New IE7 causes problems

I have recently upgraded to IE7 using the upgrade file from MS website (therefore genuine). Installation worked fine, no problems. Started IE7 and used it a few times, everything looks fine ... until I started using Google. Everytime I go on Google's website and try to run a search it closes IE7 down with an error message saying that an internal error has occurred.

2 questions:

1.) Can I get this fixed somehow?

2.) Is it possible to "downgrade" back to IE6, and if so, how do I do that (alternatively, would it be possible to run both IE 6 and IE 7 in parrallel somehow)?

Any advice appreciated.

 

If you uninstall through Control Panel, Add/Remove programs, it will revert to IE 6.

Note -- if you are using the Google Desktop Search, remove it. You need an upgrade from Google of the toolbar for IE 7. If you are using the Yahoo toolbar, remove it. Get the newest version. You can test that add-ins are the issue by running IE 7 with add-ins disabled to see if it still crashes on you: http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2006/07/16/104854.aspx

 

Thanks Bill for your advice.

Is there any way of having IE6 and IE7 running on the same computer?

 

Not officially.
Microsoft is clear that it is either or for IE 6 & IE 7.

There are claims it can be done, http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

 

FWIW--I had Google Toolbar (v3) installed before installing IE7 and I have no problem using it with IE7. (I had blocked Google from installing the latest v4 (which it had automatically done earlier without permission) and reverted to v3--but that is another story.)
Perhaps it is Google Toolbar version 4 which is causing the problem?
You can tell which version of Google Toolbar you have by right clicking|Properties|Version tab on the GoogleToolbar*.dll file which is probably in C:\Program Files|Google. (I typed * since you may have more than one GoogleToolbar.dll file, with the * being a number. The highest number is the one you have installed.)
However, IE7 makes the Google Toolbar redundant as a Toolbar, since IE7 creates it own Instant Search box to the right of the Address line. I have set that to use Google by default, since I like Google.
But I prefer the Google Toolbar (it works fine as a toolbar and has AutoFill and some other useful features.) But it seems rather silly to have a second Search area on my Toolbars. Just another Toolbar space taker.
Does anyone know how to get rid of the IE7 Instant Search area? See image attached.

 

To hide the IE search box:

http://www.enhanceie.com/ie/tweaks.asp

 

past1999--Forgive me. Upon re-reading your first post, I see that your problem is using the Google website, not the Google Toolbar.
I have no problem using the Google website either, but that does not help you.
It seems unlikely, but maybe this is one of the problems that can fixed by using the User Agent String Utility
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...9C-3C0D-47FE-BD04-FAD82A9AAC9F&displaylang=en
Perhaps wait for advice from someone more knowledgeable. I just installed IE7 today.
If you go to Control Panel|Administrative Tools|Event Viewer|click on System and look for a red error ball with a date/time around the time you had the problem. Click on the red ball. It might tell you what the problem is and how to fix it. Use the go.microsoft.com link in that error window, too.
I understand the Google site is the only one you are having problems with.

 

JRosenfeld--Many thanks. I have not used it yet, but knowing Sandi, I am sure it will work.

 

I showed how to remove the Search bar here: http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=58777

The enhanceie site is not by Sandi, nor does it have a tweak to hide the search bar.

I mistyped above (and have edited to reflect this change) It is not the Google Toolbar at issue, but Google Desktop Search. If you have this installed it will crash IE 7 and possibly Explorer. You must un-install and upgrade. While Yahoo is not listed below, it is because at the time of the writing of the Release Notes there was not an official non-Beta fix for the Yahoo toolbar issues.


Toolbar Issues (From the Release Notes):

 

Castner,

You wrote
The enhanceie site is not by Sandi, nor does it have a tweak to hide the search bar.

I agree with the first part, and I did not say it was Sandi's site, but it does contain a tweak to hide IE7' search box:

from http://www.enhanceie.com/ie/tweaks.asp

Quote:

You can hide IE7's search box (or undo). Requires restart.

Unquote

In that line 'hide IE7's search box' is a link that downloads reg file to hide the search box, the 'undo' is a link to download a reg file that undoes that change.

