Microsoft has released version 7 of its popular web browser, and is pushing it out via its Automatic Update service. Should you install it, or decline? At least for now? We take a look at the question.
Why is installing IE7 any different than installing earlier versions?
First things first. I personally love Internet Explorer 7, but since this isn’t a review of the product (you can see one here) I won’t go into all of its features. Suffice it to say there are many, and some that will completely change the way you browse the web.
That said, I have some real problems with the way that Microsoft released this product to the masses. In a normal release cycle (at least all prior release cycles anyway) there wouldn’t have been much need for this article. Most articles dealing with ‘should I install it?’ were only focused on what you would gain from the features, i.e. was it a better product, what would it allow web developers to do now that they couldn’t before, etc., etc. Unfortunately that is not the case this time. Yes, there are great new features. But there are also some issues that are going to cause users, and especially owners of existing websites, some problems. There are such drastic changes in feature sets, and the product rollout is being done so quickly that most owners and developers of websites are left holding the bag. There simply wasn’t enough time between the final release candidate of IE7 and the actual release of the product to consumers for them to have fully tested their websites. One of the major reasons for this is that Microsoft is including the new web browser in its “Automatic Updates” feature as a ‘Critical Update’. Which means that virtually everyone will be offered the installation pro-actively. So you need to know what you’re getting into before you say “yes”.
Never before have we had a situation when a newly released product will become so widely used in such a short period of time. It should be noted that none of this is specifically Microsoft’s fault. They provided early versions of the product for testing, and all web developers and site owners could have easily done so. But that’s not really the way the world works, especially in the SMB marketplace. I’m pretty sure that the owner of “Joe’s Window Cleaners” never thought that when he had that website built last year by the small firm down the street that he would need to stay on top of the latest trend in web browsers, much less need to revise his site and spend more money just because a new web browser came out that doesn’t work well with his website. Still, there are areas of ‘backwards compatibility’ that one expects to be covered….and in some instances, particularly the handling of certain scripting languages, that compatibility took a back seat to insuring better security. So wherever you decide to place the blame, from a users perspective you should just know that for a while at least some of your favorite websites may act a little funny.
Quit your jabbering, just tell me if I should I install it or not?
If you are a home computer user, and reading this, you can stop now. Go ahead and install IE7 (instructions on how to do so are at the end of the article).
This article is targeted at business users, particularly small and medium business users. Why is there a difference in the size of the business? Because the types of websites you use for business are typically different than the home user, the environment in which the software runs is usually different, and it is likely that you have your own websites externally and internally that you have to include in your decision process. But the biggest reason is that most small and many medium business users have the ability to install IE7 if they want, in a large organization that choice would be mandated.
So if you are a business user, particularly those in a small or medium business, you will want to follow the following few steps to insure your experience with IE7 is a positive one:
The 12 6-Step Program
- First, if you have multiple computers you should only install it on one of your business computers. And then use that computer for testing the following steps. I recommend not installing on the rest of the machines for a couple of months to insure that there has been enough opportunity to find any issues on the machine running IE7. Once you have confirmed that IE7 is ok for your environment then you can move on to installing it on the rest of the machines.
- Do you have your own websites? Whether a public site or an internal intranet you will want to go through every page, function, and feature of your existing website(s). You need to verify that you receive no errors when using IE7 (at least no errors that you weren’t already receiving with IE6 anyway). If you have errors you need to inform your web developer so that the error can be resolved, providing them with the specific location of the error would be helpful and save time. If you have an eCommerce website you should go through the complete checkout process, especially any parts of the website which use a secure certificate (e.g. https://). IE7 handles security errors very differently, and more diligently, than prior versions but this can cause a problem for you if not handled.
- Do you use Quickbooks in your business? You should know that only Quickbooks 2006 Release 8, and Quickbooks 2007 are currently working correctly with IE7. If you have any other version you should hold off on installing IE7 (at least on the computer(s) that use Quickbooks) until you have upgraded your Quickbooks, or Intuit has provided a fix. You can find info and links for IE7 and Quickbooks here.
- Do you use Microsoft’s Small Business Server (SBS) on your company network? You should keep in mind that while everything ‘works’ just fine, there is an issue when using the Remote Web Workplace (RWW) and Outlook Web Access (OWA) due to the way that IE7 handles security certificates differently than its predecessor. You can find instructions for dealing with the error page, and any other issues specific to SBS and IE7 after you’ve upgraded here .
- If you are a prolific user of creating shortcuts/icons on your desktop that link to various websites (or some of your applications have created them for you) be aware that they may not work the way you are used to. In particular you may find that the icons have changed, that the links won’t open IE7, etc. There have been various related bugs since the Beta releases that are still around in the final release unfortunately. But in many cases the issues can be worked around.
