When Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7.0 (IE7) last month after a year-long testing cycle, the new browser was touted as a leap forward in security and ease of use — issues that have plagued previous versions of the Web browser.
Microsoft Corp. has been steadily losing market share to browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Opera, which have gained ground, thanks in part to enhanced features and security. With IE7, which is the first new version of Microsoft's browser since 2001, the software giant hopes to reverse this trend.
“We listened carefully to our customers and are delivering a safer browser that makes the tasks they do every day much easier,” said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer team at the Redmond, Wash., company.
IE7, which is designed to work with the brand new Windows Vista and later versions of Windows XP, provides many of the same features that made its competitors popular. Microsoft says the browser has better security because it has a built-in buffer meant to prevent malicious software attacks from affecting the new operating system.
But to make these enhancements, Microsoft has had to change some of the browser's fundamental operating parameters. Business users who adopt Vista will find that IE7 is indeed less vulnerable to attack and, among other things, blocks downloading of malicious software that could put the machine at risk.
However, with the enhancements to safety come some other issues. Incompatibilities with existing software have caused everything from minor annoyances to crashes.
This was not entirely unexpected. Microsoft had been warning the industry for months that IE7 would likely spawn compatibility problems with certain applications.
“Software vendors have had plenty of time to ensure their offerings would interoperate with IE7,” says Carmi Levi, senior research analyst at London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research. “That said, I'm not surprised that a few lingering issues remain.”
Over the past few months, Microsoft has published guidelines for consumers, commercial developers and corporate customers that point out potential problem areas. However, despite the extended testing period, some problems have emerged — spread across many industries and types of software.
Autodesk Inc., for example, rushed out a patch to its DWF Viewer — a browser-based program for viewing and printing 2-D and 3-D designs — when the application's main menu did not appear when launched in IE7.
Security vendors have been hit with a double whammy. Not only are they engaged in a continuing battle with Microsoft over Vista features that prevent their anti-virus products from working correctly, they, too, are experiencing incompatibilities with IE7.
McAfee Inc. has published instructions on its website to fix problems that crop up during the installation of many of its security products. And some versions of Symantec Corp.'s i3 — Insight, Indepth and Inform — go into an endless loop of opening browser windows. Symantec has released a fix for the problem, but it also gives users instructions on how to remove IE7 altogether.
Financial software provider Intuit Inc. has published a compatibility chart to help its customers determine whether their versions of its QuickBooks financial software products will work with the new browser, whether they'll require a patch or whether the programs are just not compatible. While QuickBooks 2007 and Enterprise 7.0 work correctly, the 2006 and 6.0 versions need patching, and earlier versions are incompatible. There are also minor issues with Intuit's consumer and small business accounting program, Quicken.
Even enterprise products are not immune. Hyperion Solutions Corp., a producer of business management software, recommends users of its software not install IE7 until a compatibility patch is developed and security software maker SonicWall Inc. has gone so far as to recommend users either uninstall IE7 or use the Firefox browser.“Corporate IT departments must approach new browsers the same way they approach new operating systems: Test each and every application in the organization's software inventory; identify the resulting bugs; prioritize them based on potential impact to the business; and finally, develop alternatives or workarounds,” Mr. Levy says.
Not only are there incompatibilities, Microsoft freely admits that IE7 is still not wholly compliant with Web standards; those fixes are on its list for future releases.
Special to The Globe and Mail
