DailyTech - Internet Explorer 7.0 Reaches 100 Million Mark

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Software Internet Explorer 7.0 Reaches 100 Million Mark
Brandon Hill (Blog) - January 15, 2007 9:31 AM

48 comment(s) - last by ghost101.. on Jan 16 at 11:47 AM

Internet Explorer makes a strong showing in its first few months on the market

Microsoft reached a milestone for its new Internet Explorer 7.0 (IE7) browser on January 8. IE7, which was released on October 18 has achieved the 100 million installations mark.

Also according to the latest browser usage figures by WebSideStory, 25% of visitors to U.S. websites were using IE7. That number is expected to grow rapidly once Windows Vista is released to consumers on January 30. IE7 is the default web browser on the three consumer-oriented versions of Windows Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate).

Firefox, always a popular browser with techies, was pulling in 10.7% U.S. marketshare as recently as December 19.

IE7 and Firefox still don’t quite have the muster to take down the perennial browser leader: Internet Explorer 6. IE6, which was first released on August 27, 2001 is still the leading browser on the market with around 62% marketshare.

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Reason: You have to download more than once.

By Jjoshua2 on 1/15/2007 11:59:08 AM , Rating: 1

I've actually had to download IE7 a couple times, because it crashes and I have to reinstall, so that shouldn't count for IE7. Firefox you only have to download once. lol

RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By HaZaRd2K6 on 1/15/2007 12:01:54 PM , Rating: 2

That's why it's 100 million installs not 100 million downloads.

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By mindless1 on 1/15/2007 6:11:14 PM , Rating: 2

Read more carefully, he wrote installs.

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By cgrecu77 on 1/15/2007 12:38:46 PM , Rating: 2

funny thing with ie7 is that it happens quite often that it kind of crahes, i.e. I get the common message "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close", but when I click on the button nothing really happens and the window stays open. All in all I find the new version slightly less stable, but very fast and I like the minimalistic interface. Being a web developer I have firefox installed too, but I never used it much for browsing so I couldn't compare the two. I only use firefox for debugging javascript and testing websites.

The problem for firefox, though, is that IE7 has everything most users need and it works well, so I think in the future it will be harder for mozilla to gain additional market share.

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By ScythedBlade on 1/15/2007 1:39:35 PM , Rating: 3

What I find troubling about IE7 is only one bug: You can't play multiple tabbed YouTube vidoes. Instead, you can only have one tabbed youtube.

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By djcameron on 1/15/07, Rating: 0

RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By Beckett on 1/15/07, Rating: 0

RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By S3anister on 1/15/07, Rating: -1

RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By bplewis24 on 1/15/2007 3:09:23 PM , Rating: 2

I had IE7 crash on me a few times in the first two weeks of the download when watching nfl gamecasts on cbs.sportsline.com. After the first two weeks it's run smoothly since then. I've only experienced maybe 2 crashes in the past few months. I wish it were possible to watch multiple tabbed youtube videos like the user above, but I can live without that. All in all it's a solid browser.

Brandon

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By MrDiSante on 1/15/2007 7:08:49 PM , Rating: 2

I've not had any outrageous browser instability since 98, but IE7 (at least for me) has been more stable than IE6. Anyhow, I used to use FF, but ever since I installed 2.0 it won't let me update (and yes I have tried reinstalling), so now I'm stuck with IE7, which isn't as bad as it may sound.

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By hubajube on 1/15/2007 8:50:47 PM , Rating: 3

Reason for the high marks is that IE7 is considered a critical update so all the millions of machines out there that have their automatic updates turned on by default will get IE7 whether they want it or not. 100 million installs doesn't surprise me one bit.

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By decapitator666 on 1/15/2007 1:11:45 PM , Rating: 2

Remarkable, far from being a fan of microsoft, I haven't had any problems with windows update or downloads with explorer since windows2000. For me it just works

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By MrSmurf on 1/16/2007 1:40:23 AM , Rating: 3

"Firefox you only have to download once. lol"

Bullshit. During 2006 I found myself downloading an updated version of Firefox every other week. I don't know what version I'm running now without looking.

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RE: Reason: You have to download more than once.

By Christopher1 on 1/16/2007 3:07:20 AM , Rating: 2

What? You've gotta be doing something wrong! I've been testing IE7 since it was first TESTING, and never have had to re-install it.

