Susan Hays wrote on Tue, 9 Mar 1999 10:32:36 EST:

>Can anyone tell me what is "new and improved" about Internet Explorer 5.0?
Is it worth downloading or ordering from Microsoft?  I would appreciate any
information you could give me.<

Susan:

I have been using MSIE 5.0 for a week or so now, and find it to be usable,
but no drastic or dramatic improvements.  There is some integration with
Office 2000, and some little features like Username and Password completion,
but otherwise I see no great advantage in switching early on.

One HUGE problem is with Outlook Express 5, and that is a "feature"
(actually not a feature -- a monstrous glitch) called "Searching Message for
Hyperlinks."  If you use OE5 for your e-mail program you will find that
"Searching Message for Hyperlinks" will capture every message of yours,
search for and find hyperlinks, turn them blue and underline them, and do
some unknown something that eats up time.  The process takes longer, much
longer, than loading a huge Web page.  For example, a 209KB newsletter took
over 20 minutes to load on my 166mhz machine.  In the meantime, the whole
program was tied up.  I am assured that this "feature" will be improved by
the final issue, but they refuse to remove it or offer the option of turning
it off.  My guess is that Microsoft will regret their rigidity.

The bottom line is, I would wait until the dust settles, <sarcasm>and maybe
after a week, when their first patch is issued,</sarcasm> ask about
downloading it again.

Good luck.

TOM TETZLAFF

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