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Previous: Timex alarm clock | Main | Next: (please help) New Orleans/Gulf Coast
August 31, 2005 12:03 AM
Broken: IE message
Jason Hite points out this baffling Internet Explorer message.
I just don't see what's so baffling about this message. I simply see a dialog box informing the user that the security setting is lower than recommended. Is it something wrong with having a high security setting, or is it just something I'm missing?
Baffling, no. Annoying, yes. Broken, definitely. It's basically a warning prompt saying "Warning: You have selected fewer warning prompts." Well, duh.
And they do it with the Windows 'Prohibited/Forbidden' icon and the word "Error." If it was truly forbidden, it wouldn't be an option. If it was truly an error, then why make it possible for the user to make it? Say it's not recommended, use the famous DOS "Are you sure?" query, but don't tell the user he's WRONG for making a perfectly valid choice, however ill-advised it may be. Because doing so is BROKEN.
I agree with Erich, you don't even need that error dialog in the first place. They already provide details about the security level in the previous settings dialog, they could have just added an extra sentence at the bottom stating that this level is not recommended. That way you're not annoying anyone and your unobtrusively offering a suggestion. It aint brain surgery.
Looks broken to me. It says 'hey your security settings are at medium you better reset them to MEDIUM or higher.'
Does that help clarify what's broken?
What I find funny is that when you do a fresh install of windows and then go to the IE security settings it is not at the default setting. Wouldn't it make sense to have the settings set to default to begin with? Next time you format your hard drive and install windows, check it out.
It's broken from the standpoint that it is sloppily written and needs a few moments to comprehend, but what it is saying makes logical sense. Whether or not you should get a warning about warnings is another matter altogether.
"It says 'hey your security settings are at medium you better reset them to MEDIUM or higher.'"
No, it doesn't.
It says the setting you've chosen is BELOW medium, please set to medium or higher.
The slider clearly shows the current setting is "Low". The dialog box is a warning that they recommend "Medium" or higher. What's so hard to understand about that?
Now, I admit that Microsoft's whole approach to security has been a problem for most of the past decade, and there are probably ways to improve the user experience for setting your security preferences (Low, Medium, or High). But I don't see anything broken about what's presented in this image.
Neeraj, it's at Medium. It just automatically parses "Medium" to Custom because it's sloppily-written.
DaveC and Todd, MarkO already said "nevermind", stop beating a dead horse.
Everyone else, if you want a 'Low' setting, just use Custom and set everything to 'Low' yourself.
What is broken here is the fact there is a person using IE. Simply using IE is a security hazard. (Even Microsoft released a report on how IE lets websites install programs on the users computer without permission) Simply using Outlook and Express (they use IE to view the message) is a security hazard. Take a look at the products from the Mozilla Foundation, especially Firefox.
_@_v - mozilla sucks, mozilla's mom sucks and mozilla's sister will suck if you give her a bus token and a food stamp.
_@_v - much as MSIE (for Mac in my case) is maligned, they get most of the user interface right. a typical example of mozilla suckitude is the fact that the history menu is not a pulldown menu option - you hafta open the history window every fargin' time.
_@_v - if you want to manually type in an address in the toolbar it's always thinking you want to do a web search and bugs you with a pesky dropdown if you try and move the cursor around.
_@_v - in MSIE you can drag pictures to your desktop or a folder and it put the piccy's address in the get info window - can't do that in mozilla. Mozilla also pesters you with a download bar for the second it takes for a piccy to DL.
_@_v - the only thing i can't do with MSIE is visit google maps but for the most part it's my browser of choice.
_@_v - mozilla - the interface that's in your way...
What you all are missing is the fact that you CAN'T leave the setting at Low. I've had this same thing happen to me, and when I clicked the "OK", it reset the security level to Medium. If I tried to move it to Low, the process started all over again.
broken.
Already fixed in IE7 Beta 1:
---------------------------
Warning!
---------------------------
The recommended security level for this zone is "Medium".
The security level that you have chosen is lower than this.
Are you sure you want to change the security level?
---------------------------
Yes No
---------------------------
Only users of XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1, or the x64 editions, will see the original message: this was new to XP SP2.
The wording is broken, but equally broken is setting your security setting to low. They had to put in the sloppily written warning and overriding of the low setting to try and stop the most common ways that malicous people attack computers through IE. If there weren't a bunch of jerks out there with nothing better to do than make peoples lives miserable through spyware/malware/viruses/worms and spam, life would be a little bit better.
Microsoft as an entire OS is broken.
I hate stuff like this. You try to set it to "low" and it says "WHAOMG WTF NO KTHX".
That message I think means that it will not allow you you set it to low. Not just "warning, blah blah blah make sure you know what you are doing" but a "no, you cannot do this".
Microsoft only lets you do to the machine what THEY want you to do to the machine.
Furthermore, setting IE security to "OMFG ALL SECURITY PLZ LOCKDOWN TEH MACHINE!!!" will still be like a screen door on a submarine.
