[Fineus]

Windows Update flagged a new crucial update to me just now - it was this:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1

Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is the most recent version of the Internet Explorer 6 core technologies in Windows® XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional. Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 provides a private, reliable, and flexible browsing experience and the freedom to experience the best of the Internet for users of Windows XP, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows NT® 4.0 Service Pack 6a. Total download size for a typical installation is approximately 25 megabytes (MB). However, because setup downloads only those files that are necessary for your computer, this size can vary between 11 and 75 MB.

A Private, Reliable, and Flexible Internet Browsing Experience
Internet Explorer 6 SP1 is the next update to award-winning Internet Explorer technologies and provides a private, reliable, and flexible Internet browsing experience. Internet Explorer 6 SP1 represents improvements to Internet Explorer 6, which included many new and enhanced features that simplify the daily tasks that you perform, and help you to maintain the privacy of your personal information on the Web. Internet Explorer 6 SP1 includes patches and updates to Internet Explorer 6, which had already taken steps to improve Web browser reliability with the option of fault-collection services. With the new innovative browser capabilities including Media Bar, Image toolbar, Auto Image resizing and more, you can experience the Web the way you want.

Provides Simple Privacy Tools
Internet Explorer 6 SP1 includes all prior patches and updates as well as enhancements to security and reliability. Internet Explorer 6 SP1 will continue to let you control how your personal information is used by Web sites you visit, so you don't have to worry about security or privacy. Internet Explorer 6 SP1 will also continue to provide simple tools that enable you to control the information that Web sites collect about you. It continues to support the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), a technology that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is currently developing. P3P helps protect the privacy of users' personal information on the Internet by simplifying the process of deciding whether and under what circumstances personal information is disclosed to Web sites. Microsoft will continue to aid users in protecting their privacy on the Internet by building on current Web privacy features and providing additional control in future Internet Explorer releases.

Improves Web Browser Reliability
Internet Explorer 6 SP1 adds patches and updates to Internet Explorer 6, which had already taken the great reliability of Internet Explorer and improved upon it, offering a more stable and error-free browsing experience. New fault-collection services help to identify potential problems that need to be fixed in future updates to Windows Internet technologies. If you have a problem, the Internet Explorer Error Reporting Tool automatically offers to extract information about the problem and upload the data to Microsoft for analysis.

Allows You to Experience the Web the Way You Want
Whether you use the Web to read e-mail, news or sports reports, shop online, listen to music or play videos, or share your images and photos with friends, family, or colleagues, Internet Explorer 6 SP1 makes it easy, exciting, and fun.

Develop Rich Web-based Applications Quickly and Easily
Internet Explorer 6 SP1 adds patches and updates to Internet Explorer 6, which extended the Windows platform to enable developers to build Web-based applications and develop informative content. Internet Explorer 6 SP1 provides enhanced support for standards-based Internet technologies and improves the ease and speed with which developers can take advantage of these technologies. Improvements to the programming model, such as enhanced DHTML features, further enrich the Windows Web development platform.

Increased Standards Support
Internet Explorer 6 SP1 offers a feature-rich platform for building Web-based applications and developing informative content for users. It provides full support for Document Object Model (DOM), level 1 and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), level 1, which enhance support for standards-based Internet technologies and improve the ease and speed with which developers can take advantage of these technologies. Internet Explorer 6 SP1 supports standards that ensure that pages run quickly, consistently, and without errors or failures in the browser.

Easier Than Ever to Deploy and Support
You can customize the Internet Explorer 6 SP1 technologies with the Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) 6 SP1 (this site is in English), so it's easier than ever to deploy and support. IEAK 6 provides powerful easy-to-use options designed to save administrators time and money in deploying and managing Web solutions.

From the end user simply browsing content on the Web, to the IT administrator deploying and maintaining a rich set of Windows Internet technologies, to the Web developer creating rich Web content, Internet Explorer 6 SP1 provides the freedom to experience the best of the Internet.

For a list of issues that are addressed in Internet Explorer 6 SP1, read Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q326489.

