Ice Czar
Inscrutable
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2001
- Messages
- 27,174
OldPueblo said:Something occurrs to me and something Phoenix said in a different thread got me thinking this. I went back and re-scanned the article above and it wasn't immediately clear. It seems to me that MS is probably not updating IE in terms of the features, not security updates. The wording is tricky, but is it possible they are talking about the "security enhancements" like the pop-up blocker, the add-on manager, etc? I mean they are security enhancements, but not security patches. If someone finds out how to hack an OS older then XP but related to IE, MS I'm sure is going to fix it. I think they simply mean the "new" version of IE meaning the enhancements. If so, then that's not such a big deal. People still get security updates, and if they want to take advantage of newer browser security enhancements (blocker, activex, java, whatever), then they can snag FF or whatever else. I think MS is saying its now as if there were Win98 IE, Win2k IE, and now WinXP IE. And since WinXP IE is the latest one, its the only one they are going to continually update with enhancements.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/web/sp2_infobar.mspx
If Internet Explorer default settings are on, you'll see the Information Bar when a Web site tries to:
Install an ActiveX control on your computer.
Open a pop-up window.
Download a file to your computer.
How the Information Bar Works
Sometimes Web sites will display an ActiveX control or active content that may be potentially dangerous or try to download a file to your hard drive without your knowledge or permission. This is how many people accidentally get spyware on their computer. The Information Bar notifies you when it blocks this content and then lets you decide what to do
and the difference between spyware and malware is now so blurred its just shades of grey
its not the inconvience part that is the issue, they arent "enhancements" these are basic controls for ActiveX, and if not extended to the worlds most popular browser, as seen on some 200 million computers, is a huge security hole, (unless they disable ActiveX and WSH), the very reason there is the upgrade in IE to start with,
basically
"we got the fix, but if you aint goin to pony up for XP, we are going to leave you hanging in the wind, go get some other software to take care of that, or learn how to do it yourself
we arent responsible , so what if we integrated insecure subsystems into the shell"