I wracked my brain to come up with a title for this one, but I was simply stumped for how to describe this event
I decided I would allow the MS updates tool to download and install IE8, after all I am running Vista and should really try and keep up with all MS mainstream product versions.
The download kicked off ok and then it installed and required a reboot, which I agreed to…….then I entered the MS twlight zone ?!!
x2 issues/bugs/errors/conditions/*features* seemed to occur as result of installing IE8. The first was that while IE8 would load and display a web page no problem, it would not open a link in a new tab. The tab would launch and then sit there doing nothing. This behaviour was also apparant for trying to right click and launch a link in a new IE8 window. It just did nothing. However, just clicking on a link would load the page into the current tab ok. This meant a morning of getting used to navigating backwards and forwards through my browsing history, which was cumbersome to say the least.
Then I discovered another little gem. Windows explorer would no longer open folders in the same window. Every folder I double clicked opened in a new explorer window. I checked my folder options and changed and applied some settings and then reset them back and applied them to be certain the options were being set, but Vista refused to take this onboard and continued to clutter up my desktop. Right clicking a folder and selecting explore (which was bolded as the context default option by the way) worked ok, but double click was broken :o(
Owing to a deploy of the new site being in progress while this was going on (note to self:: never upgrade your system again during critical moments. grrrrrrrr !!) I had to tolerate this behaviour for the better part of the morning, I now have mild RSI of the second finger on my hand from all the right clicking I had to do (I almost dropped to a DOS prompt to get the work done it got that bad).
Then, while trying to figure out why I had some on page controls missing on the new version of the site, I launched IE8 as administrator……..and it all went back to normal. Possibly a coincidence, but I know where I’m hedging my bets. Just annoying that if permissions was the problem at the time, UAC did not kick in and advise me so (and how come after launching IE8 as admin IE8 and explorer are working fine for me as non admin ??)
Like I said, just plain weird :oD
