I recently made the mistake of upgrading my IE to version 9. Bad mistake.
Not only do I find it to be laid out very poorly, there are fewer tools to customize the appearance and/or the functionality. In addition, with IE9 I cannot reply to quoted posts on the Trains forum, and I also have difficulties on other web sites as well.
I have since installed Google Chrome, which seems to work much better.
While I was working, my employer tried to migrate all users to Windows NT from 95/98. I managed to avoid it, going direct to Win2K when that migration occured. I know I avoided a bunch of headaches.
I’ve found the same thing with some Windows Office applications - tools I used to use on a regular basis are gone, and new tools made standard/automatic tend to be a hindrance rather than a help.
Newer isn’t always better.
I have IE9 and it works just fine. Some older sites like this one have compatibility issues. If you find one that does, just click on the icon at the right end of the address bar that looks like a torn piece of paper. That will cure it.
Actually I own a web design company, and I can say that Internet Explorer is definitely the problem child of all web browsers - that torn piece of paper Phoebe Vet was referring to is called compatibility mode, what Kalmbach should actually do is tell their web designers to put in the IE 8 meta tag into the forums that way compatibility mode will run by default and with no need for any user input, it’s a very quick fix to make sure the site runs well on IE 9.
Installed IE9 on my lap top…it seemed to cause it to Blue Screen Crash several times…went back to IE8.
Yes, that is probably the problem with posting replies. Same problem with several other web sites I visit. Setting IE-9 to “Compatibility Mode” for those web sites has cured all those problems for me.
I realize that the “Compatibility” icon is SUPPOSED to look like a torn piece of paper, but it certainly does NOT look like one to ME. It looks more like a double mountain range to me.
The icon is the 1st of 3 to the right of the text box where the website URL is displayed (where you would type one in, too). The other two are the “Chasing arrows” (“Refresh”) icon and the “Red X” (“Stop”) icon.
When you click that icon, the page will refresh and the icon will turn a bit “greener” than before; which for me is very hard to tell whether it is enabled or not. I sometimes have to click the icon a couple of times to see it change from a grayer color to the greener color, before I know in which mode the web site is being handled. The Greener color mode is when “Compatibility Mode” is enabled.
You only need to enable the mode once for any web site for all pages of that web site to be handled in Compatibility Mode. So once you are on ANY page of A web site, you can enable the mode and IE-9 will handle all pages from THAT site that way; and IE-9 will remember the setting for the next time you visit THAT site. You do have to enable it again when you go to a completely different web site that needs it.
There may be some sites that will not work properly in Compatibility Mode, so don’t just automatically enable it when you go to a new site, but
I have IE9 on my new Dell laptop.
It works just fine and I’ve had no issues at all using it.
Im fact, I believe that it works much better than IE8.
[quote user=“Semper Vaporo”]
Phoebe Vet:
I have IE9 and it works just fine. Some older sites like this one have compatibility issues. If you find one that does, just click on the icon at the right end of the address bar that looks like a torn piece of paper. That will cure it.
Yes, that is probably the problem with posting replies. Same problem with several other web sites I visit. Setting IE-9 to “Compatibility Mode” for those web sites has cured all those problems for me.
I realize that the “Compatibility” icon is SUPPOSED to look like a torn piece of paper, but it certainly does NOT look like one to ME. It looks more like a double mountain range to me.
The icon is the 1st of 3 to the right of the text box where the website URL is displayed (where you would type one in, too). The other two are the “Chasing arrows” (“Refresh”) icon and the “Red X” (“Stop”) icon.
When you click that icon, the page will refresh and the icon will turn a bit “greener” than before; which for me is very hard to tell whether it is enabled or not. I sometimes have to click the icon a couple of times to see it change from a grayer color to the greener color, before I know in which mode the web site is being handled. The Greener color mode is when “Compatibility Mode” is enabled.
You only need to enable the mode once for any web site for all pages of that web site to be handled in Compatibility Mode. So once you are on ANY page of A web site, you can enable the mode and IE-9 will handle all pages from THAT site that way; and IE-9 will remember the setting for the next time you visit THAT site. You do have to enable it again when you go to a completely different web site that needs it.
And that may be part of the secret - Windows programs in particular seem to get bigger with each iteration, making it difficult to run them on older machines that may not have the necessary computing power and memory to deal with them.
My home computer is actually set up for gaming - my laptop is not. I can tell the difference even during “normal” computing.
You’re absolutely right Larry.
I still use Windows XP on my home desktop computer. As a result I use IE8.
Man I hate IE9 came with my POS computer. However my admin will not let me Download google or Firfox so I am Screwed.
Thank you very much! I have been using this technique over the weekend to clear up problems I had been having all over the place. Has this one suggestion ever made my life simpler.
Bruce
I’m running Windows 7 and IE8, and it also has that torn piece of paper for “compatibility mode.”
I had a similar problem posting replies on this site with IE8 until I downloaded the Windows 7 XP Mode patch from Microsoft’s web site.
Quite a few people have warned me about IE9 so I won’t let automaitc update install it. One person said it puts a menu bar down the left side of your screen for links to Twitter, Facebook, and other sites and that you can’t get rid of it.
Better than Internet Explorer: Use Firefox
Best of all: Get a Mac
[:D]
I normally use Firefox. But I could not figure out how to copy “hot links” into my posts, so when I needed to do that I used IE8. Then when the IE9 upgrade came along, the whole TRAINS discussion site went wonky until I found out about compatibility mode. I have had no problem with menu bars. I just disable the ones I don’t want. It doesn’t matter whether they are above the page or on the side or whatever.
Bruce
This computer is running “Windows 7” with “IE 9”. Smooth and powerful! If you are upgrading an older computer to “Windows 7” you might need more RAM than was installed, 2 gig minimum for “7”, 3 gig is better, this computer has 8 gig.
Beware, most programs run “32 bit”, most new computers run “64bit” or have both versions. Some programs such as links to “U Tube” require “Flashplayer” to run. Adobe is late in developing a 64 bit Flashplayer, but, they will let you download a Beta Test version of “64 bit Flashplayer”. I have had no problems with it.
Remember to turn on windows “Compatibility Mode”.
I cannot find the above-mentioned icon anywhere, nor can I find anywhere in the settings to make it appear; any suggestions? (BTW, I’m using Win7)
To quote my own post on page 1 of this thread…
I realize that the “Compatibility” icon is SUPPOSED to look like a torn piece of paper, but it certainly does NOT look like one to ME. It looks more like a double mountain range to me.
The icon is the 1st of 3 to the right of the text box where the website URL is displayed (where you would type one in, too). The other two are the “Chasing arrows” (“Refresh”) icon and the “Red X” (“Stop”) icon.
When you click that icon, the page will refresh and the icon will turn a bit “greener” than before; which for me is very hard to tell whether it is enabled or not. I sometimes have to click the icon a couple of times to see it change from a grayer color to the greener color, before I know in which mode the web site is being handled. The Greener color mode is when “Compatibility Mode” is enabled.
You only need to enable the mode once for any web site for all pages of that web site to be handled in Compatibility Mode. So once you are on ANY page of A web site, you can enable the mode and IE-9 will handle all pages from THAT site that way; and IE-9 will remember the setting for the next time you visit THAT site. You do have to enable it again when you go to a completely different web site that needs it.
I had actually tried all of that, but most of what you described was mot showing on my screen. I must have done something in a setting somewhere. I’ll keep trying.
To all those that replied with suggestions: thanks!