kwik geekery

[realthog]

A few days ago I installed IE8, as those friendly folk at Microsoft had been imploring me to do, and promptly all my web-browsing activities became like wading through molasses. Definitely there were some new features I liked, but . . .

So I tried doing a System Restore to get me back to IE7. The net result of this was that I lost web access entirely. Further, I couldn't even undo the System Restore because to do that involves going through Help, and Microsoft's Help is idiotically idiotically idiotically (did I remember to say it's idiotic?) web-bloody-based, so if you don't have web access you can't effing well . . .

You're there ahead of me, aren't you?

Anyway, darling pds_litvery kindly used her Mac and some googling to get me a download of IE7, which I duly installed. The installation did not in fact install IE7 -- it'd be too much to expect a Microsoft product to do what it says on the packet, wouldn't it? -- but it did install enough of something to allow me to access Help and thereby undo my System Restore.

Finally, I was back on the web, but with slow-as-molasses IE8. Even slower now, if anything.

"Oh, dearie me," I think I might have said in the heat of the moment.

So I did some googling of my own and discovered this. Naturally I was a bit sceptical at first -- the blogger says he himself isn't quite sure why his tweak works -- but I did some cross-checking elsewhere and discovered that for some folk it worked while for others it at least had no adverse effects.

Reader, I'm going to marry him. Well, only if we can get married in Texas or Kentucky. The effect is (to date, at least) astonishing. As far as I can establish, which is difficult when you have so many fingers crossed, everything is now working quicker than it was under IE7.

Anyway, the point of this posting is, obviously, that if you've found the same extraordinary sluggishness with IE8 that I did, Ed Bott's tweak is well worth a try. Thank you, Mr Bott, whoever and wherever you are!

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Might I be so bold as to suggest Firefox?

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

Will we be calling you "Missus Bott" sometime in the near future? Oh, dearie me . . .

I shan't be downloading IE8; thank you very much for the warning, dearie.

LOL! I can see you now, wrestling with the funky Explorer 8.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Huh. I use IE8 at work (goddamn company policy won't let me use a browser with keyboard shortcuts I already know) and it's been faster than IE7. But then again, we have uber-fast internet and a very close connection to The Source of All Internet (in Cleveland, at least) so I may just be lucky. I was SO HAPPY when IE7 introduced tabbed browsing, though. Made my life so much simpler.

I use Firefox at home. Or Epiphany. Or Midori. I tried Chrome once; it was kind of fun but not worth switching. There's also a 'port of Firefox called Iceweasel, which I find amusing, although I haven't used it.

[pds-lit.livejournal.com]

""Oh, dearie me," I think I might have said in the heat of the moment."

I can assure you that these were not the words! LOL!