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I have a Sony Vaio Laptop running Windows XP. I downloaded updates from Microsoft recently and now IE 7.0 does not work (hangs up when started) and I am having trouble installing new software. I am able to browse with Firefox - Mozilla - but even with this, I cannot open PDF files on websites. Any suggestions ?
PS Narayanan
Uninstall IE7 from Add & Remove programs in the Control Panel. It will restore IE6 in the same state you last used it.
i_Xp/VistaUser
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(re)installing Adobe or Foxit will solve the Mozilla/PDF issue
also get this Firefox extension:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/636
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You could try loading a previous restore point by using System Restore, with a date and time before the updates were installed, but that won't solve all your problems.
As the others have suggested, you are better off to un-install IE 7 and go back to IE 6.
IE 7 has lots of bugs, and in addition to that there are lots of programs that haven't been re-written to accomodate IE 7 that must be to get along with it, or some have been but you must get a newer version. E.g. A problem I have seen is older versions of burning software cannot work properly if IE 7 and/or Windows Media Player 11 have been installed on the system. e.g. the burning modules of Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 or 7.5 cannot work properly.
If the product description doesn't mention the program was designed to work with IE 7, it may not work properly.
Personally I'm not going to even consider installing IE 7 until a service pack or other major updates have been made for it, and I don't intend on installing WMP 11 anytime soon either.
NOTE that after you revert to IE 6 you must go to the Microsoft Update site, let it find the default suggested updates, find the IE 7 one it bogusly lists there, and select Do not show me this update or similar, otherwise IE 7 will be installed again automatically if you select all default suggested updates, or if you have Automatic Updates turned on.Could you open pdf files previously? I doubt it.
You must have a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, or another added on program that can read pdf files, installed on your computer in order to be able to read them - there is no program built into Windows itself that does that, and brand name system original software installations may not have such a program either. Some program or device CDs have a version of Acrobat Reader available on them you can install. If you go to the Adobe web site, the current version 8 is realy huge (bloatware in my opinion) and most people don't need or use it's added features - version 7 is still huge but a lot smaller. Any Acrobat Reader version 5 and up will do, the older versions are much smaller, but you may get messages xxxx font not found in older versions when reading newer pdfs - usually the pdf is still readable because a substituted font is used.
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Speaking of ...
...IE7 has lots of bugs, and in addition to that there are lots of programs that haven't been re-written to accomodate IE7..,
M$ doesn't care. They are planning to shove WGA-free IE7 to the corporate users that uses WSUS on February 12, 2008. If you do nothing, you will be stuck. If you want to stop it from happening, read the M$KB article below to stop it now.
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...
i_Xp/VistaUser
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Thanks a lot for all the responses. i will try uninstalling IE7. The sony vaio I use is one I bought in 2000 and except for HD capacity issues, it has worked very well, till now. About 10 days ago, I let the Automatic Update run - mainly for security update fixes. Adobe had also been running without any issues with a fairly old version till then. I am an EE, so I am very sceptical about 'updates' and fixes till they have been around for some time.
PS Narayanan
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I am sure there are a lot of valid points in what have been said. But it makes me wonder why a lot of other people are running IE7 and are having no problems.
Could it be that certain software is not compatible, like one of the posters said.
Or... might there be other problems that cause conflicts? I have a "ton" of programs on this computer, along with IE7 and WMP 11, and i don't have any problems.
By the way, i do the automatic updates from MS all the time.
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"Could it be that certain software is not compatible, like one of the posters said."
As far as burning software goes, it isn't just older versions of Roxio what have problems with IE 7 and/or WMP 11. I found lots of examples on the web. A version you get free with a new optical drive is often an older version than currently avaiable.
If you don't have older versions of software on your computer that don't get along with IE 7, or WMP 11, of course you're not going to have problems related to them, but you're likely to experience the problems caused by the bugs in IE 7, sooner or later.
There have been many Microsoft Updates that have caused problems in the past. Usually whatever is wrong with them is fixed within a few days after problems have been reported to Microsoft, but if you happened to load one of those manually or automatically it can be the cause of a lot of grief. For that reason there's something significant in saying you shouldn't install brand new updates immediately as they become available.
There have been some buggy updates that are no longer listed that if you happened to have installed them in the past will cause you unforseen problems when you do certain things. E.g. There are two that were released last summer that will cause problems when you run a Repair Setup if they were installed on your computer, but they don't cause problems otherwise.
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.. you shouldn't install brand new updates immediately as they become available.
I agree with the above statement. Historically speaking, M$ gave themselves a bad reputation by rushing out fixes and also new products like Vista without adequately testing it on many machines. Most of the beta testers are not veteran geeks experienced in digging up bugs, but rather they are more of the curious type. It is always best to apply the patches at least three to five days afterward, as long as the 'net is not buzzed with blogs and articles criticizing the updates.
Regardless, M$ does have a very serious quality control problem that no one can fix. It doesn't matter to them in the absence of competitors with equal monopolistic power.
And now with the resignations of key execitives and the management reshuffling currently underway in Redmond under the new leadership of Ray Ozzie ......
i_Xp/VistaUser
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The problem went away and the Vaio started working flawlessly when I uninstalled IE7.
On reboot after uninstall, Windows displayed the message
" THE SYSTEM HAS RECOVERED FROM A SERIOUS ERROR . . .. "I cannot believe that a lot of programs stopped working when I installed IE7 !!!!
PS Narayanan
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Success! Good to hear!
I remind you, though.....
"NOTE that after you revert to IE 6 you must go to the Microsoft Update site, let it find the default suggested updates, find the IE 7 one it bogusly lists there, and select Do not show me this update or similar, otherwise IE 7 will be installed again automatically if you select all default suggested updates, or if you have Automatic Updates turned on."
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