Support for NoScript JavaScript Disabled Browsers
I can’t help but wonder, considering the number of websites and web developers who insist on ensuring that their websites are still fully compliant with Internet Explorer 6, which was rendered obsolete long ago, should other non-standard browser configurations be considered as well?
Has anyone ever tried to count how many users run Firefox with the NoScript add-on?
How many users have JavaScript disabled in Google Chrome?
Do a lot of IE users have JavaScript turned off or restricted somehow?
Most importantly, if you added up all of the users with JavaScript unsupported or JavaScript disabled in their web browser, how big of a user group would they be as a percentage of all web users? Would that number be larger than the number of people still using IE 6? If so, wouldn’t it be prudent for website owners and webmasters to ensure that their websites function correctly without JavaScript, especially when so many of the elements using JavaScript are superficial like animated menus?
I for one test every WordPress theme or website template in Firefox with NoScript running to see what it looks like when it “breaks” because JavaScript is not enabled in a browser. If it still doesn’t render and function at a basic level, then I won’t use it.
Does anyone else do something similar?
Can the noscript tag be used effectively enough to compensate for non-JavaScript enabled browsers?
Internet Explorer Flaws to Fix for IE 9
I was going to just leave Internet Explorer alone. Everyone knows that it is the bottom of the pile when it comes to browsers. The only people who use IE are those who are either not computer savvy enough to know that there are options and how to get them, and those who do know about the better web browsers out there, but figure that it just is not worth the effort. Even Microsoft knows IE 8 is already junk, that is why whenever it posts press releases about how fast Internet Explorer is compared to Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari, they compare them to the non-existent Internet Explorer 9 and not the currently released Internet Explorer 8.
Today, however, two of IE 8′s many shortcomings popped up in my face again and I figured that I would write this post in hopes that a growing chorus of user voices might just get Microsoft to pay attention to what is really wrong with Internet Explorer instead of what they think is wrong with Internet Explorer.
First and foremost is the Apple Computer-like arrogance that keeps IE from offering a way to choose your own setting for how IE 8 handles browser sessions. In every modern web browser out there, except for IE 8, you can choose to restore your last browsing session by default. That is, you can tell the browser to open all of the same tabs and webpages that were open during your last browsing session automatically the next time you start your browser.
Internet Explorer offers the ability to restore your last browsing session, but requires that you do it manually. The stated reason for this enormous deficiency in browser functionality is privacy. Microsoft thinks that the possibility that someone might inadvertently see the website you were looking at last time is more important than you (the user) wanting to be able to pick right back up where you left off. Or, in the case of yours truly, not only pick right back up where I was online last time, but also to BE REMINDED of where I was last time without having to jot down notes or send myself a reminder or whatever.
While privacy is important and a worthy goal, allowing the user to use the software in the way that works best for them is WAY more important. It makes perfect sense that for privacy reasons Microsoft does not set Internet Explorer 8 to reopen the last browsing session by default. It makes NO SENSE whatsoever that Microsoft will not provide that option as one of the settings that can be customized in IE 8. I guess this feature wasn’t widespread enough during the development of IE 8 for Microsoft to bother copying it into their “revolutionary” new browser.
Spell Check Missing From IE 8
There is also no spell check in IE8 by default. In a world where more and more is done online on the Internet, being able to spell check your entries into fields and forms is paramount. Of course, at the time, although everyone else had a spellchecker, and Microsoft has access to arguably one of the most complete spellcheck programs anywhere (the one in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office), they didn’t bother to include it. You have to download an addon called ieSpell in order to get spell check in IE 8. I guess that they wanted to make sure that at least someone downloaded an IE addon since as we discussed above, anyone willing to go download add-ons would have long ago downloaded a better browser instead.
Password Saving Wrong Time
Finally, IE 8 has a very annoying flaw in the way it saves and remembers passwords for websites. Apparently when Microsoft sent down the command to copy the password save and remember function from better browsers like Firefox, they didn’t actually pay enough attention to how it was done to copy it right.
When you enter a username and password in Chrome, Opera, or Firefox, the next page continues to load behind the dialog box that asks you whether or not you want to save the password. This is critical because all webpages hide the password you enter behind astericks which means that you can never be sure that you got the password right until the login page loads and sends you on your way with a successful login. On good web browsers, you enter your username and password, and then, if there is any doubt in your mind about whether or not your login will be successful, you just wait and see. If the login works, THEN you click Save or Yes to Save your password. If not, you click No and enter the password again and the browser correctly offers you a chance to save THAT password.
The jack#ss that designed Internet Explorer 8′s password save and remember functionality makes you answer the question BEFORE the next page will load. That means that you have to say Yes in order to see if the login was successful or not. If it was not sucessful, then you have already saved the WRONG password thanks to this bassackwards feature.
