If you’ve read some of my previous articles on this blog; then you’ll be well aware of my utter distaste for and loathing of Internet Explorer 6. – That’s not Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as a whole: I have nothing against Internet Explorer – (Although as we’ll go on to see, all versions of Internet Explorer appear to be riddled with seen and unseen security-holes.) although I don’t use it anymore. (I used to use IE7 a lot, but now I’ve converted to FireFox since 2008.) – I’m talking only of Internet Explorer 6 here: Webmasters hate it, designers and developers hate it.

People still use it though.

I believe those using IE6 are either XP-using corporate environments with a lazy IT department, (That means almost all corporate environments: There are very few IT departments that do a decent job; mainly because the company won’t finance them to do more than the bare minimum in most cases.) or totally indifferent XP users whose attitude is pretty much : –

“It works as it is; so there’s no reason to change it.”

They installed the IE6 browser as the default browser that came packaged as part of XP, and have been using it ever since. Although there are versions 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer freely available on the internet, as well as a whole host of other compatible browsers, all of which work well with XP; these indifferent users either don’t have the where-with-all to be able to upgrade a browser, or they simply can’t be bothered, or both.

Well, you crap-browser-using die-hards; here’s a reason to upgrade to Internet Explorer version 8, or better still, FireFox: -

Security firm Symantec have, some days ago, discovered a new zero-day Internet Explorer exploit that affects versions 6 and 7 of Internet Explorer.

Symantec’s advice is as follows: -

“The exploit targets a vulnerability in the way Internet Explorer uses cascading style sheet (CSS) information. CSS is used in many Web pages to define the presentation of the sites’ content. Symantec currently detects the exploit with the Bloodhound.Exploit.129 antivirus signature and is working on new signatures now. Symantec IPS protection also currently detects this exploit with signatures HTTP Microsoft IE Generic Heap Spray BO and HTTP Malicious Javascript Heap Spray BO. A new IPS signature, HTTP IE Style Heap Spray BO, has also been created for this specific exploit. To minimize the chances of being affected by this issue, Internet Explorer users should ensure their antivirus definitions are up to date, disable JavaScript and only visit Web sites they trust until fixes are available from Microsoft.”

Disabling JavaScript will render most of the web sites you use unusable. – Do yourself a favour and either upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, but according to this article from h-online.com, even IE8 has a glaring security hole. – So do the best thing and install FireFox, and make it your default browser.

I’m not alone.

Just to prove that I’m not embarking on a single-handed-crusade against Internet Explorer 6, I’ll quote another webmaster, Rich Menga, from the page on his blog called ‘Screw XP (computer geekery)’ : -

“…there are still morons out there that still run that browser. And yes, if you use IE 6, you’re a moron because that browser has more holes in it than Swiss cheese…”

“…IE 6 users only account for a very small fraction of my [Rich Menga’s] visitors. From a web design point of view, you have no idea how annoying it is to make sure things work in IE 6…”

“…screw IE 6 users because I’m not going to accommodate for that craptastic browser anymore…”

“XP users don’t bother me, but writing about it and designing for IE 6 does…”

“…IE 6 is well known to be one of the worst web browsers ever and is positively ancient. It was superseded THREE YEARS AGO by IE 7 and that was superseded eight months ago by IE 8.”

- Rich Menga; shooting straight from the hip in his usual style.

So, once again, I say that it is in your best interests, if you are an Internet Explorer user, and particularly if you are a user of IE6, to start using another browser.

Piece of Cake.

There really is no big deal to it: All you need to do is visit a page on which you can get another browser, – there is a listing of four of those in the section of this site called “Get Yourself a Better Browser Today” – download the .exe file, run it, and make that browser your default browser. – It really is that simple.

For the sake of web-developers, progress, and for your own sake too, I suggest that you make a start now.

More than 1/3 of my visitors are still using IE6! – Sometimes I ask myself: Am I wasting my time writing this blog; just for a lot of people to totally ignore the advice that I give? – It’s like pulling teeth!

I’ll spell it out very simply: -

Web developers are no longer bothering to include the complicated special extra coding necessary to get IE6 to display the page properly. – That includes popular sites such as You Tube, as well as many others.

Internet Explorer 6, despite being the default browser that ships with XP, is probably the worst browser anyone can possibly use. You would be well advised to use FireFox instead.

(All of the Internet Explorer versions are security nightmares to a certain extent; IE6 especially so.)

You will hardly ever be able to display a webpage 100% properly using IE6. – That includes pages from this blog as well.