Like anyone still needs a reason.
Today, the helpful Microsoft updater offered to upgrade IE7 to IE8. Always a sucker for some new software and always forgetting the more that occasional pain associated with installing new software, we let it do it’s thing on the home computer. Not a good idea.
After the update, IE8 would not access any web sites, not even Microsoft. That’s bad. Even worse, Firefox now won’t access any web sites. It’s not the Internet connection because I’m checking out the Home computer over a remote session. A quick search shows that there are others having the same problem. Even more amusing is those saying that there is no way IE8 could be responsible. Like this response to a guy who describes a problem similar to mine.
red alert: IE 8 shuts down my web REGULARLY. – Technology Questions
Again, installing IE8 could not possibly have caused other browsers to fail.
The environment in which you installed it could have.1. If you don’t own the computer in question, you should NOT be upgrading
IE, period.2. The various security measures put in place by your employer may well be
related to the problems you encountered after installing IE8. These include
any GPOs and Admin Templates.3. For best results, you should disable (a) the anti-virus application, (b)
all real-time “system protections” (e.g., those afforded by any third-party
application, (c) any third-party firewall and then (d) enable the Windows
Firewall prior to installing AND uninstalling an IE upgrade.
However, I disagree! IE8 or some other evil that gets done by it’s installer screws things up. Several other folks with this same issue uninstalled IE8 and their problem was gone. I uninstalled IE8 and problem gone. The bad news was that it still left IE7 behind.