Music sequences have been especially chosen to provide a nice, soft background as you read this report. My special thanks to those nice people who produce such beautiful music so the rest of us can enjoy.

Victor Borge Suite
a lively little number by
HAL 486

Contents.

• The Background
• Original Bulletin Article
• The problem in a Nutshell
• IE 4 Ver 4 - Input from subscribers
• IE 4 Ver 4 - What you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask!
• Closing Remarks

  The Background...

  Never has a Compuflash Bulletin item generated so much mail! Judging from the comments received, a few facts soon became clear:

  Net surfers like to try the latest application available;

  Most surfers are like me: they don't read instructions and readme files;

  The Bulletin reached many surfers 'too late'. They wished they had known beforehand;

  The Bulletin reached many surfers 'on time'. They were thankful; and finally...

  Surfers get very 'attached' to their browser of choice! Just ask me. I found out

  

  Original Article Reprint.

  For the benefit of visitors who are not subscribers to the Bulletins and might be wandering what this is all about... the following is a reprint of the Bulletin I sent to subscribers warning them of possible problems with installing the latest MS IE Ver 4 browser on their computer.

  The information contained in this bulletin was included in the forthcoming issue of the Compunews Newsletter due on Nov 1st but... due to the seriousness of it and the possibility it might prevent you from possibly crashing your hard drive, I thought it best to send it right away. It would appear that this version has the nasty habit of crashing (and I do mean: crashing) the unhappy pilgrim trying to keep up with the 'latest' in browsers. The crash does require 'reformatting' the hard drive with all its ensuing problems (re-installing 'all' applications etc etc).

  If you were one of the unlucky ones who did attempt to install that version and suffered a major crash, please send me a note. Of course, I'd be most interested to hear from anyone who might have installed it without any problem.

  By the way.... if you still insist to install Ver 4.0 and planning to reboot in 'Safe Mode', should the installation crash the computer.... don't bother trying. The installation crashes it, even in the 'Safe Mode' !!!!!

  For those interested in upgrading to the latest technology in browsers.... I have installed the latest Netscape Version 4.03 and am quite happy with the results. I will also have more info on this browser in the Nov issue of the Newsletter.

  Enough said for now.... I will have more details in the upcoming newsletter.

  

  The Problem, in a Nutshell

  After reading numerous accounts from subscribers describing their experience I had to come to the conclusion that perhaps IE Ver 4.0 might not have been to blame 'in all cases'. It would appear that it installed flawlessly on certain systems while horribly crashing others. Which leads me to beleive in the old adage that says "Don't go for the original release version; give it time to unearth the bugs".

  I will let the actual narratives of my contributors speak for themselves. I have reproduced here only the most pertinent replies. Many replies depicted identical problems and only one of each will be listed.

  My thanks to all those who took the time to share their experience with us. I will not mention the author's identities as I have not received their permission to do so.

  Input from our Correspondents

  Worked on some systems... and not on others!

  In response to your news concerning IE 4.0 I have a couple of reports for you, 1 good, 1 so so.

  My first installation of IE 4.0 was with preview version 1 which ran with only a few hiccups. This was on a Toshiba laptop with a pentium120 16meg of ram and a Chips & Technologies video card. I than installed release version2 which ran with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Then, following Microsoft's suggestion, I uninstalled IE 4.0 preview 2 and installed the final release. I have been running it for about 4 days with no problems at all.

  Now for the other system. My desktop system is a cyrix 6x86mmx-200 with 32 meg and a diamond stealth video card. Before upgrading to the new cpu, I was running a cyrix 5x86-100 and IE 4.0 preview release2 with no problem. When I upgraded the cpu I upgraded to the final release of IE 4.0 about the same time.

  I began having system lock ups and sudden re-boots which I attributed to IE 4.0 I heard from a reliable source that there was some problems with the mmx instruction set, so on a whim I swapped out video cards with my son's system. Wala, no more lock ups or re-boots. I still experienced a lot of run dll32 errors with ie 4.0 and hadn't realized why until today.

