Hum. All I can say is, installing IE 6 on a Windows 2000 machine is a relentlessly interesting experience. First, you have absolutely no control over the process; it's the first time I've ever actually had more control of a process on Win98 than in Win2000. (For example, it would have been nice to have been able to decide whether or not I actually wanted to upgrade Media Player, for example, which I was able to do on Win98.) Second ... it's apparently a kindler, gentler version of itself. For example, aeons ago, I installed NS 4.78 after installing IE 5, and Netscape took over the file associations -- in fact, I installed in that order for exactly that reason. Then I upgraded to IE 5.5, and in the process, the installer asks if you want IE to take over the HTML file association. I said no. And it left the association alone ... for everything except Outlook Express, which associated internal email links with IE. Um ... OK, whatever. Installing IE 6, on the other hand, returned the HTML association to Netscape even within Outlook Express. Very strange.
Oh, and counters on everyone's sites are now broken. Apparently, they all work by setting some sort of cookie (well, OK, I knew that) and I gather that IE 5.X didn't actually pay strict attention to the security policy in the system. I gather that because on every site I've visited with a counter since installing IE 6, the counter cookie has been automatically refused and that never happened before. (It's refusing my own counter, which I find thoroughly amusing. Although it probably explains the rather startling dropoff in some -- but only some -- numbers coinciding with the rise in IE6 hits.)
Also, may I just say that I love the idea that AOL is refusing to support anything but its own browser. Taken to its logical conclusion, this means that, almost certainly, they've got techs refusing to support the Netscape browser which is produced by AOL itself. And wouldn't that just be public relations fun?
Replies: 2 comments
One of the things which was added in IE6 was the ability for the browser to refuse a cookie from any site except the one it is actually currently looking at. That's to defend you against folks like DoubleClick using cookies to trace you as you move around visiting sites they have ads on. I wonder if that's what has kicked in and screwed up the counters, given that a lot of people use a counter service on a different server. (Although right off I can't imagine why a counter would need a cookie.)
Posted by Steven C. Den Beste @ 09/04/2001 09:50 PM CST
I don't know why counters use cookies, either; I just remember that they do.
I did discover one other lovely thing about IE 6. Somehow, the install reaches into the operating system and resets the folder views to Icon View. At the same time, it alters the menus a bit so that the "Options" item, instead of giving you the opportunity to customize the view and then apply it to all folders as it used to do, tries to shove you into Active Web Viewing for everything. In order to get my views back, I wound up having to go into one of the Control Panels, change something and then uncheck it to get the "Apply" button active, and then reapply my preferences. This is the same for both Win98 and Win2000. I wonder why MS thinks that people would want to change their viewing preferences in midstream.
Posted by iain @ 09/05/2001 12:48 PM CST
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!