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Windows Internet Explorer

Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE), commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of proprietary graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. The current version of Internet Explorer is 8.0.

Internet Explorer
MSRP $0.00
Release date January, 1995
Brand Microsoft
love it
want it
have it
tag it
Pros & Cons29
Reviews52
Details
Buy It
Competitors5
Comments6
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Pros & Cons

ProSCORE
47 reviews
31
negative
mixed
positive
13 positive
6 mixed
28 negative

[i] How is the ProSCORE calculated?

show me!

Pros:
Do you agree?
•
Tabbed browsing
+18agreedisagree

•
Nice tab gallery browsing
+4agreedisagree

•
Has Phising protection out-of-the-box
+2agreedisagree

•
InPrivate: A mode that leaves no history, cookies etc. behind
+2agreedisagree

•
Useful (quick view) url coloring
+1agreedisagree

•
Has XSS protection out-of-the-box
+1agreedisagree

•
useful accelerators that save time
+1agreedisagree

•
Good zooming in of webpages
+1agreedisagree

•
Version 8 handles web standards a lot better than older versions
+1agreedisagree

•
Uses less resources than Firefox
-1agreedisagree

•
IE8 has built in developer tools that is comparable to Firebug
-2agreedisagree

•
Simple to use
-2agreedisagree

•
IE 8 has improved performance
-5agreedisagree

•
IE 7 runs very fast
-11agreedisagree

Cons:
Do you agree?
•
third-party extension support
+19agreedisagree

•
Violates web standards.
+16agreedisagree

•
Poor security allows malware and viruses to easily install from infected websites.
+16agreedisagree

•
toolbar
+15agreedisagree

•
in page search features
+15agreedisagree

•
Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions
+13agreedisagree

•
requires Microsoft Windows
+10agreedisagree

•
extremely poor performance on the ACID tests
+10agreedisagree

•
security
+8agreedisagree

•
painfully slow compared to Safari and Chrome
+7agreedisagree

•
slow compared to firefox
+5agreedisagree

•
Violates web standards - webdesigners needs to create web pages and separate IE-pages
+3agreedisagree

•
Very significant compatibility issues between each major release
+3agreedisagree

•
Upgrade from old outdated problematic (and evil) versions is not forced
+1agreedisagree

•
Versions older than 8 heavily violate web standards causing a lot of problems for web community
+1agreedisagree


52 people added to this review by submitting or voting on pros and cons. Add your say!
See individual votes »

Details

After the first release for Windows 95, additional versions of Internet Explorer were developed for other operating systems: Internet Explorer for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX (the latter for use through the X Window System on Solaris and HP-UX). Only the Windows version remains in active development; the Mac OS X and UNIX version are no longer supported.

It has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, peaking at nearly 90% market share with IE6 in the early 2000s—corresponding to over 900 million users worldwide by 2006.

Though released in 1995 as part of the initial OEM release of Windows 95, Internet Explorer was not included in the first retail, or shrink-wrap, release of Windows 95. The most recent release is version 7.0, which is available as a free update for Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later, and is included with Windows Vista. Versions of Internet Explorer prior to 6.0 SP2 are also available as a separate download for versions of Windows prior to Windows XP. An embedded OEM version called Internet Explorer for Windows CE (IE CE) is also available for WinCE based platforms and is currently based on IE6. Another Windows CE/ Windows Mobile browser known as Internet Explorer Mobile is from a different codebase and should not be confused with desktop versions of the browser.

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This report was started November 14, 2007 at 8:29 pm by Jan
with the last edit occurring Friday, 8:18 AM by Fugazi
This page has been viewed 1490 times, with 518 edits by 64 contributors.
See the full report history »

Buy It

Competitors

Windows Internet Explorer is ranked 6th among it's competitors.  See the top picks in Internet Browsers »
Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox

MSRP  $0.00    Released  November, 2004
Pros
  • Extensive functional add-ons (extensions) and plug-ins
  • Tabbed browsing
  • After a crash can "Restore session" which reopens all tabs
Cons
  • Websites designed with proprietary IE/Active X code may not render correctly
  • Windows returns an error if you close Firefox and try to start it up right away "Firefox is still running"
  • Firefox V2 crashes semi-regularly and uses a lot of computing resources
ProSCORE
109 reviews
81
Vote! (52 votes)
vote Windows Internet Explorer 12% vs. vote Mozilla Firefox 88%
Google Chrome