- If you use web based applications as a critical part of your business be sure and test every one of them on IE7 prior to upgrading every computer in the company. Many companies don’t think they use websites that much, but the reality may be different. In particular you might use a banking site for checking your account balances, a brokerage site for your stocks, a support site like this one for submitting help requests, web based email sites, etc., etc. You should pay particular attention to web based CRM applications, they seem to have been hit the hardest. In general, the more complex the website is the more likely there will be issues as many of the changes took place in the realms of security and the handling of JavaScript. The good news is that you can roll back the installation if you find that something you really need just doesn’t work, and website owners will eventually make their sites compatible with IE7.
Additional Information and Sources
How to install IE7:
If you have Automatic Updates turned on, and most of us do, one way is to not do anything and just wait for it to eventually come to you. And don’t worry, it will ask for your approval once it’s ready to install - To manually install it you can download directly from Microsoft here
- Note that the IE7 setup will preserve your current toolbars, home page, search settings, and favorites and will not change your choice of default browser.
How to block the automatic installation of IE7
Information about IE7
- Quick Tour of the product
- IE7 Features
- Handy Quick Reference Sheet that you can print out that includes shortcut keys, ‘how to do…’, etc.
- System Requirements: Internet Explorer 7 will run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Any machine with the recommended amount of memory for Windows (for example, 128 MB for Windows XP and 256 MB for Windows XP Professional x64) will meet the memory requirements for Internet Explorer 7
Cheers,
Matt Ridings – MSR Consulting
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xp November 30th, 2006
As the quantity and importance of data that organizations generate grows, the process of backing it up becomes increasingly difficult. Magnetic tape, long considered the de facto backup solution, no longer satisfies the demanding service levels required for many backup and recovery environments. Shrinking backup windows, increased demands for immediate data recovery, and inherent reliability problems associated with tape are driving interest in new backup solutions.
On December 6, 2006, the editors of Ziff Davis Media, Network Appliance, Symantec and top Forrester analyst, Stephanie Belaouras will review, research and examine issues facing customers globally and offer recommendations for deploying backup and recovery solutions. Attend this live, interactive Virtual Tradeshow for a comprehensive look at key concerns shared by your peers and the backup and recovery and the solutions they are deploying.
While not specifically SBS oriented, the principles of course are the same no matter what system you’re using so there should be something of value for all of us.
Register today and explore:
- Key challenges facing customers globally around backup and recovery.
- How other companies are integrating disk- based technologies within traditional tape backup environments in the data center and remote offices.
- What disk-to-disk technologies are being adopted and why.
- The best evaluation criteria for comparing backup and recovery solutions for your specific environment.
- User stories on successfully deploying the latest generation of disk to disk backup solutions.
November 27th, 2006
The Overview:
As most of you know we really liked the original REV drives a lot, but couldn’t give them a hearty recommendation simply because we felt that the cost was a bit high compared with other options out there. You may also know that one of the issues we are very focused on is finding a great product option for SMB’s (particularly those running Microsoft SBS) to have when it comes to reliable, flexible, and simple data backups and restoration.
Now, Iomega has released the second generation of its tape-battling desktop autoloader, promising 560GB of automated hard disk-based backup capability for small business servers. That certainly piqued our interest seeing as how configuring backup solutions for Small Business Servers is one of our main tasks, not to mention we have a custom fireproof/waterproof casing in the works for external drives that will be made available in 2007. We skipped over the Iomega autoloader as an option to go in our casings last time due to its storage limitations, but with 560 Gig we may have to revisit that thinking.
The Pitch:
The REV Loader 560 uses removable hard drive technology to stack eight, 70GB drives into a 18×13 cm disaster recovery box. Native storage is 560GB, however, with compression you should see larger numbers than that depending on the type of data you are backing up (technically up to 1.12TB max).
Connecting to a server via USB 2.0 ports, Iomega claims that its autoloader is dramatically faster than tape-based automation devices with up to 30MB/sec data transfer rates with random access capability, or up to 10 times faster than DAT-72. 
Iomega says that the REV Loader enables small business to deploy an automated backup device without having to subject themselves to the costs and complexities that can be part and parcel with automatic tape-based solutions. To further push the REV as a backup and disaster recovery device, every unit comes with a license for CA BrightStor ARCserve Backup for Windows (r11.5) which includes support for disaster recovery. Which won’t do our clients a lot of good as we deploy Backup Exec as our standard, but a lot of you out there using the built in backup tools of SBS might find it handy.
“The REV Loader 560 delivers the speed and convenience of a hard drive with the advanced backup protection of removable media in an automated, ‘no-touch’ data protection solution,” claims Scott Dillon, Australia and New Zealand, Country Manager. “If disaster strikes and the server goes down, there’s no searching for the right backup disk. The Iomega REV Loader 560, in tandem with the included BrightStor ARCserve Backup software from CA, automatically loads the correct disk and restores the system to its previous state. That’s the kind of data protection that small businesses need in today’s regulatory environment.”
Iomega boasts that compared to tape-based autoloaders, the REV Loader 560 is half the size, half the weight, 10 times as fast and one-third the device cost (on a dollar per gigabyte basis). The disks themselves have an estimated archival life of 30 years, while the REV Loader is backwards compatible with older 35GB disks.