The worst part is that when you re-enter your login information and actually get it right, IE may not even offer to change the wrong information it already saved, especially if you fat-fingered the username. Now that website has TWO username and password combinations saved and one of them will be wrong forever unless you go manually dig into the guts of the IE settings menus to find and delete that wrong information.
Microsoft, while you are building functions and support and speed into IE 9, if you could please fix these things that you got wrong in IE 8, we would really appreciate it. Of course, it isn’t really that big of deal. Those of us that know better only use IE for two reasons: to get stuff off your own website, and to make sure that our websites look right for the chuckleheads who use your browser.
Reopen Last Browsing Session Internet Explorer 8 By Default
I’m not a huge Internet Explorer fan. IE 8.0 is better than the unremarkable IE 7 and light years better than the virtually unusable IE 6, but, it still chock full of annoying quirks and weird Internet Explorer functions.
The latest nuisance comes courtesy of the Reopen Last Browsing Session feature, or more specifically the fact that there is no way to automatically reopen last browsing session. (Although there is a way to disable reopen last browser session if you want to do that.)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m finally glad to see this functionality in Internet Explorer. It’s bad enough for your browser to crash, but it really stinks for it to erase all of those open websites you worked so hard to find.
If you haven’t used IE 8 Reopen Last Browsing Session yet, it is probably because it isn’t really all that obvious that IE even has that feature, especially if you remember trying to find something like that in earlier IE versions and came up empty. It isn’t a leap to assume that something that was missing last time is missing this time. (Click the little gear icon that means settings or functions or something, and it’s the first choice at the top.)
It does say “Restore Last Browsing Session” on the screen that appears when you open a new tab, but if you use your browser a lot, or if you use another browser, chances are, you’ve been using tabs for so long, that you didn’t see the need to read whatever Microsoft decided to add once they decided it was a feature worth copying.
Ironically, for many users, having the option on a new tab is too late. For example, I use the same feature in Firefox (which has had it for years, now) to help remind me of the things I was working on when I last shutdown my computer or browser. If I had two more sources to go through, but it was getting really late, I would just leave those two tabs open. When I started Firefox the next time, those two tabs would pop up right away and remind me to finish out the work I was doing. That keeps me from having to write down a list, or put a sticky note on my monitor, or whatever.
Internet Explorer does not restore the last browsing session by default. Microsoft says that this is because they carefully considered all the options and decided that for privacy reasons, it would be better if the last session did not automatically open when you opened IE.
That is fine with me. I can see the arguments on both sides and certainly cannot fault anyone for coming down once way or another. What is annoyingly preposterous is that there is no way for a user to customize this behavior and configure IE to do what they chose. In other words, Microsoft has decided that, not only is it better to not display the last session by default, but that users are so stupid and inferior to Microsoft’s user interface design team that we shouldn’t even be given the choice!
One more time for the cheap seats, LET ME DECIDE HOW TO USE MY SOFTWARE ON MY COMPUTER!
You see, as it turns out, I am reasonably intelligent. I can learn new things, figure things out, and yes, even use a computer that isn’t dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. I can guard my own privacy. I can use Private Mode browsing. I can delete cookies. I can delete history. I can use CCleaner. In other words, I don’t need Microsoft to be my mommy and wipe my nose and watch out for my privacy. Just give me the tools to handle it myself (like Private Browsing Mode) and then let me handle it myself.
For Microsoft to assume what the best way for my software to be configured for me is patronizing and infuriating. I know Microsoft is used to the people using its products being the non-computer savvy drones who just use whatever they have at work, or whatever comes installed on their computer by default; but if Microsoft ever wants the respect of people who actually know even a little bit about computers, then it needs to stop treating us like incompetent drooling monkeys.
Give me an about:config screen like Firefox. Put the choice behind a button that says “Advanced”. I don’t care what you do, just do something.
But don’t you dare decide what is best for me!
Disable Reopen Last Browsing Session IE 8 – Internet Explorer How To
I’ve been trying to figure out how to get Internet Explorer to automatically reopen last browsing session instead of having to click on Tools –> Reopen all of the time. (Yes, I know I can set about:tabs to be my home page or a bookmark and click on Reopen Last Browsing Session there, but that is still manual even if it isn’t hidden in a menu.)
What I did find is that you can disable reopen last browsing session feature in Internet Explorer 8 completely if you want to.
How To Disable Reopen Last Browsing Session Menu
Go into the registry (if you don’t know how, you shouldn’t be messing with it anyway).
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Recovery
Add a new DWORD value named NoReopenLastSession
Set its value to 1
That is all it takes.
Check this out if you want to set IE8 to reopen last browsing session automatically by default whenever Internet Explorer 8 is opened.