Google Chrome

MSRP  $0.00    Released  September, 2008
Pros
  • Extremely fast web-browsing
  • Very clean interface
  • Very fast startup time
Cons
  • No addons yet
  • Location bar isn't as intelligent as Firefox awesome bar
  • Installation is a little weird
ProSCORE
43 reviews
61
Vote! (15 votes)
vote Windows Internet Explorer 13% vs. vote Google Chrome 87%
Opera

Opera

MSRP  $0.00    Released  January, 1996
Pros
  • Fast rendering
  • Download manager
  • "Speed dial" favourite page thumbnails
Cons
  • Not supported by all sites
  • lacks Firefox's extension pool
  • No support for tree-style tabs list
ProSCORE
28 reviews
90
Vote! (24 votes)
vote Windows Internet Explorer 25% vs. vote Opera 75%
Safari

Safari

MSRP  $0.00    Released  January, 2003
Pros
  • Text boxes can be resized
  • Very cool find interface
  • Open source rendering engine shared with Google Chrome
Cons
  • Firefox has better/more extensions
  • Can't press "/" to bring up find
  • No native Linux support
ProSCORE
22 reviews
68
Vote! (19 votes)
vote Windows Internet Explorer 63% vs. vote Safari 37%
SRWare Iron

SRWare Iron

MSRP  $0.00    Released  September, 2008
Pros
  • Extremely fast web-browsing
  • Very clean interface
  • Very fast startup time
  • Open-source
Cons
  • No addons yet
  • not avaliable on Linux
ProSCORE
1 review
67
Vote! (0 votes)
vote Windows Internet Explorer   vs. vote SRWare Iron  

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Comments

28 taps
show more
1.  avatar Erik said:

Don't get me wrong, Firefox is still my browser of choice 99% of the time, but I can't help but open up the old IE7 when I want to browse quickly. Firefox needs to improve in that department.
Nov 17, 2007 11:14pm
2.  avatar hissy100 said:

I think IE is a horrible browser, IE 7 crashes alot on my computer, i hate it and wish i could uninstall it. (If anyone says this is biased, l will establish my credability as m$ fan boy, all my computers run windows and office, i couldn't live without windows mobile, and own a zune 30)
Mar 08, 2008 3:38pm
3.  avatar realraven2000 said:

With the exception of tabs, most of the User Interface changes of version 7 are less usable than previous version and add confusion. E.g. Having one 1 history drop down and making the user think about whether an item is forward or backward. Putting the Home button in an unexpected place (right hand side of tab area) where it eats up much needed tab space. The stop button also in an unexpected and hard to reach place - not near the fwd/back navigation buttons. WWW3 and CSS2 standard compliance better but still needs improvement.

As an example, having "search in page" in a dialog box and no one-handed shortcut for repeated search is a glaring oversight, this behavior is copied straight from IE6 - this should be integrated like in firefox (e.g. slash, F3). A lot of commercial MS Products such as Office, Development Studio etc. have already implemented much friendlier search features, so it is not a question of reinventing the wheel but simply technology transfer into the browser market. I don't believe this feature was not added because it would be harder for a previous IE6 user to understand, but because Microsoft still doesn't seem to take the browser market seriously.

IE7 UI should be more customizable to make it user friendly. Built in Javascript debugging might be a nice feature for developers. A lot of the plugins are commercial and not free. SKin support would also be a nice addition that could have warranted a new version number.

Good features added are:

Built in customizable Search Engine Bar (copied from Opera / Mozilla)

Better security (some phishing and popup filters; copied from firefox)

Tabs  (at long last copied from all other browsers opera, mozilla etc).

It does not look like Microsoft put a lot of money or research in the development of this version, or adding new usability features, but sadly people who are locked in the MS world and haven't seriously compared other browsers probably think its great.

May 16, 2008 7:09pm
4.  avatar realraven2000 said:

Very rudimentary Tab feature - not enough space for tabs: Command bar is the only configurable toolbar sharing its space with the tab bar. No undo close tab.
Jan 09, 2009 12:22pm
5.  avatar realraven2000 said:

Most plugins are commercial and not open source which raises security concerns.
Jan 09, 2009 12:23pm
6.  avatar vsaxena911 said:

BOOOOOO. Hiss Hiss.
May 01, 2009 5:01pm
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Reviews

Sort by: Most helpful  •  Newest  •  Most positive

fractalhorizon

avatar
June 13, 2009
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
0
negative
mixed
positive
0 pros
10 cons
have ithave it
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

Did not agree with any pros

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • Violates web standards.
  • Poor security allows malware and viruses to easily install from infected websites.
  • toolbar
  • in page search features
  • Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions
  • requires Microsoft Windows
  • extremely poor performance on the ACID tests
  • painfully slow compared to Safari and Chrome
  • slow compared to firefox

