MSFN Forums > My friend likes IE 3.02

MSFN Forums > Microsoft Software Products - Discussion & Support > Windows 95/98/98SE/ME

pcalvert

Jun 28 2006, 12:31 PM

A friend of mine uses IE 3.02 on Win95b for web surfing. He likes it, believe it or not. He also uses IE 6.0 on WinME for web sites that aren't viewable using IE 3.02. Here are some comments he sent me yesterday:

QUOTE

I've been using 6.x on the audio browsing machine for various and sundry
reasons.

The problems that existed with 3.02, in terms of performance and system
crashes, are pretty much the same. 3.02 handles some websites better
than 6.x (far fewer ads load in 3.02, no pop-ups, browser is passive),
and 6.x handles other websites better (loads sites that 3.02 in passive
mode simply can't handle). On the whole, it's six of one a half dozen
of another, in terms of performance.

I have noticed a whole lot more malware getting into the computer. I
run tests on Win95b running IE 3.02 and it is very very rare to find
anything bad. WinME running IE 6.x gets something bad regularly.

I know, nothing earth-shaking there, but I thought his comments were kind of interesting from a security standpoint, so I thought I'd pass them along. It's also interesting that he sees problems with IE 3.02 that are still present in IE 6.

Phil

Jlo555

Jun 28 2006, 04:52 PM

Meh, I use WMP 7.1 and IE 5.5 with no real issues. Also, the fact that he is using Windows Me does not help with the "security" situation. No hacker really cares about Windows 95 or IE 3.02 anymore.

Fredledingue

Jun 28 2006, 05:14 PM

IMO the most dangerous sites are those that require IE6+ to be viewed.
So if you switch temporarily to IE6 for some sites you'r screwed. If you don't you won't be able to watch many sites you like...

But very interresting point indeed.

pcalvert

Jun 30 2006, 12:43 PM

It seems that I omitted some details because I was unaware of them, so my posting of just an excerpt of my friend's comments was a bit misleading. The latest comments from my friend should clarify things a bit more. Here they are:

QUOTE

That's all well and good, but lacks context. IE 3.02 does not annoy
because under "Security" I turn off all of the "Active content". Also,
so far as I was able to determine, you must run Win95 to use IE 3.02.
That has it's own array of problems.

If you could strip Internet Explorer out of Win98, using Win98 Lite or
similar, then perhaps IE 3.02 would run under Win98.

IE 3.02 is ok for "passive, dumb terminal" browsing, where all you want
is content, such as news text. Even there, more and more websites add
bells and whistles that lock up IE 3.02. On the other hand, webmasters
seem to like to fix things even if they aren't broken. I've seen
websites work with IE 3.02, then not work, then work again with IE 3.02.

That being the case, I see no reason at all to use IE 3.02 since the same types of security-enhancing tweaks can be applied to later versions of IE as well. In addition, if one is going to disable ActiveX, Java, and Javascript, etc., there are web browsers available that completely lack those capabilities; one of them might be a better choice.

Phil

prx984

Jun 30 2006, 01:37 PM

i liked windows 95, didnt really hit the internet seen until about maybe 2001 or so, then i started off with IE 5 in windows 98se. i always ran 95 on my computer, (it was a Pentium 200 with 32mb of ram) and i always liked it. it was plain, simple and fast. plus, i picked it up really quickly, within 2 weeks of gettin the computer, i knew how to reload it and stuff like that. and i was 10

my first computer was a dell laptop that had a broken screen (lamp was dead and there were 2 black lines across the display. my dad cut a whole in the monitor and shaun a like in to light the display up lol) a luscious 386 20 mhz with 2 or 4 mb of ram, and a 60mb hdd WOO! fast! plus it ran 3.1, so it was boring crap for me. got it when i was 7.

Jlo555

Jun 30 2006, 10:27 PM

QUOTE

ugggghhhhhhhhhh!! *shutters*
That's pretty **** creative though. I could never imagine using a computer with those specs nowadays.

My first computer that my parents let me *have* was when I was about 5 years old. It was an absolutely awesome Apple II with a 9" screen 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" floppy drives with no hard drive. I got some great memories of that computer, I used to play Arkanoid III and Number Munchers all the time.

nicke85

Jul 3 2006, 12:21 PM

On Windows98SE and ME when tryed to uninstal IE 5.5 then you got system with IE 3.02.Try to get IEradicator.exe and do it.Your friend probably has IEradicator on WindowsME.Without IE in Windows system is more stable and faster.

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