  

  If you install the release version of IE 4.0, make sure to uninstall any prior versions first. Once I cleaned out the hard drives of my main system re-installed everything (including IE 4.0 final vers.) I haven't had any problems. And by the way, I have yet to have IE 4.0 crash a drive yet. The only problem is, is once you have two different versions installed, it's impossible to tell which dll's belong to which. It's faster to make a clean slate and start over.

  Too many people rush in to use the latest things and don't stop to read the fine print. I would recommend to most people not to install a brand new product when it first hits the streets. Wait 5 to 6 weeks until the guinea pigs who have 2 or 3 systems to test stuff with (like me) have been able to find the bugs. Also if anyone wants to use IE 4.0 I would highly recommend it, especially if they are using Win95. Just be sure to read ALL the installation intructions.

  

  
  Anitra's Dance
  Seq by Hans Joachim Roeder
  With permission

  The IE 4.0 "problem" is for real.

  The following is reproduced verbatim:

  The IE 4.0 "problem" is for real.

  One correspondent informed me of the following fact:

  The Boeing Corporate I.S. organization has issued an all user alert to all their employees, telling them "NOT to download or install IE4.0. It destroys the WIN95 operating system, overwriting and destroying everything that is on the desktop. It cannot be uninstalled, and the fix to to FDisk and Fprmat c:\ /s ! Then to Reload the complete WIN95 system and start from scratch.

  Looks good but for one thing. It does not become the desktop, it overwrites it and ruins what is there. Same same but different. Thank you, Microsoft!!!

  Another 1st??? Shades of WIN95 upgrade from WIN 3.X ??!!

  No problem.... says this correspondent.

  Thought I would let you know that I am running Explorer 4 with no problems. The install went without a hitch and have not experienced any crash problems. I have WIN 95 on a 480 DX66 unit. I also run Netscape but prefer the mail client in Explorer. My only complaint is the size of the beast. I chose the standard install and it occupies an additional 55 megs on my hard drive.

  Note: No mention was made if this was a 'full' install, including the Desktop features

  Enough! says another correspondent.

  I've forwarded your message to a few who I know have had troubles with IE. I had it for awhile (3.0) just to check my pages then just got tired of it hogging my disk space and deleted it.

  I really like Netscape Communicator 4.03. It rules by far.

  

  Desktop Features = Big Trouble!!!.

  Re: IE 4

  I am on Tech Support , with our ISP and yes it is true , in the past few weeks I have had numerous complaaints from users having trouble with IE 4 .

  Above all I recommend that anyone attempting to use it DO NOT install the desktop features. BIG TROUBLE !!!!!

  The Problem and.... a solution!.

  Although IE 4.0 didn't do any of those things you have mentioned, I did have numerous GPFs as a result of installing it. Not only IE 4 crashed every 6 minutes, Netscape started doing exactly the same thing.

  If any of your readers experience a "Internet Explorer has caused a General Protection Fault in KERNEL32.DLL" I must say the fix is simpler than I've ever thought.

  9 out of 10 times the problem is caused because of desktop shortcuts. In my case, IE added a shortcut to the desktop, right next to my Netscape one. This caused the conflict mentioned above.

  THE FIX: All you have to do is drag and move one or the other to a folder of your choice. (leaving only ONE browser shortcut on the desktop)

  IE 4 has been running smoothly (and mighty fast) ever since. It now even has a chance of removing Netscape as my favorite browser.

  
  Shubert's Ave Maria
  Arr & Seq. by Michele Tornatore

  

  Closing Remarks

  A surfer's choice of browser can become, at times, a very personal and hotly defended choice. For this reason, I expected receiving a few angry letters from devoted IE fans. They have not materialized and for this, I am very proud of the Internet community. No one got fired up and all my correspondents voiced their opinion it was time this problem be made public as to prevent the unwary from experiencing problems with their system.

  I am thankful to all those who shared their experience and whether their letter was published here or not, I appreciate their input.

  
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