Forced to use IE at work, any tips to make it better?

[Leros]

I've been using Firefox since IE6. My work is making me use IE. It seems alright, but I miss firefox.

Any tips for making IE better to use?

 

[masteryoda34]

http://www.ie7pro.com/

 

[M0RPH]

Upgrade to IE8 if you can. I use it alongside FF and there are some things it does better. I like the isolation and crash protection of tabs. Many times I'll have a tab crash and it will just reload the tab and keep on going, whereas in FF the whole browser would have crashed.

 

[seemingly random]

Why would they care what browser you use? How would they know if you loaded an additional one? Are they aware that ie is the only browser which doesn't have a spell checker?

I've had problems with ie7pro + ie8. Can't say conclusively that it's the combo but I never had problems with ie7.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Originally posted by: seemingly random
Why would they care what browser you use? How would they know if you loaded an additional one? Are they aware that ie is the only browser which doesn't have a spell checker?

I've had problems with ie7pro + ie8. Can't say conclusively that it's the combo but I never had problems with ie7.

Corporate standards.

 

[masteryoda34]

Originally posted by: seemingly random
I've had problems with ie7pro + ie8. Can't say conclusively that it's the combo but I never had problems with ie7.

Yeah IE Pro doesn't seem fully compatible yet.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: VinylxScratches

Originally posted by: seemingly random
Why would they care what browser you use? How would they know if you loaded an additional one? Are they aware that ie is the only browser which doesn't have a spell checker?

I've had problems with ie7pro + ie8. Can't say conclusively that it's the combo but I never had problems with ie7.

Corporate standards.

This could be a lame reason.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: seemingly random
Why would they care what browser you use? How would they know if you loaded an additional one? Are they aware that ie is the only browser which doesn't have a spell checker?

I've had problems with ie7pro + ie8. Can't say conclusively that it's the combo but I never had problems with ie7.

I'm not really sure. The laptops I've seen floating around have Firefox on them, but everybody's work station only has IE from what I've seen. I tried to download firefox. I can get to the firefox page, but it looks like they blocked the download of it.

 

[seemingly random]

Many people might not even know there are alternative browsers. And, ie is getting better. I still can't believe it doesn't have a spell checker and download mgr though.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: seemingly random

Originally posted by: VinylxScratches

Originally posted by: seemingly random
Why would they care what browser you use? How would they know if you loaded an additional one? Are they aware that ie is the only browser which doesn't have a spell checker?

I've had problems with ie7pro + ie8. Can't say conclusively that it's the combo but I never had problems with ie7.

Corporate standards.

This could be a lame reason.

Evidently you haven't had the pleasure of trying to keep a large fleet of FireFox-equipped computers up-to-date and configured like you want them. IE makes it easy and efficient.

I can get to the firefox page, but it looks like they blocked the download of it.

That should be your warning sign to NOT MESS WITH THE WORKSTATION'S SOFTWARE.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: seemingly random

Originally posted by: VinylxScratches

Originally posted by: seemingly random
Why would they care what browser you use? How would they know if you loaded an additional one? Are they aware that ie is the only browser which doesn't have a spell checker?

I've had problems with ie7pro + ie8. Can't say conclusively that it's the combo but I never had problems with ie7.

Corporate standards.

This could be a lame reason.

Evidently you haven't had the pleasure of trying to keep a large fleet of FireFox-equipped computers up-to-date and configured like you want them. IE makes it easy and efficient.

I can get to the firefox page, but it looks like they blocked the download of it.

That should be your warning sign to NOT MESS WITH THE WORKSTATION'S SOFTWARE.

Well I'm not really sure how it works. I got a fresh machine which only had virus scan software. I had to go to a shared folder to find all the installs for tools I needed.

 

[mulletgut]

Why not put FF portable on a USB and launch it from that?

Portable firefox

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: seemingly random
Many people might not even know there are alternative browsers. And, ie is getting better. I still can't believe it doesn't have a spell checker and download mgr though.

Your corporate IT should provide the tools that it is felt needed. If you REQUIRE anything else, put in a request and justify it.

WARNING: if this is for your convienence and not added productivity, then expect the request to be rejected.

There is ieSpell addon that works great.

 

[corkyg]

I have both FF 3.0.8 and IE8 installed on this venerable XP Pro/SP3 system. I now prefer IE8 - it loads faster and does everything I need.

The suggestion to have portable FF on a flash drive is a good one worth trying.

