Do Use Internet Explorer As Your Browser? The Grass Is Greener Elsewhere!

Who does not know Internet Explorer? Internet Explorer (abbreviated IE) is a well-know web browser created by Microsoft. During the early days of Internet, IE and Netscape browsers were locking horns to capture the bigger share of the web browser market. With newer technologies, both browsers evolved. Microsoft IE was now being shipped with the Windows operating system. This meant that the commercial Netscape browser was doomed. IE dominated the browser world for some years before other free alternative browsers came on the market.

However, with age IE was starting to look vulnerable to attacks, hijacking and more. The vulnerability was more pronounced due to IE's tight integration with Windows and its supports for ActiveX. ActiveX is a technology from Microsoft which allows web applications to have more power than simple script-based ones. ActiveX applications can have really unrestricted access to your files. This means that you have to be really careful about which ActiveX applications you accept.

To help you know which ones are trustworthy, some of the ActiveX applications are signed and some are unsigned. An unsigned ActiveX application should never be trusted. Even some of the signed ones cannot be trusted. You have to exercise a high level of caution when dealing with ActiveX.

Dialers and hijackers use ActiveX to cause havoc on your computer. A dialer program is a small application, which is installed on the host computer using an ActiveX component. A dialer often is described as a program which will give you access to commercial software, free cracks, free games and unlimited porn. However, you need to know that once a dialer is installed on your computer, it connects you to Internet services with high cost rates. Many of the unfortunate users do not know how much they will be paying until they receive their next telephone bill.

A browser hijacker, on the other hand is another program using ActiveX technology to edit registry settings to change IE's homepage and search pages. You usually detect this kind of program, when you notice that your homepage has been changed without you doing anything. Some browser hijacker even restore the registry setting on each Windows session. This means that even if you restored your default homepage in your browser, it still gets changed to the hijacked one every time you start Windows.

Another area in which Internet Explorer is very vulnerable is when BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) are installed as extensions to IE. You might see some BHOs being toolbars added to Internet Explorer. The toolbar might be helpful to you, but it might also contain some hidden functions. These functions can redirect you to advertisings instead of the page you want to see.

If you need a clean and safe Internet browser, I recommended you to move away from Internet Explorer. Even though the latest version of Internet Explorer might contains additional safety features, it will still have vulnerabilities due to its support for ActiveX and its tight integration with Windows.

Hirvesh Marshall maintains a web page on FREE Web Browsers (http://www.codefusionlab.co.cc/freewebbrowsers.html) at Codefusion Lab. Codefusion Lab is a site dedicated to provide free and useful software to other persons. You can get more software at Codefusion Lab: Free PC Tools and Webmaster's Resource (http://www.codefusionlab.co.cc).