Competitors

fractalhorizon prefers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari over Windows Internet Explorer
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

Omar

avatar
April 30, 2009
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
50
negative
mixed
positive
4 pros
4 cons
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Uses less resources than Firefox
  • IE8 has built in developer tools that is comparable to Firebug
  • IE 8 has improved performance

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • toolbar
  • in page search features
  • requires Microsoft Windows

Competitors

Omar prefers Google Chrome, Opera over Windows Internet Explorer
Omar prefers Windows Internet Explorer over Mozilla Firefox, Safari
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

Manzabar

avatar
January 11, 2009
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
14
negative
mixed
positive
1 pro
6 cons
have ithave it
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

  • Tabbed browsing

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • Violates web standards.
  • Poor security allows malware and viruses to easily install from infected websites.
  • toolbar
  • in page search features
  • Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions

Competitors

Manzabar prefers Mozilla Firefox, Opera over Windows Internet Explorer
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

lonehunter

avatar
January 4, 2009
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
0
negative
mixed
positive
0 pros
7 cons
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

Did not agree with any pros

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • Violates web standards.
  • Poor security allows malware and viruses to easily install from infected websites.
  • toolbar
  • in page search features
  • Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions
  • requires Microsoft Windows

Competitors

lonehunter prefers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari over Windows Internet Explorer
lonehunter prefers Windows Internet Explorer over Opera
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

mugglensu

avatar
December 29, 2008
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
0
negative
mixed
positive
0 pros
7 cons
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

Did not agree with any pros

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • Violates web standards.
  • Poor security allows malware and viruses to easily install from infected websites.
  • toolbar
  • in page search features
  • Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions
  • requires Microsoft Windows

Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

hissy100

avatar
May 27, 2008
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
29
negative
mixed
positive
2 pros
5 cons
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Nice tab gallery browsing

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • toolbar
  • in page search features
  • Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions
  • requires Microsoft Windows

Comments

"I think IE is a horrible browser, IE 7 crashes alot on my computer, i hate it and wish i could uninstall it. (If anyone says this is biased, l will establish my credability as m$ fan boy, all my computers run windows and office, i couldn't live without windows mobile, and own a zune 30)"

Competitors

hissy100 prefers Mozilla Firefox over Windows Internet Explorer
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

cstroie

avatar
May 25, 2008
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
50
negative
mixed
positive
3 pros
3 cons
love itlove it
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Nice tab gallery browsing
  • IE 7 runs very fast

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • in page search features
  • Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions

Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

scrap104

avatar
March 29, 2009
ProSCORE
0
negative
mixed
positive
0 pros
7 cons
have ithave it
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pros

Did not agree with any pros

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • Violates web standards.
  • Poor security allows malware and viruses to easily install from infected websites.
  • toolbar
  • in page search features
  • Reviewed User Interface of Version 7 is flawed. Violates current paradigms & harder to use than previous versions
  • security

Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

Fugazi

avatar
Friday, 8:18 AM
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
50
negative
mixed
positive
7 pros
7 cons
have ithave it

Pros

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Has Phising protection out-of-the-box
  • InPrivate: A mode that leaves no history, cookies etc. behind
  • useful accelerators that save time
  • Version 8 handles web standards a lot better than older versions
  • Simple to use
  • IE 8 has improved performance

Cons

  • Poor security allows malware and viruses to easily install from infected websites.
  • extremely poor performance on the ACID tests
  • painfully slow compared to Safari and Chrome
  • Violates web standards - webdesigners needs to create web pages and separate IE-pages
  • Very significant compatibility issues between each major release
  • Upgrade from old outdated problematic (and evil) versions is not forced
  • Versions older than 8 heavily violate web standards causing a lot of problems for web community

Competitors

Fugazi prefers Mozilla Firefox over Windows Internet Explorer
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No

Cheezer

avatar
October 25, 2009
approved
reviewer
ProSCORE
85
negative
mixed
positive
11 pros
2 cons
have ithave it

Pros

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Nice tab gallery browsing
  • Has Phising protection out-of-the-box
  • InPrivate: A mode that leaves no history, cookies etc. behind
  • Useful (quick view) url coloring
  • Has XSS protection out-of-the-box
  • useful accelerators that save time
  • Good zooming in of webpages
  • Uses less resources than Firefox
  • Simple to use
  • IE 8 has improved performance

Cons

  • third-party extension support
  • extremely poor performance on the ACID tests

Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
 / 
No
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