.

Before using it, be sure to make a backup of the registry. Do this by opening a "run" box and typing in "regedit". Under the File menu, choose "Export." Choose a location to save the backup to and rememer where it is. To restore the registry back the way it was, do the same thing, only choose "Import" from the File menu. Select the backup you created earlier. You may have to restart after the restore.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

A back up can be quite large. I believe the registry is stored in SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT; If you copy those, you would essentially be backing it up. The export method is preferred, though.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

My grandmother is net-savvy. That doesn't mean she knows how to protect against viruses and other unwanted products of the Internet or how to use and fix her computer software and hardware. If the person really does know what he's doing, you won't see them at a shop asking for help. That's my opinion and general rule of thumb. I have lots of friends who are very good programmers and love to use the internet but don't know a thing about computer maintenance. Then one of them complains to me that he has an unaccounted 12gb of their 40gb hdd to look for... :)

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

I use IE and Opera, when I feel like it. I've never had a problem with viruses or worms or trojan horses through my web browser---sure I've downloaded corrupt files and Norton thankfully quarantined and deleted the file, but that has nothing to do with my web browser. If you have a good virus scan program, a firewall (either hardware or software, which will prevent Trojan horses from spreading or sending information), and simple programs to stop the adware (Ad-aware and Spybot), and an advanced registry edit program (HijackThis---be careful with it), then you should be more than fine in terms of being in control of your own, secure computer. And yes, that was a long sentence.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

In many of the cases I get at work, it's not the fault of the owner. It's their kids, or a friend, or a relative who is over using their computer, visiting less than savory sites, playing with kazaa, etc. Next thing they know, Norton AV's autoprotect is disabled, Ad-Aware picks up 700 things, and no matter what they clean it with everything always comes back on next reboot.

My point is that you shouldn't need four different 3rd party applications to keep your system safe and clean, no matter who uses it. I'll also say since I started recommending FireFox to people, I've seen a dramatic decline in repeat visitations from people who get re-infected within a few weeks, despite an updated virus scanner, firewall, and spyware protection.

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

evidently i am in the minority here about IE........
everyone goes on and on about how bill gates is too rich ETC...
IE is perfectly good,,,, and i wouldn't use something else ever. Some things just dont work with others, and i once tried opera and couldn't use it for the life of me!
And they constantly update security in ie.
and if you have something else , such as norton internet security, you will be fine .... i only occasionally get attacks, usually from places in the middle east!

Hmm, i just found that i have recieved bad reputation for liking microsoft products, i think thats a bit unfair!

Re: Federal Government warns about Internet Exploer bugs
 

I honestly don't think Microsoft ever intends to release buggy software. I read an article about how Microsoft checks for errors in it's software. I started using Mozilla because my version of IE seems to be corrupted. Style sheets that used to be displayed correctly doesn't anymore. It's really annoying actually cause I know something happened that caused it to act buggy. I put a border on some links and the top border doesn't display.