Go on, nontroppo, tell us what you really think. Don't mince your words and beat around the bush - give it to us straight up, we can take it!

I have found, as you all have I'm sure. That sometimes a link will execute IE without warning. Legit links that trigger IE for some reason and will not use Firefox.

I suppose that is the sites build or preferences or something. I don't know much about it. But it would be nice to have some warning. We all know windows update or Microsoft update will use IE when initiated manually.

There should be something to warn of a browser initiating, with a chance to stop it. Especially when there is a major security issue with it. Some sort of notice to click to proceed or halt operations when it's a browser other then what you have designated as the default.

There probably is in some of these security programs or -maybe- windows itself. Can it be blocked by a firewall and alternately let it run or not?

I haven't used IE since my last manual update, and the last time it kicked in for some site that I don't remember. Maybe I'll start a list of what sites initiate IE while clicking links in FF. It don't happen much, but I get an occasional surprise. I'm a pretty safe web surfer in general. Links to links and more links are not as safe though.

Yeah, could be, fodder, an application.
It's been a while since it has happened.
But I do remember IE popping up for some reason,
and I didn't know it would, or even suspect it to engage.

Darwin: 

If only one could go back in the time machine at that coding moment and say to Microsoft: "You may not want to grant ActiveX controls that much control over Windows.

Wouldn't have made any difference. Microsoft lived in a virtual world where everybody with a brain used a network with a Windows Domain Controller. And in an isolated, secure network, ActiveX isn't a problem. In fact, it's actually pretty cool. But the world didn't go down the path Microsoft had envisioned.

There is a story (possibly apocryphal) about about a meeting at Microsoft where Bill Gates announced he wanted to acquire the Internet, and was shocked when he was told that nobody actually "owned" it.

Microsoft always had (until relatively recently) a huge amount of trouble grasping the web. Unfortunately, a lot of design decisions they made were done when they still didn't "get" what the web was all about. They were still thinking "closed subscriber networks" like Delphi or Compuserve or AppleLink. In those environments, the network itself provided the security.

Security has to be "designed in" from the ground up. It can't be effectively tacked on as an afterthought. The Internet was not designed to be a secure technology. Nor was much else that runs on it. So until we finally bite the bullet and do some serious retooling on our data infrastructures, we're stuck with the security issues we have.

Much as Microsoft can annoy me, I can't really hold them completely responsible. That would be like blaming a robbery victim for not being more careful about where he walked at night.

The biggest issue with Java is how it's updated.

You hear about an exploitable vulnerability in Java and when a fix is issued you upgrade right away and think "OK, now I am safe."

But you are not! Sun leaves the older version on your machine, to be exploited by anyone that wishes to do so. The end result is a backdoor for malware that is as wide open as ActiveX on IE 5.5 & older.  Most people don't know they have to go and uninstall the old version after updating.

You might want to download a copy of JavaRa. It checks for JRE updates and removes old versions from your system.

If you need to use Java, you'll want to install JavaRa.

And it's free!

JavaRa

JavaRa is a simple tool that does a simple job: it removes old and redundant versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Simply select "Check for Updates" or "Remove Older Version" to begin. JavaRa is free under the GNU GPL version two.

Java software in general and the Java JRE in particular allow you to run applications called 'applets' that are written in the Java programming language. You probably have Java JRE installed on your computer because these applets allow you to play online games, chat with people around the world, calculate your mortgage interest, view images in 3D, as well as many others.

Java and Java Runtime Environment (JRE) are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

More Information   http://raproducts.org/javara.html

Download Windows Binary (.zip file)  http://raproducts.org/click/click.php?id=1

Download Source Code (written in C++)  http://downloads.sourceforge.net/javara/JavaRaSource.zip?use_mirror=osdn

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But you are not! Sun leaves the older version on your machine, to be exploited by anyone that wishes to do so. The end result is a backdoor for malware that is as wide open as ActiveX on IE 5.5 & older.  Most people don't know they have to go and uninstall the old version after updating.

Ummm, I know that development environments like eclipse allow you to target previous JRE versions in order to do compatibility testing, but doesn't the browser pick & use the latest JRE? Or can java applets specify a specific JRE version to use?

Yup - it's the best of the bunch, and the one that I use myself. Maxthon's are configured differently and seem to work more naturally to me, in that they don't get in the way of any other mouse activity, that I can see...

I have been trying out Sleipnir, which can switch between both IE's Trident engine and Gecko with a single click of an icon on the statusbar.

There are some nice plugins available for it, too. (but not as many as Firefox) And any plugins that work with IE will work with it while in Trident mode through the context menu, so things like ieSpell and Surfulator will work with it. (sorry, no IE toolbar support) And it comes with a freeware version of Roboform.

There is also skins available. I really like the Kantele & Liuto ones, even though neither of them match my desktop theme.

And the mouse gestures are completely configurable...and I mean completely!



There is a lot of things that can be configured in this browser. If you like customizing stuff, they give you plenty to play with.

Then there is also K-Meleon, which is gecko based and has mouse gestures, out of the box. Just have to turn them on in the options and configure them how you like. I used K-Meleon for the better part of this year and it's the default browser on my old PC.

There is a bunch of Firefox extensions that have been modified to work with it, but even without them, the browser is pretty feature packed and it's amazing how light it still is with all they included in it. It runs well on my old 233mhz machine with 64mb ram, which I really can't say for either IE 6 or Firefox 2.

And it's the only browser I know of that will allow you to have 3 links toolbars at the same time, supporting your existing IE favorites, Opera style Hotlist, as well as K-Meleon/gecko bookmarks. (that is a killer feature that is hard to live without once you get used to it.)

You might want to download a copy of JavaRa. It checks for JRE updates and removes old versions from your system.

If you need to use Java, you'll want to install JavaRa.

And it's free!

I know about JavaRa, but I also know how to go look in Add/Remove programs and do it myself too.

There is a problem with JavaRa, though. It doesn't detect all outdated versions of JRE. There are older ones it will miss, and they are the some of the worst ones to leave on your system.

When I tested JavaRa on my other pc, it didn't detect most versions of JRE installed because they were too old, and it even had me download an upgrade that was incompatible with my OS.

JavaRa is fine for use on newer machines/OS's but I wouldn't suggest it for anything old or 9x.

But still, whether you use JavaRa or Add/Remove programs, you have to admit that the average PC user wouldn't know that they have to go do this themselves and that they will most likely have multiple exploitable versions on their pc if they don't.

I didn't know this, myself, till a few years ago. I didn't know it was safe to uninstall the older entries in Add/Remove programs without breaking the current version. I assumed that they were patches and I needed them all or it wouldn't work. And if I thought this, what does the average mom, pop, and teen on myspace think?

Ummm, I know that development environments like eclipse allow you to target previous JRE versions in order to do compatibility testing, but doesn't the browser pick & use the latest JRE? Or can java applets specify a specific JRE version to use?

Obviously they must be able to target older versions that are still installed if they are exploiting them.

And the mouse gestures are completely configurable...and I mean completely!

I'm pretty sure Marc Boullet's All-in-One Gestures are also just as configurable.

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One of the cool little bonuses I love about All-in-One Gestures is that the highlighted option in the screenshot, open new tab in foreground, performs a bonus function if that gesture is used on a link. It actually opens the link in a new tab. That's probably one of my most used gestures and I can't stand using other gesture systems that don't have that dual functionality with opening a new tab and opening a link in a new tab all in the same gesture.