The One About Internet Explorer

I DON'T use Internet Explorer. And I blame Microsoft for forcing it on us by bundling it with our operating system. As if Windows is not bad enough for our PC's health, they actually bundle us with an internet browser with the worse security system.

Everyone thinks that I'm like Chicken Little crying out that the sky is falling when I told them that Internet Explorer isn't safe. Well, guess what? The sky has fallen! Here's an excerpt from a news piece written by the Associated Press.

"The 'zero-day' vulnerability, which came to light last week, allows criminals to take over victims' machines simply by steering them to infected websites; users don't have to download anything for their computers to get infected, which makes the flaw in Internet Explorer's programming code so dangerous. Internet Explorer is the world's most widely used web browser.

Thousands of websites already have been compromised by criminals looking to exploit the flaw. The bad guys have loaded malicious code onto those sites that automatically infect visitors' machines if they’re using Internet Explorer and haven't employed a complicated series of workarounds that Microsoft has suggested.

Microsoft said it has seen attacks targeting the flaw only in Internet Explorer 7, the most widely used version, but has cautioned that all other current editions of the browser are vulnerable. — AP"

See, I told you so!

So what other options do you have? Go to the Control Panel, click on Add or Remove Programs. On the left sidebar, click on Add/Remove Windows Components. When a box pops up UNCHECK Internet Explorer (and/or any other useless Windows programs that you don't use) and click Next.

1. You save computer space.
2. Your computer has lesser risk of being hack.

Of course, before you remove Internet Explorer from your PC, remember to download a new browser! Don't be stupid!

I would personally recommend Apple's Safari, it automatically spell checks everything you type, and since it's Apple technology, you know it can be trusted. Afterall, when have you heard a Mac is being infected by a virus so badly it needs to be reformated?

Other recomendations would be Opera, Mozilla's Firefox, and Google's Chrome.

If you are thinking about more options why not check out the old (but trusty) Netscape or its decendant the SeaMonkey; for those who wants to be in the loop of friend-updates but too lazy to check your Myspace + Facebook + Blogger + Gmail + Yahoo Mail + YouTube...try Flock which includes a social-networking interface; or if you're very tech-savy you might wanna go for the UNIX-based Konqueror.

Whatever you do, remember: DO NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER!!!

- jessism © 18122008 -