The bottom line:
- You may notice us using a lot of statements like “Iomega claims”, “Iomega states”, etc, etc. in this article. That’s because for the moment we haven’t actually had the opportunity to put a unit through its paces…nor have we seen (and we looked) an actual testbed review. Thus we are left with to filter our way through the marketing fluff put out by Iomega. So if you are listening Iomega, send us a unit that we can throw into our test lab!
- (In lieu of answering questions then, here are our top questions to answer)
- Overall Performance/Value Matrix - We view the small business backup world a little differently than many of the vendors. From our perspective there are 4 main approaches in regards to flexibility and performance. 1) Tape Media. 2)Internal-Disk-2-Disk. 3) External-Disk-2-Disk. 4) Hybrid/Shadow Backups. We’d like to see where in our matrix the REV Loader fits. It is obviously going to score very high in flexibility, and should outperform tape media in general. But it will be interesting to see the matrix breakdown comparisons between internal and external D2D options. My personal opinion is that it’s going to do very well on our unique matrices. Because of how rigid a lot of review labs are when looking at data, I have a sneaking suspicion that a product like this might not rate too well at some of those ‘purist’ labs. It’s easy to overlook how “useful” an item can be in real life if you isolate it solely into its individual parts instead of evaluating the whole.
- Strategy Fit – As our faithful readers and clients know, we fit backup and storage hardware into an inclusive solution. If we recommend a product, we do so along with a specific backup strategy for your business that the product would work well at. We think this is much more helpful than simply handing out performance numbers. I already have some ideas about this particular product and it may even add a new category to our existing backup strategies due to the capabilities it will have in regards to offsite rotations. The ‘tape-like’ characteristics of rotation, the ‘disk-like’ characteristics of performance and flexibility…..I hesitate to say too much in that area though until I see how well its compression works, at what speeds, and how durable the cartridges are. Without those 3 items offsite rotations won’t be a great option, so it’s too soon to say.
- Product Expansion Roadmap – One area that I have to say I’ve always been a little disappointed in Iomega is that of long term product Roadmap’s. What I mean by that is that they seem to put a great deal of thought and energy into the media roadmap, and very little to that of the drive device that reads/writes the media. Think about it, isn’t it great that this device is compatible with the 35gig cartridge?…..now think about it a little deeper….hey, how come I can’t just slap a 70 gig cartridge into my old drive?!! At one point I could understand it a little bit, well..even with the ZIP drives I didn’t understand it that much…but now that they are basically just using stripped down hard drives, and pitching directly to the SMB community they are going to have to revisit their traditional roadmapping of the equipment to tilt a little more to the consumers favor. The general consumer might let you get away with forcing them to upgrade both their device and their media just to say they have the latest and greatest….but the SMB community are a little more savvy than that. Can you imagine if every time a larger laptop hard drive came out the vendor tried to sell you a new laptop to put it in? Exactly.
- Business Outlook – Look, let’s call it what it is. Iomega have managed to make modified hard drives which are very portable and more durable, resolve some of the issues that exist currently with using hacked together alternatives, and built some slick enclosures that you can slap them into. That’s great, we want it, there’s a market for it, and we’ll pay for it…but the reality is that that market will be driven by the enclosures, not the ‘hard drives/media’. The drives (or tapes in the case of tape backups) unfortunately become commodities. If Iomega can deal with that massive shift in thinking from its historical roots I truly believe it will be able to succeed in this marketplace. But if not then there are a lot of folks in the wings, very, very, close to putting some strong products out there. Hmmm, wonder if I just talked too much and ruined my chances of receiving a demo unit?
The “Real” Bottom Line:
The Iomega REV Loader 560 is now available to buy in the U.S. for $1,799. I briefly searched the web for street pricing and as of today the best price I saw was at BUY.com for $1516.80 with free shipping (Go to item at buy.com here) 
. Additional REV 70GB disks are available individually and in REV 70GB DISK 4-PACKs.
Reviews:
CURRENTLY NO LAB TESTS HAVE BEEN DONE THAT WE HAVE FOUND. IF WE GET OUR HANDS ON ONE WE WILL THROW IT INTO OUR LAB, BUT IN THE INTERIM IF YOU KNOW OF A TEST REVIEW THAT WE’VE MISSED PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND A LINK.
Technorati tags:
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usb November 20th, 2006
Here’s a comprehensive list of ping services that you can use for when you post a new blog entry. Note that there are a few additional ones that we have not included due to the fact that they only work for specific blog software.
Check to see if your blogging tool or software requires a separator (such as a semicolon, comma, etc.) between each item, and if so be sure to add it before pasting into your tool. For example, Community Server requires a semicolon after each URL.
Cheers,
Matt Ridings – MSR Consulting
http://1470.net/api/ping
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http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
November 18th, 2006
I’m getting a little tired of answering questions about a product that doesn’t exist. Please, if you have questions about Fresno, read the following article to get your head on straight.
Cheers,
Matt
The real truth about the “Fresno” version
Originally published on 11/17/2006 9:03 PM by bradley
November 18th, 2006
