Blog: IE9

One of our Tandem Software users was having difficulty downloading a risk assessment document.  The download would start, run for a while, and then error out.  The user was able to download other documents in our software and we were aware of no other users experiencing this same problem.  The problematic document does take a little longer than other documents to download, but not much and the user has been able to download this document in the past.  After some troubleshooting on the user’s computer we could see the download GET request being initiated, but it was aborting before any results were returned. 

Internet explorer doesn’t expose a timeout setting through the Internet Options.  However, there is a registry key that can be set to control the timeout.  I checked my system and this registry key was not set.  When I checked the user’s registry, the key did exist and it was set to a relatively low value.  The user did not recall setting the value and since the only way I’m aware of changing it is through the registry we’re not sure how it was changed.  Increasing the value in the registry key fixed the problem.

Here are the steps to add/change the timeout registry key: [more]

1. Start Registry Editor
2. Locate the following subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
3. If a DWORD entry does not exist named “ReceiveTimeout” then create one.
4. Set the “ReceiveTimeout” value to a number of milliseconds.
5. Restart the computer

Vertafore performed an AMS360 software upgrade and not one of  the client systems would function properly. The problem was seen on physical PCs located in the main office. None of the View desktops (multi-user Virtual Desktop environments) used by remote users had the issue that was seen in the main office. The vender said it was a permissions issue, but after trial and error it was determined the problem was not a permissions issue. By comparing the affected systems with the View desktops that worked properly after the upgrade,  we found that for some reason the information in the Local folder in the users profile was not getting the updated settings. To resolve the problem CoNetrix performed a reboot; logged in as the administrator and removed the users profile. Then uninstalled and reinstalled the AMS workstation client, followed by logging  the user back in, which reloaded their roaming profile and rebuild the Local and Local Low profile folders. When we would login to AMS as the user, the system check would run as it should and add the updated DLLs and information to the users Local profile folder. After these steps were completed, each user’s AMS worked as it should. However, the process also required repair of each user’s Zixmail and Zywave installations due to rebuilding the Local and Local Low folders.

All the repairs were completed without elevating the user’s rights.

Also as stated above, none of the multi-user Virtual Desktop environment systems had this problem.  After the Internet Explorer 9 upgrade, each of the View systems were recomposed which removes the user’s profile and rebuilds the user’s Local and Local Low folders on first login.

During this last maintenance window for a customer, I needed to update and recompose their linked clones and then log in and test the various applications to make sure everything was working properly. After the recompose had completed, I fired up the View client only to be greeted with an error message that said “The View Connection Server connection failed (null).” This was obviously a problem. After some quick searches on the VMware KB, I found an article which states “View Client 4.5.0 or earlier fails to connect to View Connection Server if Internet Explorer 9 Beta or Windows 7 SP1 Beta is installed on the same client system.”

I had IE9 Beta installed. After removing it (and rebooting), the client connected up just fine and all was good again.

The Internet Explorer 9 Beta is out and already I can see several new features and improvements over previous versions. While it still isn’t enough to get me to switch from Chrome, they are making serious improvements in the UI and how it handles certain websites. One new feature, however, I find quite interesting. They’re called jump lists and basically, it’s a bookmark on steroids.

Windows 7 has allowed you to pin applications to the taskbar for easy access. IE also provided the ability to switch tabs via the pinned application on the taskbar. Now, they have taken it to the next level. You can pin a specific site to the taskbar and open to it as if you were starting a new application. Currently, this is an IE only feature, but Microsoft hopes to turn it into a standard for other browsers to follow suit. [more]

Let’s say, you browse to http://arstechnica.com and you want to pin their site to your taskbar. Click/drag the tab to your taskbar and it will automatically pin. Notice that the icon has changed.

Then when you click on it, it opens up a “special” version of IE with its own special colors and icons.

This information is grabbed from the favicon.

Finally, the jump list. Right-click on the pinned application:

Notice that there are new “tasks”. When you click on one of these, it opens that specific page. The code to add this information is really simple.

<!-- C-razy IE9 stuff --><meta name="application-name" content="Ars Technica"/>
<meta name="msapplication-starturl" content="http://arstechnica.com/"/>
<meta name="msapplication-tooltip" content="Ars Technica: Serving the technologist for 1.2 decades"/>
<meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=News;action-uri=http://arstechnica.com/;icon-uri=http://arstechnica.com/favicon.ico"/>
<meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=Features;action-uri=http://arstechnica.com/features/;icon-uri=http://static.arstechnica.net/ie-jump-menu/jump-features.ico"/>
<meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=OpenForum;action-uri=http://arstechnica.com/civis/;icon-uri=http://static.arstechnica.net/ie-jump-menu/jump-forum.ico"/>
<meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=One Microsoft Way;action-uri=http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/;icon-uri=http://static.arstechnica.net/ie-jump-menu/jump-omw.ico"/>
<meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=Subscribe;action-uri=http://arstechnica.com/subscriptions/;icon-uri=http://static.arstechnica.net/ie-jump-menu/jump-subscribe.ico"/>

I’ve added this to one of my sites within minutes and all works as intended. Now because the jump list is actually pinned to the taskbar, the Windows team had to modify the structure of their code to allow IE to do this. This is why it still requires a reboot to install IE9. They’re modifying the kernel to allow for jump lists. Pretty neat stuff.