This morning, I opened an HTML file expecting it to open in Maxthon, my default internet browser. Instead, Internet Explorer 7 opened up! I thought I was delirious because I don’t recall ever downloading or installing IE 7. Matter of fact, I don’t even use IE at all! The last I checked several weeks ago, I had IE 6 on my computer.
I think the latest SP3 patch that was automatically installed on my computer included the IE7 upgrade. In addition, ‘it’ changed my default internet browser setting! This unsolicited tactic by Microsoft to forcibly upgrade my internet browser is uncalled for. 
I go out of my way to avoid using Microsoft Internet Explorer. It’s probably the worst of all the internet browsers.
DailyBlogTips put up a survey of everyone’s favorite browser and Mozilla Firefox got the most votes, by far. For several years, I also used Firefox as my default browser. Occasionally, I used IE for pages that did not render properly in Firefox. After I discovered the IE Tab Firefox plugin which renders IE pages in Firefox, I stopped using IE altogether.
In recent weeks, I started using Maxthon browser. I’ve been having stability problems with Firefox due to memory leak. Firefox was consuming at ridiculous amount of my computer memory and crashes every so often. 
I found Maxthon to be faster and easier to use than Firefox. Also, Maxthon renders all pages properly. In addition, Maxthon has a better tab control, reopens closed tabs, and saves sessions — all this without any plugins. So I made the browser switch to Maxthon. Occasionally, I’d still use Firefox because I wanted access to my Del.icio.us toolbar. But I’m completely done with IE. There is absolutely no reason why I would ever use IE again. Matter of fact, I wanted to uninstall IE completely from my computer because I don’t like having things I don’t use installed on my computer. The fewer applications on my PC, the better! Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to rid my computer of unwanted software like IE and Outlook Express.
Well, imagine my shock when IE7 opened up this morning! It’s like nightmare on PC street. I cringe at the amount of memory that was consumed by opening this application.
Darn Microsoft! (Well, that’s one bridge I’m burning in case I ever start job searching again)
Did this automatic IE7 upgrade happen to anyone??
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May 12th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Hi Susan,
For the Firefox memory leak, I found this fix to work very well for me.
Also, I’ve been enjoying reading your blog. I’m more of a LabVIEW guy, but I have a bit of experience as a technical writer, too.
Thanks,
-Jim
May 13th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Pssst… guess what — I work for MSFT and I actually use Firefox on my work computer as well most of the time. Please don’t tell.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:00 am
You can’t uninstall IE because Maxthon uses IE engine
For Maxthon delicious sidebar, I use this plugin
http://forum.maxthon.com/viewthread.php?tid=47730
May 13th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
As Se7en said, Maxthon uses IE’s engine so it’s basically IE with some cool features on top of it. Security wise I am not sure how much better it is.
My preferred browser is Opera, which has the best features and doesn’t use as much memory as Firefox. Unfortunately there are many sites that don’t work well with Opera, because they don’t adhere to web standards.
For those sites I use Firefox 3, which is still in beta (some crashes may occur) but I think the memory usage is improved. I think the trick is not to install too many add-ons.
Love this site, already found so many tips (love the Wordpress Automatic Update found in the comments).
May 13th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I’ve tried using Opera and liked it too because it was fast and easy to use. But like John said, many sites don’t work well with Opera. It was too much of a hassle switching back and forth between browsers. That’s why when I started using Maxthon, it was a one-browser shop because it was fast AND used IE engine.
Sadly to say, my Maxthon browser crashed today and I couldn’t get any HTML pages to open up. I tried the Firefox memory fix patch Jim suggested and am back to using Firefox.
Can’t wait until the official version of Firefox 3 comes out!