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Internet Explorer 8 is now available here.
On my system, however, it failed to display properly, as you
can see from this screen capture:
Those black areas are supposed to be toolbars and the menu
line.
My system is a bog-standard Intel processor with Radeon video
card. No other programs fail to display properly.
It appears that, once again, Microsoft has released software
without fully testing it, just to get it out the door.
Doing a Google search on this problem, there are many, many
people with the same issue.
The problem seems to be related to the Windows theme. As you
can see from my screen capture above, I prefer the Classic theme,
not the garish blue cartoon that is the default Windows XP theme.
You can make the problem go away by doing this:
In Internet Explorer 8, you should have a menu bar (with File,
Edit, View, etc.) near the top of the screen:
If you don't see this bar, that's because Microsoft has turned
it off by default. Why? I have no idea; perhaps because it's
useful. To get the bar back, you need to right-click in a blank
grey space of the screen, and then a menu will be displayed.
Choose Menu Bar and it will magically appear.
Click on Tools, and then Internet Options.
The Internet Options window will be displayed. On the
General tab, click the Colors button near the bottom.
The Colors window will now be displayed. Note that
the option Use Windows colors is checked. Uncheck it and
press the OK button.
You will then be back on the Internet Options screen.
Press the OK button on that window.
You now need to reboot your system, because the guts of IE8
are used in many places within Microsoft software, and this setting
is only looked at when IE starts.
However, there is a side effect. Microsoft Outlook now presents
HTML e-mails with a grey background, not the usual white.
And when you double click the e-mail to open it, you also
get a grey background.
I'm a professional software tester and test manager with many
years experience managing testing projects for big banks, telecommunications
companies, government, etc. I have a Software Testing Concepts site and a Software
Testing Blog. This kind of problem upsets me as it indicates
poor management.
There are two possible explanations for this bug, and it is
a bug, i.e., a defect. The first is that the test team did NOT
test IE8 with anything other than the default cartoon interface.
The second is that the team did test it in that scenario, diagnosed
the problem, and the IE8 product manager decided to ignore their
advice and release the product anyway, probably because most
people never change from the cartoon interface. Either way, it
shows a lack of common sense at Microsoft and sloppy management.
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