Maybe they added this since you last looked at the site

 

Three issues with Favorites in IE7:
1) When I right click a Favorite, the context menu does not offer Open in New Window, only Open in New Tab. Can Open in New Window be added? (Open in New Window is still available using browser links.)
The old Registry fix
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell]
@=" "
"flags "=hex:01,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\Open Favorite in New Window]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\Open Favorite in New Window\command]
@= "rundll32.exe shdocvw.dll,OpenURL %l"
does not seem to work in IE7.
2) Also when I right click on a Favorite, there is no Copy Shortcut entry in the context menu, just Copy and it does not copy the URL of the Favorite.
3) I see a potential problem with IE7 Favorites/Favicons--though this is a minor issue--and I have been hesitant to find out if it is a real problem.
Throughout the years, my Favorites have Favicons (where available) permanently linked. This, of course, done by setting up a Favicons folder, putting all the Favicons (out of Content.IE5) into it and then linking the Favorite to the Favicon in the Favicon folder. If this is not done, the Favicons in earlier versions of IE would disappear when the cache was cleaned.
Now I can still link the Favicons by the method mentioned. But after the link is made and the Favicon shows next to the Favorite, I see that if I right click on the Favorite and open the Properties|Change Icon window the location of the Favicon ( "Look for icons in this file" line) has reverted to the plain vanilla C:\WINDOWS\system32\url.dll.
I suspect that when I clean my cache I will loose all the associations of Favorites with Favicons.
Has any one had this experience? Anyway to fix it? Or I am worrying about something that does not exist?
If Favicons are to be lost, I will miss them. Not only are they attractive, but they allow me to find a Favorite more quickly than by name alone.

 

Hi Jim,

Keeping in mind that the subject of Favicons is of little or no interest to me, I have noticed that the favorites that have Favicons have survived a cache cleaning. This is IE7 RC 1 (haven't installed the Final yet). Used ZA Pro's cache cleaner.

Regards - Charles

 

charlesvar--thanks. I hope that is the case.
I find Favicons not only to be attractive, but they help me search for a specific Favorite much more quickly than by name alone.

I have edited my earlier post to describe the lack of Copy Shortcut in the Favorites context menu list.

 

Favicons are no longer cleared by clearing cookies; they are stored seperately from the TIF.

They do auto-update as sites are visited unless you right click the saved favorite, Properties, and set the read-only attribute.

Open in New Windows vs. Open in New Tab in the Context Menu is set by Tools, Internet Options, General tab, Tabs -- settings. There you select whether tabs or Windows is the default selection. I leave it set to tabs and use the keyboard shortcut on the link "Shift + click" to open the link in a new window instead.

 

Rosenfeld,

I was responding to welshjim's comment about Sandi.

In any case, you are correct that the enhancie site has a registry .reg file patch available. If using XP Pro, use gpedit, otherwise use the registry patch.

 

Bill Castner--
A

Yes, I have noticed that Favicons seem constantly refreshed when visiting a site. But refreshing is really not too terrible important to me. What about all the Favorites for which I have (had--see * below) set Favicons by linking to Favicons saved in another folder?

You say I can protect those linkages I made earlier by checking Read Only. I have (*had) about 500 Favorites linked with specific Favicons stored on my harddrive. Is there a .dat or .vbs file to change them all to Read Only in one step? (I think there is, but.... read on)

* Sadly, IE7 seems to have already changed all my Favicon linkages to C:\WINDOWS\system32\url.dll . Although the original Favicons still appear since I have not yet cleaned my cache after installing IE7, I suspect my Favicons linkages will be gone once I do. If true, it is hard to understand what MS was thinking of when they changed the Favicon procedure in IE7. What does MS think people use Favicons for? We are not all interested only in pretty pictures. As mentioned, Favicons are attractive, but much more importantly they help me find the Favorite I am looking for, rather than by name only. (I do not care if I do not have the "latest" Favicon. Seeing a Favicon only when I visit the site is not too useful.)
B

Favicons never were removed by clearing cookies.
I am not sure about the storage part in IE7.
On my PC, anyway, Favicons were deposited in Content.IE5 by IE6 and still seem to be deposited there by IE7. They would be deleted when I cleaned out TIF. And that is why I extracted a copy from Content.IE5 to my (self created) Favicons folder for what up to now has been permanent linking with Favorites. It may be that IE7's Favicons will not be deleted when clicking "Delete..." in Tools|Internet Options|General tab. But since the link to a specific Favorite has already been changed by IE7, I am not optimistic about the outcome.
And, again, IE7 seems to have made a very unwelcome change, by deleting cookies, passwords, etc. along with TIF when the "Delete..." button is used. I like to keep certain cookies even when I want to clean out the rest of TIF. On the positive side "Delete Files" in IE6 did not clean out cookies but IE6 also did not do a very good job of managing index.dat. (But that is another story.)