It's gotta be something wrong with your computer, I think you had better see if the hard drive is failing in your machine. I just replaced a hard drive in a laptop recently because my cousin said that his IE7 kept on getting corrupted, and I found out that the hard drive was less than 24 hours away from failing totally.

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Well Duh...

By Cuboid on 1/15/2007 12:00:50 PM , Rating: 2

Of course it's going to get over 100million downloads. The bloody thing essentially tries to forces itself on you!!!

How the hell can that be good for people. For me its too slow compared to IE6 and Firefox 2.

MS needs to do a bit more work on it in my opinion

RE: Well Duh...

By AlexWade on 1/15/2007 12:46:43 PM , Rating: 2

My experience with IE7 is that it installs itself as a critical update. So, just because you have 100 mil installs doesn't mean you have 100 mil users.

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RE: Well Duh...

By FITCamaro on 1/15/2007 3:51:05 PM , Rating: 2

How does it force itself on you? It's an update. You can choose not to install it. But why wouldn't you? Windows doesn't say "Install this or we come to your house and kill you." If you don't want to install it, you choose not to and say don't remind me about this update again. Personally I wish IE7 would roll out faster because at work where we can't have Firefox, it'd be nice to have when trying to look at multiple sources of info.

Even if you don't use IE all the time, certain pages just don't work with Firefox so you have to use IE. And which would you rather use? IE6 or IE7?

I love Firefox but I'll give it to Microsoft. IE7 is a huge improvement. It's plenty fast and does an extra half second to load a page really matter anyway? I don't sit there and time my page loads with each browser nor do I notice a difference between the two. The main advantage of Firefox 2.0 over IE7 is the plugins. I've never had IE7 crash either.

Get a grip people. Stop acting like Microsoft is this evil corporation who's aim is to come into your home while you sleep and steal your children. That would be Apple so they can have a larger workforce in China to build their iPods. :)

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RE: Well Duh...

By Christopher1 on 1/16/2007 3:11:24 AM , Rating: 2

Well, I have to agree with the MS haters that it does sorta force itself on you. It marks itself as a critical update, which you have to uncheck, something that most users will be too lazy or too stupid to do if they don't want it.

I also have to agree that some pages just don't work with Firefox. There is one website that runs a "directed downloader" check, and it automatically marks Firefox as having that (even though normally it doesn't) and won't let me go to those pages.

Crashes with IE7? No. I surf nearly 80-90 hours a week (part of my job right now) and I haven't had it crash once, except when a plugin has a problem.

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RE: Well Duh...

By marvdmartian on 1/16/2007 10:20:09 AM , Rating: 2

I agree that most MS haters over react, however......

The problem I have with IE7 is that it came out as a critical update. What's critical about a new web browser?? Honestly???

And I don't know about anyone else, but it seems that even when you tell it not to bother you anymore, with the reminders about critical updates, that MS has designed it that after a period of time, they'll STILL bring it up again! I, for one, have chosen not to install their Malicious Software Protection update, and have had to REPEATEDLY tell windows that I don't want to be reminded about it. Yet every time I'm notified about new updates, there it is again, and I have to tell windows, AGAIN, not to remind me about it!

To me, MS would've been much smarter to make both IE7 and their malicious software protection program a non-critical update. Otherwise, SURPRISE!!, all the MS-haters are going to come out and complain about it. And I'm sorry, but in this instance, they have good reason, imho.

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RE: Well Duh...

By ghost101 on 1/16/2007 11:47:43 AM , Rating: 2

Its a critical update because ie6 wont be patched anymore. Therefore, in the future it may have security liabilities which wont be fixed.

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Uhhh you guys must be FF fanbois or something

By DLeRium on 1/15/2007 3:42:53 PM , Rating: 1

I don't know how technically competent most of you are, but usually the comments here I notice are far below the knowledge level of even ATOT or definitely Gen. Hardware, and certainly below enthusiats at say OCForums or XtremeSystems.

IE7 doesn't crash, and if you have to install multiple times, you must have a really fvcked up system. Either that or you have a pirated copy of Windows (seriously, go buy a real copy).

For those of us who have no trouble installing IE7 and no trouble installing FF, I think we all know about FF 2.0's major crashing problems. Almost everytime I start it up, it asks me to recover sessions, etc. FF 2.0's crashes have been mentioned on forums, articles, pretty much everywhere. Yet I notice no one complaining about IE7's crashes until this news post.

