Thoughts on Internet Explorer 7?

I've had a lot of troubles lately with Firefox crashing and freezing my system (running Vista 64 w/ NIS 2009). I'm considering going back to Internet Explorer, but worry alot about drivebys and such given I won't have NoScript to cover me (I don't go to porn sites and such, but a lot of sites get hijacked these days).

Anyone here running Internet Explorer 7 and are comfortable with it?

 

I would try Opera first , then maybe even IE 8 BETA more secure.

 

I agree with general_zerohour.
I would try Opera first.

 

ie7 on Vista 64 is probably the most secure browser on the platform., especially if you leave UAC on and enable DEP.

That said, I've never been able to make myself use Opera for more than ten minutes. It's trivial to exploit Firefox, and Chrome installs to Vista's Public folder(AFAIK)

 

Chrome or SRWare Iron would be a good choice. Since sandboxie isn't available on 64, if the internal sandboxing of the chromium based browsers does work on 64 (I'm not sure), that would be an extra added advantage. The browser is also very fast, I would look into it over opera.

 

I'm using Explorer 7 and am comfortable with it. Actually Explorer is all I've ever used. It looks like you have a good security suite to take care of things.

 

I would add that if Firefox is crashing a lot why not uninstall it, nuke the profile folder, and do a clean install?

 

I've used IE 7 for a long time. I think it's relatively safe, if you use it the right way.

Don't use the default security settings, use higher security settings for ALL zones. Be paranoid.

If you have security software that monitors (attempted) changes to IE 7, it becomes more secure. I'm not sure if your Norton software does that, although I suspect it does/can.

About Firefox' NoScript: it's possible to disable scripting in IE 7, although it's said that it's a bit more convenient to do that in Firefox.
If you don't use NoScript most of the time, it's not very useful. These days, a few websites can more or less be trusted, but most mainstream webites can be infected, unlike a few years ago.

Again, the greatest vulnerability is the person behind the computer.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Even on Vista 64, if you want "rich content" in the browser (i.e. Flash), you're stuck using the 32 bit version.

The system in question was recently re-imaged, so its a brand new profile and causing this. I don't think its Flash, as the problem was appearing while trying to download Flash

I do have UAC and DEP on, but I definitely think I'll miss NoScript and AdBlock. I may give it one more try (read something about it someone having similar issues due to the AntiVirus check within Firefox, which is not needed with most AVs which scan on file changes / adds).

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I've tried Opera a few times, its just not for me. That, and I use IdentitySafe with Norton for passwords and such, which won't work with Opera.

 

ANother option is to add "ie7pro" to internet explorer. It will add a lot of firefox functionality (no script, ad block) to internet explorer. Just make sure you go through all the options to see exactly what it changes ( I disable the search engine stuff)

http://www.ie7pro.com/

 

I have used IE7 for a long time and been "comfortable" with it, but recently I began doing online banking, and now I am a bit more paranoid about using it, given the recent exploits and history etc. To be honest, I'm not really sure if IE7 on Vista x64 is safe or not, so given the small doubt, I choose to use either Chrome or Opera and hope they're a bit safer. But for most purposes, I think IE7 is probably fine, especially on Vista x64 here...

 

I use IE7 in Vista x86 (32 bit) and have it locked down tight. In terms of security it depends on how you want to use the browser. I only use IE7 for a very few sites where I do online transactions. I raised Internet zone security to HIGH, turned on Protected Mode for trusted sites and then added the sites to the trusted sites list. This works fine for my situation, but would be pretty inconvenient for general browsing. By the way, I don't know if any of these settings are different in Vista x64.

 

IE7 + IE7 Pro = my favorite browser. Tried Firefox, K-Meleon, Opera, Chrome but IE7 is still the one for me. Blazin' fast and smooth and no security issues at all using it alongside Ad Muncher + NIS 2009 + WinPatrol Plus.