Upgrade your browser!

You have ended up at this page because you’re currently using Internet Explorer 6 for browsing, and the owner of the site you visited would like you to consider upgrading to a better browser. This page offers some guidance.

The problem

The Web is a fast-paced medium. The coolest and most advanced sites of today may become tomorrow’s dead wood in the blink of an eye. Think back for a moment to websites you regularly visited five or ten years ago. Are they still as cool or advanced as they were back then? Or have they been overtaken by newer, better websites?

The same goes for Web software, most importantly browsers — the program you use to visit web sites, store your favorites, and interact with friends, co-workers, and companies all over the world.

A browser that was clearly the best at the time of its release may become stale over time. It will be overtaken by other browsers that are better at some tasks, and in the end users of older browsers will find themselves excluded from the Web’s most exciting and innovative content.

That’s what’s happening to Internet Explorer 6 these days. That’s what might happen to you.

IE6 was released in 2000, and back then it was the most advanced browser in the world. Unfortunately it has not aged very well, and nowadays it has several serious problems. Its security model is flawed, and its support for CSS and JavaScript, the languages that make websites behave as you want them to behave, is distinctly outdated.

As a result, you’ll encounter more and more problems as time goes by; problems that are caused not by the websites you’re visiting, but by the browser you’re using: IE6.

This page in IE6

This page is a good example. It doesn’t look very good in IE6 because IE6 is unable to understand some of the instructions that tell it how to show this page. All other browsers, including IE7, understand these instructions fine, and show a much cleaner, nicer page.

This page in a better browser

Solution

Fortunately the solution to this problem is quite simple. You should download and install a newer, better browser. Yes, that will take you a little while, but you only have to do it once in order to browse the web safely and pleasantly for years to come.

You might consider the following browsers:

In general, installing a new browser requires the following steps:

  1. Follow one of the links above. The page you end up at offers a download link. Click on it and allow the new browser to be saved to your computer.
  2. The new browser will be downloaded to your computer. This may take a while. You can work just like always while the download is running.
  3. Once the browser has been downloaded, you have to install it. Sometimes the browser will start the installation process automatically; sometimes it won’t. If it doesn’t, double-click on the program you’ve just downloaded.
  4. Now the installation program will ask you some questions. In general you should opt for the default installation (unless you know what you’re doing). Usually your new browser will ask you if it should import your favorites; say Yes so that your favorite sites will be available on your new browser.
  5. Then the installation program starts to actually install your new browser. This may again take a while.
  6. If you replace IE6 by IE7 you may be asked to restart your computer. Do so.
  7. When the new browser has been installed you can start surfing the Web with it. You may have to log in to sites you use often; your new browser will not have the information about your passwords that your old IE6 contains.

The process requires about five minutes of your attention. During the downloading you can just work on; it’s only during installation that you really have to stop what you’re doing and wait for your computer to finish. All in all the process will take about half an hour, maybe less.

Again, once you’ve invested this time you won’t have to do the same for years to come.

Happy browsing with your new browser!