IE7 is still not the best in terms of smooth operation, but I'll tell you it kills IE6. I use it about as much as I do FF, but that's because they're both great browers.

OH and if you complain about spyware with IE, you must be pretty sad because it's been quite a while since I've ever gotten spyware through IE. If you simply use SP2 and maybe another popup blocker say google toolbar, nothing should be getting through.

So I don't get why anyone even whines that FF is the security browser to use. More like it's the browser fewer people use so programmers don't target spyware and stuff towards FF. And please, IE7 has a lot more security features than FF.

RE: Uhhh you guys must be FF fanbois or something

By mindless1 on 1/15/2007 6:16:39 PM , Rating: 2

"OH and if you complain about spyware with IE, you must be pretty sad because it's been quite a while since I've ever gotten spyware through IE. If you simply use SP2 and maybe another popup blocker"

So let's ponder this a moment, we're not supposed to be concerned or say anything about needing a service pack and another popup blocker instead of having the app work right in the first place? Sad is not recognizing that we shouldn't have to do those things to fix a problem.

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RE: Uhhh you guys must be FF fanbois or something

By Ringold on 1/16/2007 12:36:04 AM , Rating: 2

Amen.

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RE: Uhhh you guys must be FF fanbois or something

By Christopher1 on 1/16/2007 3:14:53 AM , Rating: 2

Well, Firefox 2.0 doesn't have any crashing problems that I can see, that IE7 doesn't have as well.

I recently went to one technical website, and both IE7 and Firefox crashed on it. Turned out that there was a virus-laden flash in it, and they had to fix that.

I also have to agree about the "Spyware" issue. I haven't had ONE spyware application install itself on my system since downloading IE7. Not one, and I go to some pretty 'iffy' websites sometimes (hard-core porn and Warez).

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FF + adds-on = miles past IE7

By armagedon on 1/15/2007 7:28:00 PM , Rating: 1

I don't know how many people take the time to look at the wealth of FF add-ons. Some of them are just superb and a couple really ahead of anything i saw. You can make yourself a perfect browser by using those.

Try those for examples:
CoolIris previews
Firefox showcase.
and this not much usefull but cool special effect; Tab Effect.

RE: FF + adds-on = miles past IE7

By armagedon on 1/15/2007 8:28:08 PM , Rating: 2

I went through the 2100 add-ons and this my pick, if anyone is interested.

The Avant-garde;

Tab Effect
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4258/
Firefox Showcase
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1810/
Coolris
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2207/

The Classics
------------------------
AdBlock Plus:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
IE Tab
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/
NoSCRIPT
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/722/

What FF 3.0 should include:
------------------------------------------
Duplicate Tabs
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/28/
Map This
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1886/
MileWideback
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/334/
Undo closed Tabs
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3082/
LocationBar
URL Link
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/403/

The neat improvements:
-------------------------------
LocationBar
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4014/
Fission
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1951/
Highlight ALL
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4240/
NoGo buttons
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3472/
Location bar
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4014/
Dictionaries switcher
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3414/

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RE: FF + adds-on = miles past IE7

By armagedon on 1/15/2007 8:31:41 PM , Rating: 2

Oops !
Location bar
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4014/

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RE: FF + adds-on = miles past IE7

By PrinceGaz on 1/16/2007 8:24:13 AM , Rating: 2

You mean you actually had time left to surf the web after installing all those add-ons? :p

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GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

By RyanHirst on 1/15/2007 1:29:25 PM , Rating: 1

Freakin' poo-peddling poopy poo heads! And other exasperated-but-not obscene words!

IE7 installed ITSELF as a mandatory update for windows. Screwed up my F@H client's ability to upload data, almost every interactive Java applet now crashes IE, and THEY SCREWED UP MY TOOLBAR LAYOUT!

You know, when you get something JUST RIGHT, the way you like it and then someone comes along and just poops all over it? And then makes grand statements about the increased flexibility of their product?

Yay. Explorer is now the ONLY WindowsXP window anywhere on my computer which displays the path bar ABOVE the file menu and does not permit you to put it back where it belongs;
it REFUSES to let me collapse toolbars into fewer strips.

Boo to you Microsoft. Boo to Captain pissy pants.

Um.
Yeah.
Hope the security is better.
Yay.

