back to article IE8 for Windows 7 beta in 'reliability update'

Microsoft on Thursday rolled out a stop crashing so goddamn much "reliability" update for Internet Explorer 8 users running the Windows 7 Beta. The patch plugs a variety of ills on the browser, including crashes, hangs, and memory leaks according to Microsoft. Windows 7 Beta users can snag the software via Windows update. …

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  1. CTG
    Gates Horns

    Windows Error Reporting?

    wtf is Windows Error Reporting? Oh yes, that annoying dialog that comes up whenever an app crashed. The one with the "Don't Send" button that I always click. Well, that'll be a reliable source of statistics, then

  2. Charles King

    8000FFF

    Windows Update on Win7 hasn't been working for me for a week now. /bitter laugh

    I'm heartened by reading the Win7 blog boasting about all the thousands of bugs that they've fixed in the beta, because, nice as it is, it surely needs a lot of fixing.

  3. Calum Morrison
    Joke

    Only 1.5%?

    Does that mean 98.5% of Windows 7 users are running FireFox or Opera?

  4. mrlumpy
    Go

    Why not send on an ER on a beta?

    Surely this is the point of a beta? When it breaks, let the manufacturer know? I broke IE8 on W7 on the first day of use and sent the report in so that when the time comes that I am forced to support it hopefully the issue I found will be fixed.

    When there is an issue with a production OS or software why do people not send the error reports either? It could be a simple fix for the developers who are only human after all.

    For the record, this post was written on FF3 running on Fedora9 - no windows fan boy here, just someone who wants IT to work.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @CTG

    yes but then you sit there saying that Redmond are rubbish and there software crashes all the time.

    Maybe, just maybe, if people sent of the info, they could fix the issues.

    You are a IT departments worst f**king nightmare. the sort of person that says.

    "Well it's been playing up for months coming up with some error message 5 times a day and now it's totally dead. I need it fixed urgently because (insert bosses name) needs me to get (insert item) to him by end of today, or I get sacked.

    <BOFH> Woohaw haa ha haaaaaa

  6. Andrew Cooper

    Re: Windows Error Reporting?

    Fair point on your main OS, but if you're bothering to get involved in a beta programme at all, surely you'd be more likely to send them?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Same with Vista too

    I'm using IE8 RC1 on Vista and that likes crashing quite a bit. Actually, The Register kept crashing IE8 whenever I clicked on the browser window until I turned compatibility mode on.

    Microsoft hasn't managed to do the multi-process browser thing very well.

  8. aldude
    Gates Halo

    No probs here

    I must be one of those lucky 90% of customers - no crashes on IE8 for me so far. A few weird bugs in Win 7 but nothing too serious. Love it so far!

  9. Daniel

    Microsoft error messages say it all

    "Instruction at x09ae45f70 attempted to address memory at x7ef32a996 and will be terminated. OK"

    They can dress windows 7 up in all sorts of goppy plastic graphics, but underneath it all, it's still the same drab old world, where users press grey paving slabs with "OK" written on them... even when it's really NOT okay. You can argue all you want about it being beta software, but users (even, or, perhaps especially, beta users) should never have to look at error messages that amount to little more than debug output containing hexadecimal numbers.

    The thing is, we all know that this software will eventually go to market in state where it is still outputing stack dumps, at its users... and users will still be asked to send the raw output back to some bit-bucket at redmond... and the bit bucket will daily fill up, and there will never be enough engineers to look at them all, and work out what the hell went wrong. And the problem will remain what the problem always was: the error message tells you exactly what just happened, while conveying no useful informatioon whatsoever. They might as well say things like "Fandango on stack" or "Warning: mallocs. Rlwrwlrlwrlwrlw!".

  10. Richard
    Thumb Down

    Re: Windows Error Reporting?

    I'd hope that for a beta OS MS would disable the "Don't send" option. Otherwise wtf is the point of people being beta testers?

  11. Stuart
    Happy

    Chuckle

    I knew there was a reason to be glad that Adobe are too lazy to port Flash to x64

  12. Kerberos

    IE8

    I am running Windows 7 on my main laptop and I have to say I am quite impressed. It never even occurred to me to use IE though - it's dead to me.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    I take a certain amount of pleasure

    sending Windows error reports at every opportunity. Have another one ya bastads. For a moment, I get a little vision of just how many of these make their way to Microsoft every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Little chickens coming home to roost. And I wonder what they do with them. Read them, investigate them, count them, ignore them? Online crash analysis is really wonderful though, sorts me out every time. This problem seems to have been caused by an operating system made by Microsoft.... Please contact them for more information on how to resolve it...I laugh, ha ha ha ha. And reboot

  14. Mike Dyne
    IT Angle

    IE8 on Win7

    Has never crashed for me. Infact, I've never had any problems with it! Thinking about it, I only used it once... I think that was to visit www.mozilla.com/firefox

  15. Adam Nealis

    Will W7 have an "I know what I'm doing" option?

    Windows admin is a real PITA compared with, say, OS X. With the OS X you make change and it's done. None of this OK / Yes I'm sure / OK / OK crap.

  16. mike
    Happy

    so it's not just me

    ie8 on win7 is crap and firefox works so much better. no crashes yet with firefox on win7.

  17. Steen Hive

    4 Legs good, 2 legs bad.

    Win 7 has been very, very good in general compared to the Vista that came pre-installed on this laptop. In particular network performance has been improved beyond recognition. I have to have a couple of windows machines here and after the usual "crud removal" process you always have to go through on a new windows box, this is pretty much the best performing of the lot. A few issues with mysterious hanging file handles and file permissions, especially in the installer and visual studio, but nary a blue screen and otherwise acceptable.

    IE8 on the other hand - oh dear. As bad as IE6 in terms of stability, standards-compliance and a vile UI to boot. IE7 could have been construed in some twisted minds as a small step in the right direction, but this thing is just broken. The rendering is broken, the DOM is broken, and as for javascript - I could swear they switched the JS engine out for a "C" compiler, the amount of times I've been able to bring down the browser from JS. Not good at all.

  18. Adrian Esdaile
    Stop

    Yep, I had IE8 crashes regularly - until I removed Flash

    Yet again, it is MS code causing crashes, it is Adobe. Seriously, all the outsourced programmers at Adobe couldn't program their way out of a wet paper bag, or indeed a C:\ prompt.

    Simple fix - remove Flash, problems go away, THEREFORE problem is with FLASH, not IE8.

  19. TeeCee Gold badge
    Thumb Down

    @mike

    So, you're saying a release level product (and one that's been out a while and accumulated a few patches itself at that) is more reliable than a Beta one?

    Forgive me for being less than surprised.

  20. Geoff Mackenzie

    @Adrian Esdaile

    Power plugged in, Vista crashes. Power disconnected, no crashes at all. The problem is electricity, not Microsoft's code.

  21. Steen Hive
    Boffin

    @Adrian Esdaile

    Correlation vs Causality. Go read up about it.

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