C

I cannot find "There you select whether tabs or Windows is the default selection." And I am not sure what you mean by default. I just want the option to "Open in New Window" as one of the context menu items when I right click a Favorite. IE6 did not have it either for Favorites but the Registry change I mentioned in the earlier post created it. That Registry change does not work in IE7.
Can you suggest one for IE7?
I still have "Open in New Window" as an option when I right click other links, such as in a webpage.

 

Use the attrib command to set the read-only attribute.

attrib +r "%userprofile%\favorites\*.url" /s

or whatever file extension you want to do in bulk

I mis-spoke, I meant TIF. But they are no longer automaticly cleared by cleaning the TIF. IE7 is still storing the icons in the Temporary Internet folder. What they have done is made it "very" hidden. You can get to the special folder by opening Internet Options and clicking the settings button and then clicking view objects. It will open a explorer window which at this point it is a good time to create a shotcut to the folder. It is where it has been but you can't see it in explorer even with 'show hidden folders'.

For using favicons stored in a seperate file, you can right-click the favorite shortcut, Properties, Change icon, and point to your self made cache to pick the icon you want. Then set the shortcut to read-only as I discussed above. There is no need for any registry edits.

For favorites links, you can open in a new Window instead of a tab by holding down a shift key and left clicking.

For other links the option should appear in the context menu if the Tabs settings are at their defaults.

 

Jim, if all of your favicons are in the same folder you can change them all to read only using the attrib command from a command prompt. For instance, if you're favicons were all in a folder named favicons in the root of you c drive, open a command prompt and type the following.

attrib +r c:\favicons\*.ico

This should set the read only attribute for all of them. Just change the path in the command accordingly so it points to the folder where yours are located.

Edit:
OOPS, I see Bill beat me to it. Also, I from reading Bill's post, it dawned on me that it's properties to the shortcut you need to mark read only, not the favicons. I read your entire post and the previous ones but somehow I got mixed up a bit in the process I guess. Oh well, I'll leave my post the way it is anyway. The idea is still the same, just a different file type.

 

Bill Castner--Many thanks for the Shift+left click procedure to open a Favorite in a New Window. That makes me like IE7 much more.
What about Copy Shortcut? (See item 2 in my post #11)
As far as the Favicons thing. Which command suggestion should I use? Changing the attribute for Favorites or Favicons? I would think Favorites is more likely.
But will either work? As mentioned in my earlier post, IE7 has already--for all Favorites--changed right click on Favorite|Properties|Change Icon| "Look for Icons in this file" to C:\WINDOWS\system32\url.dll. In other words the link to the Favicon file has already been changed for all Favorites. Won't changing the attribute to Read Only on the individual Favorties to "Read Only" only set that incorrect linkage in concrete?

As mentioned, all the links have already been changed by IE7 and if I do try to change them back to the Favicon link and go to the General tab to change the attribute, I get a message "IE cannot apply changes to this Internet shortcut" when I try changing the attribute. In any event IE7 has already changed the link again to C:\WINDOWS\system32\url.dll by the time I have clicked the two OK's to change the Favicon. Strangely the Favicon itself does change. But will it vanish when I clean my TIF?

You have been very helpful so far, so hope this last problem can be fixed. (Actually I do not know if it is a problem, since I have not cleaned my cache yet, but the change in the "Look for Icons in this file" line looks ominous.)

P.S.

In IE6 there were separate Delete Files and Delete Cookies buttons in Internet Options|General tab, so TIF could be cleaned without cleaning Cookies. I do not think DiskCleanup cleaned out Cookies, either. But in IE7 there is only a "Browsing History" Delete button which says it will clean cookies, TIF, History, passwords, etc. This seems too broad to be useful.

As far as I can tell they still are in TIF\Content.IE5. To access that folder I use the shortcut %windir%\Explorer.exe /e, "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 "
I already had to do that in IE6 since one of the recent Windows Updates (I think August).

 

Just change the default from the above to your cache of favicons. The above is just a default suggestion, not mandatory, for the Change Icon applet.