RE: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

By DLeRium on 1/15/2007 5:10:33 PM , Rating: 2

Ok, sorry but people who always complain like this really suck. IE7 installed itself? Are you a newb or what? You let automatic updates install everything for you?

Seriously, learn to use your computer before you complain about a program like this.

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RE: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

By Nekrik on 1/16/2007 5:42:38 AM , Rating: 2

LOL, nice post.

Makes you wonder how many other 'nefarious' apps are installing themselves on all these computers that have had IE7 forced upon them :).

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ya, ya IE7

By zbeast on 1/15/2007 3:43:23 PM , Rating: 2

I didn't not download IE7 it downloaded itself.
The only reason I would ever run any version of IE is because.
some of microsoft's websites require that you use it.
Soon as that stress filled event is over.
I quit it and go back to using FireFox.
It's real easy to get "downloads" if you add the ie7 as a mandatory download.
I'm sure that about 45% of those downloads were re-downloads as the first time IE7 tried to install itself as part of MS's weekly system exploits patches it crashed my computer.
So not IE6 or IE7 would run.

RE: ya, ya IE7

By Scrogneugneu on 1/15/2007 8:55:56 PM , Rating: 2

I didn't not understand much of what you said.
I think the reason why is because.
Some of your sentences are cut right in the middle.
Soon as I got this.
I restarted and got it much better.
It's really easy to write in English when you try for real.
I'm sure that you could have a very good English if you only did try to write correctly and use a better grammar.
So not post like that again.

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bleh

By sadffffff on 1/15/2007 5:22:40 PM , Rating: 2

i had IE7 installed for about an hour.

1st the menu bar crap. fixed it with a registry change

2nd the built in search box that i didnt want. removed with registry

3rd the navigation buttons are in 3 different locations...cant move them to where theyre supposed to be...top left, like every other browser. so it got uninstalled

i'll use IE6 till i upgrade to vista. hopefully by then there will be some way to move the navigation buttons

RE: bleh

By INeedCache on 1/15/2007 7:36:28 PM , Rating: 2

I do agree there should be flexibility as far as where the navigation buttons can be. But what is this "where they're supposed to be" stuff? They simply aren't where you'd like them or used to them being. If you want to complain about the lack of flexibility of where you can move the buttons to, fine, that has merit. The "where they're supposed to be" stuff is total garbage. You appear to be much too rigid in your thinking (i.e. "...like every other browser."). Fortunately, not everyone else is. We have five computers using IE7, and none of our users have had problems or complaints, nor have I. This includes installation issues, of which there were none. I can only assume that you people having lots of problems either have screwed-up computers, or you really don't know what you are doing. IE7 does NOT install by itself. You may have automatic updates checked, and it may download automatically, but you have the choice whether to install it or not. If you don't realize that, or don't know how to do it, that's not Microsoft's fault, it's yours as a user. People need to take a little more responsibility for their actions instead of blaming everything on someone else. There are other good browsers out there, but none is perfect. Yet, there are some that seem to think anything less than perfection from Microsoft means their stuff is garbage. Meanwhile it's OK for other browsers to have faults. That's called hypocrisy, folks, and it's not a good thing.

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Internet Explorer 7 is ugly

By xNIBx on 1/16/2007 3:05:32 AM , Rating: 2

Internet Explorer(ie) is so ugly that a friend of mine uninstalled it once he saw how it looked. He is now using firefox+ie tab and sometimes just ie 6. I use ff only.

But seriously, ie7 has the ugliest interface ever. The disappearing file menu is a nice idea, the zoom in is also nice but generally ie 7 is far inferior to firefox. The only reason for someone to use ie, is ignorance imo. He/she just dont know about firefox.

With firefox, you can even render pages through the ie engine with the ie-tabs extension. So if some site needs ie, you can use ie through the firefox interface.

RE: Internet Explorer 7 is ugly

By Christopher1 on 1/16/2007 3:16:47 AM , Rating: 2

Wrong. Frankly, I use both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7. I like Internet Explorer better than Firefox.

The only thing I don't like about IE 7, is that it has no directed downloaders that are up to snuff made for it thus far.

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I hope.....

By umerok on 1/15/2007 12:09:39 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
IE7 is the default operating system on the three consumer-oriented versions of Windows Vista

Web Browser, not Operating System

RE: I hope.....