System Requirements

Minimum system requirements to run Internet Explorer 6 SP1:
486/66 MHz processor (Pentium processor recommended)

Windows Me:
32 MB of RAM minimum
Full install size: 8.7 MB


Windows 2000:
32 MB of RAM minimum
Full install size: 12.0 MB


Windows 98 Second Edition:
16 MB of RAM minimum
Full install size: 12.4 MB


Windows 98:
16 MB of RAM minimum
Full install size: 11.5 MB


Windows NT 4.0 with the high encryption version of Service Pack 6a and higher:
32 MB of RAM minimum
Full install size: 12.7 MB


Windows XP:
32 MB of RAM minimum
Full install size: 12.0 MB

CD-ROM drive (if installation is done from a CD-ROM)

Some components may require additional system resources not outlined above.

Note Internet Explorer 6 SP1 setup installs the majority of its files on the drive where the Windows operating system is installed, regardless of the installation location you choose. To free up space on your hard disk in order to meet disk-space installation requirements, do so on the drive where the Windows operating system is installed.

How to use

Restart your computer to complete the installation.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP users Custom installation is not available for Internet Explorer 6 SP1 on Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating systems.

How to uninstall

Make sure Internet Explorer 6 SP1 is not running.
Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. (In Windows XP, click Start and then click Control Panel.)
Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
Select Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 SP 1.
Click Add/Remove (Change/Remove in Windows 2000 and Windows XP).

The question is, do I want this or not? I'm a little paranoid about MS having to much control over my system at the moment so what does this really do?

[an0n]

IE6 auto-resizes pics too big to fit on the screen. That's reason enough to stick with IE5 for the rest of eternity.

[Redfang]

I have IE6... didn't know about that, will try if other people say positive comments about it. Though it's probably just made so that MS has more control over your system...
 

Originally posted by an0n
IE6 auto-resizes pics too big to fit on the screen. That's reason enough to stick with IE5 for the rest of eternity.

 
You can turn that feature off. I did. It was really annoying at first, though, as I didn't even know you can't turn it off.
 
Edit: It doesn't show there for me. I wonder why... maybe I have it by mistake or so.

[IceFire]

WinXP SP1 should be available now too.

[beatspete]

Originally posted by an0n
IE6 auto-resizes pics too big to fit on the screen. That's reason enough to stick with IE5 for the rest of eternity.

...if u hover over the image, then first some options appear, then shortly after a box to restore to full size image...

[demon442]

Originally posted by an0n
IE6 auto-resizes pics too big to fit on the screen. That's reason enough to stick with IE5 for the rest of eternity.

Dude, i fixed this a log time ago.

1: Go to Tools
2: then to internet options
3: click on the advanced tab
4: under the multimedia section uncheck "enable automatic image resizing"






EDIT:  Command, i've reached 300 posts.  request orders.

W0000T!!! 300 POSTS W0000T!!!

[Shrike]

Originally posted by demon442
Dude, i fixed this a log time ago.

1: Go to Tools
2: then to internet options
3: click on the advanced tab
4: under the multimedia section uncheck "enable automatic image resizing"

Heh, no **** eh?  Easy to fix.

[demon442]

Originally posted by Shrike
Heh, no **** eh?  Easy to fix.

Yeah it is.  Hell it's one of the first things i fixed when i got this computer.

[CP5670]

Same here actually; that thing was really annoying, since the resized images looked ugly and made scrolling very slow.

[Kamikaze]

When I actually use the downstairs computer I always am annoyed by that resize thingy, it always distorts the image so you can't read/see it well.. gawd.

(Opera is teh best!)

[Gortef]

ok back to the point.... should one d/l the upgrade or not

heck I must admit that I'm quite unparanoid about MS
I'll propably d/l every update they give us if someone won't warn me first... and so far not much problems here

[Fury]

You ppl are just too damn paranoid.

I am sure that every damn security fix is well worth of getting it.

I noticed that IE6 SP1 also improves IE's speed.

[Fineus]

Hmm, perhaps - but we know for a fact that MS packages various agreements and so on amongst its latest SPs, I'm damned if I'm going to assume I'll be ok when a quick question here or elsewhere can solve the problem!

[diamondgeezer]

Well, having finally got the old Broadband(tm) installed, I took a moment to peruse the WinXP updater. As far as I can tell, all the IE6 update did was bugger up my settings, causing me to have to reconfigure everything. And now the bloody MS server's slow as a bleeding Lancastrian, so It'll take 45 MINUTES to get the other 16 megs of updates.

Grr...

[Admiral LSD]

Regardless of the terms of the EULA, I'd install it anyway simply because its a Service Pack and staying on top of bug fixes is never a bad thing particularly where MS software is concerned. Also, the IE update is included in the XP Service Pack so if you've installed the XP SP you already have the IE SP.