There are so many hole in it. Just get firefox and be done with the entire problem.
Better yet, get linux and be done with windows as well.
"_@_v - in MSIE you can drag pictures to your desktop or a folder and it put the piccy's address in the get info window - can't do that in mozilla. Mozilla also pesters you with a download bar for the second it takes for a piccy to DL."
Dragging pics to your desktop is just one useless feature.
Furthermore, you can view the history in a sidebar instead of a window. In fact, you can view every single feature in the sidebar. View->sidebar->history.
Then there is tabbed browsing. Meaning, instead of having a billion and one tabs open, you simply have a tab at the top of the page to view something else while saving your work in all other tabs.
-And, it's more secure.
-There are a ton of available extensions for more features that you can CHOOSE IF you want them.
-More themes that you can use.
-Drag the address bar to the bookmark bar right below the address bar and it automatically bookmarks the page which you can edit later.
-Blocks cookies if you don't want advertisment sites to track you through a cookie.
"Open the pod bay door, HAL."
"I'm afraid I can't do that that, Dave -- I would have to put the security level to low, and IE doesn't let me do that. Oh, and I can't allow you to jeapordize this mission."
_@_v - um being able to drag web pictures to a folder is pretty darn useful to me but being able to drag highlighted text to the desktop is also pretty sleechy.
_@_v - sidebars suck and take up space so i don't use em. i'd rather dropdown thank you very much. mozilla for mac has sucky user options and i can block cookies all i want in MSIE. besides that the macintosh mozilla that'll run on OS9 is a lot more unstable and displays pages 'funny' to boot.
_@_v - screw mozilla for copying netscape code and slapping their name on it and yet still making software that's worse than micro & soft.
Lame. All you folks spend words and words talking about this. Here's the prob in a nutshell: don't offer the option if it's not available.
Mozilla stealing Netscape code?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
Are you kidding?
Look, believe it or not, there's more to it than a fancy GUI. FireFox uses the Gecko engine, which actaully renders pages according to standards.
But wait! You're an ignorant user, and could care less!
I don't know about you, but I like seeing pages the way they were meant to be displayed. I LIKE being able to view pages that use CSS2.
I don't know about you, but FireFox has a superior rendering engine.
Oh, and what the hell are you doing using ie on a MAC?!
Macs come with Safari, the amazing browser that works better than ie and firefox.
Look, I'm just tired of ie making webdevelopment HELL. They just decide to leave features out, because "hey, nobody cares about CSS2!"
I say we just end this bullshit and use firefox.
Todd Bradley: Either, you didn't look at the dialogue carefully enough or you haven't used the windows environment for very much.
The caption says "error" and it's not. The icon is a windows "critical error" icon and it shouldn't be.
Clearly broken.
That is way stupid. My dad has a spyware program that lets you have an accout, and it keeps doing that whenever i make a new account, or something. it is frickin' ANNOYING!!! bye! ;P
I really like Firefox (Especially the tabs, I like to have lots of browser windows open at a time) Anyway, I'm also annoyed at the little pop-up bubble in the system tray that CONSTANTLY warns me of my firewall being turned off or my virus software being out of date...OR "Can't connect to the Wireless network" SHUT THE HELL UP WINDOWS! I'm AWARE my Firewall is turned off, my virus software isn't updated because I haven't been on the internet for a while, and, believe it or not, I'm not around wifi hotspots 24/7! JESUS CHRIST!
I really like Firefox (Especially the tabs, I like to have lots of browser windows open at a time) Anyway, I'm also annoyed at the little pop-up bubble in the system tray that CONSTANTLY warns me of my firewall being turned off or my virus software being out of date...OR "Can't connect to the Wireless network" SHUT THE HELL UP WINDOWS! I'm AWARE my Firewall is turned off, my virus software isn't updated because I haven't been on the internet for a while, and, believe it or not, I'm not around wifi hotspots 24/7! JESUS CHRIST!
Get Mozilla Firefox. It beats IE in every matter. Heck, the thing even looks cool. While you're at it, change over to Linux.
www.Mozilla.com
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-1.0.5-mozilla.iso
I know this thread is old but for those searching for a solution to it, read here:
http://www.techimo.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-133066.html
And to all those Firefoxes - when some dude posts a problem he wants solved, the last thing he wants to hear is all that pissing-pants-talk about chaning browser.
And for the mother of..., WHY choose the Firefox if you want an alternative - why not choose the fastest when you're at it: Opera!
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Timex alarm clock | Main | Next: (please help) New Orleans/Gulf Coast
oh how i hate that. i can see an argument for it being not broken, but personally im tired of my computer telling me how unsafe im being, even when i know exactly what im doing. my email inbox tells me EVERY TIME that my spam setting is lower than reccomended, and takes up space on the page to suggest that i increase it, even tho increasing it invariably means i miss important mail.
Posted by: gmangw at August 31, 2005 12:34 AM