By mforce2 on 1/15/2007 9:10:53 PM , Rating: 2

Well given how well "integrated" IE is in Windows you could easily make that mistake.
The truth is Windows = IE for most people. Few of them bother to get and install Firefox or Opera. But still some do, I do it just because I don't like having IE. I got so used to FF that I have a hard time using IE anyway.
While IE is the leader of the Windows browsers let's not forget MS doesn't bother making IE for OS X , not to mention Linux. I think that's where Firefox, Opera and Safari dominate and will continue to grow as the market share of Linux and OS X continues to grow.

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I assumed

By frobizzle on 1/15/2007 1:19:26 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Internet Explorer 7.0 Reaches 100 Million Mark

I thought they meant 100 million (known) bugs! Silly me!

RE: I assumed

By jeffmilwak on 1/15/2007 3:21:38 PM , Rating: 1

ROFL!

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Um not hard...

By Nik00117 on 1/15/2007 12:22:33 PM , Rating: 2

Ok you can get IE7 in a update from microsoft in fact you have to have a tad bit of technical knowledg ehow to stop it (most poeple will just click next not cancel and then never offer this update again)

Either way its not a very impressive feat... FF has over 10% of the market share, yet its not included in the most widely used OS on the planet now is it?

Works fine for me

By Ringold on 1/15/2007 12:46:04 PM , Rating: 2

I switched back from FF due to better compatibility. It renders things incorrectly in strange places at times, but no more so than FF did, and it does it in places that are less important, not in my online banking sites like FF refused to render correctly.

It's about equally liable to crash as FF typically is, and doesn't have the run-away RAM usage that FF still does to me after it's been open a day or two.

I recognize it's possibly not the most secure browser in pr0n browsing, but then again, only a n00b looks for porn in IE.

I see no reason to hate it; it practically comes down to a matter of style and opinion.

Wow

By allst1 on 1/15/2007 12:46:21 PM , Rating: 2

They decided to modify the browser and a few features bravo, but why Oh why did you have to change the default interface, (yes I know you can restore the buttons panel via a registry tweak) but common, doesn't anyone at Microsoft use Firefox??
How feature less an update is that from the heavyweight giants. Even the small companies creating they mini applications have more functionality and plugins than IE7.

You had to download a plugin to do what Firefox does when you press CTRL+F. How lame is that??

Atleast they got Tabs working, bad shortcut combinations.
Bah firefox steals the day and your memory. :)

---------
allst1

Internet Explorer is a finicky browser.

By vdig on 1/15/2007 12:55:50 PM , Rating: 2

My personal experiences with IE7 is that when it works, it works fairly well. However, after somewhere between two weeks to two months (per install, from time of install), the browser simply stops displaying any pages whatsoever. Meanwhile, Firefox continues to work, even as I experience the IE7 problem.

The only solution I have had so far was to uninstall and then re-download and re-install IE7. After that, the program once again works. I hesitate to use Firefox to browse to MS's knowledge base for IE7. It just feels wrong. ;)

Don't be fooled...

By bunnyfubbles on 1/15/2007 4:34:21 PM , Rating: 2

I've downloaded AND installed IE7, if only because there are STILL broken websites out there that only play nice with IE.

I easily use Fire Fox the vast majority of the time (upper 90%), but that doesn't mean I'm free from IE.

what about opera?

By Serp86 on 1/15/2007 5:04:54 PM , Rating: 2

I have tried all the browsers out there on varying connection speeds and for me opera takes the win - it's fast, stable and doesn't consume much resources. It's much better than firefox and ie6, imo.

IE7 is fast, but i have a lot of stability issues with it. Anyone tried watching a video from one of the live messenger links? IE7 crashes just after the advertisement movie. Haven't seen it happening on my frien d's installation - just mine, oddly enough.

A bit of a Giggle...

By Felofasofa on 1/15/2007 9:26:38 PM , Rating: 2

I would have thought most readers on this site would have auto updates set to "inform me, but don't download", so it's somewhat funny to hear of people getting IE7 when they didn't want it.
My web-browsing machine is an old PII-400 with 320meg of ram (I just can't bring myself to retire it yet) I have no problems with IE7 but mainly use FF2.0, again without probs. Correctly patched and maintained it runs fine. Small footprint security software like Nod32 and Outpost32 work well and nasties are very rare.