 

[soonerproud]

One suggestion to make IE a little better is to install IESpell.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: corkyg
I have both FF 2.0.8 and IE8 installed on this venerable XP Pro/SP3 system. I now prefer IE8 - it loads faster and does everything I need.

You may already be aware of this, but FF 2.x is now end-of-life and has an increasing number of known vulnerabilities, so it might be a good time to switch to FF3 if you want to keep a version of FireFox around.

The suggestion to have portable FF on a flash drive is a good one worth trying.

If I were the sysadmin, I'd really frown on people hauling in portable apps and adding unexpected additional attack surfaces to my systems. Best to ask first.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Install firefox and just use IE tab. The sites that wont work in firefox will work, and you get the luxery of tabbed browsing.

If they actually don't want you to use Firefox at all, then see if you can find a theme that looks like IE. Though the tabs might be hard to hide. Sadly most corporate apps are coded very crappy and will only work in IE6 so that's probably why they're forcing IE.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Install firefox and just use IE tab. The sites that wont work in firefox will work, and you get the luxery of tabbed browsing.

If they actually don't want you to use Firefox at all, then see if you can find a theme that looks like IE. Though the tabs might be hard to hide. Sadly most corporate apps are coded very crappy and will only work in IE6 so that's probably why they're forcing IE.

If you want to suggest installing/using unauthorized apps on an employer's computer, AnandTech Forums is not the place to do that.

 

[pcgeek11]

In Most places installing or using Unauthorized applications on corporate PC is grounds for immediate dismissal. At least everywhere I have been employed. And it is justified in being such. Anyone that works in IT will or should tell you the same thing. This includes applications that are run from a USB Drive as well. At my company they will fire an employee for using a non company owned USB Drive or installing non approved applications without IT authorization....

Proceed with caution! It could cost you your job.

And for Redsquirrel:

Just because you can make it appear to be something visually.... Don't even think they cannot tell what is and is not running on the corp network, this includes plugging in unauthorized devices such as USB Drives.

pcgeek11

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
)1) You may already be aware of this, but FF 2.x is now end-of-life and has an increasing number of known vulnerabilities, so it might be a good time to switch to FF3 if you want to keep a version of FireFox around. (2)If I were the sysadmin, I'd really frown on people hauling in portable apps and adding unexpected additional attack surfaces to my systems. Best to ask first.

Mea culpa - that was a typo. It is corrected to read 3.0.8. And - I totally agree about asking permission to use a personal flash drive.

 

[brandonbull]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Install firefox and just use IE tab. The sites that wont work in firefox will work, and you get the luxery of tabbed browsing.

If they actually don't want you to use Firefox at all, then see if you can find a theme that looks like IE. Though the tabs might be hard to hide. Sadly most corporate apps are coded very crappy and will only work in IE6 so that's probably why they're forcing IE.

IE + Ctrl-T = Tabbed Browsing

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: brandonbull

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Install firefox and just use IE tab. The sites that wont work in firefox will work, and you get the luxery of tabbed browsing.

If they actually don't want you to use Firefox at all, then see if you can find a theme that looks like IE. Though the tabs might be hard to hide. Sadly most corporate apps are coded very crappy and will only work in IE6 so that's probably why they're forcing IE.

IE + Ctrl-T = Tabbed Browsing

All that did was paste the last thing on my clipboard into the address bar.

I'm also talking IE 6. Hardly anyone uses 7 and 8 as they are still beta imo. No company is going to risk upgrading from 6 as most crappy apps are built on 6.

IE 8 has some potential though. They FINALLY fixed PNG transparency and possibly other things. Now they just need to get the colors right. Maybe in IE 10.

 

[Modelworks]

The problem with using a non company mandated browser is that often companies use proxy servers, and those same proxy servers can be set up to read the info from your browser that tells what browser you are using. Most places with good security policies will have a list of approved application on the network, anything else gets logged.
Example of what they would see:
http://igx.net/whatami.html


There are ways to hide that info, but if you have to hide it, then I wouldn't be using it at work.

 

[feranmIE8team]

Hi my name?s Feran and I am working with the Internet Explorer Outreach Team to help provide assistance to folks about their Internet Explorer.

As others suggested, if using Internet Explorer you may want to consider upgrading to IE8, it is a more secure and reliable version. Here are two articles reviewing IE8 security: http://www.pcworld.com/article...e8_actually_safer.html and
http://www.itworld.com/interne...ecurity-worth-download

Hope this helps you out,
Feran