IE7: What's With This Dysfunction?

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1229704317.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I've been an avid user of Firefox for quite a while now, and the above stupidity of IE7 is one reason why I use only use IE for quick browsing, or for IE-specific things that Firefox doesn't do so well (such as Outlook Web Access). Let me decode that above screen shot for you to illustrate my point. I went to <a href="http://www.interfacelift.com" target="_blank">interfacelift.com</a> looking for some new wide-screen wallpaper, using IE7. I found an image I wanted, and after selecting the resolution I wanted, the wallpaper loaded in my browser. OK, fine so far. But when I right-clicked on the image and selected <em>SAVE PICTURE AS</em>, the only option it gives me is a BMP (bitmap), which makes the image into a huge 11.7 MB file. I should be able to drag and drop from the browser to the desktop, but that function won't work either. IE6 had the same problem, and they didn't seem to address it with IE7. I wonder if IE8 will be any better?</p>

[NathanScott]

It still happens on occasion with IE8... seems to be random. Still, I'd say you should go ahead and upgrade to IE8 even if it's rarely used, 'cause it's much safer than IE7.

[Vincent Ferrari]

It still happens on occasion with IE8... seems to be random. Still, I'd say you should go ahead and upgrade to IE8 even if it's rarely used, 'cause it's much safer than IE7.

That bug by itself was one reason I moved to Firefox all those years ago. I've never looked back since.

[blot]

I recall running into this issue a couple of times in various version of IE. Basically you just have to empty your Temporary Internet files.

More on the issue here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810978

[n4cer]

It's probably related to this bug, which is apparently fixed in the latest build.

https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=366090

If anyone has Fiddler (or similar) installed, you should be able to verify whether it's caused by this issue.

[Adam Krebs]

I've always just forced it to save as a jpeg (surrounding the filename and extension in quotes, e.g. "ZuneLogo-Large.jpeg"), as long as I know the filetype and extension are correct, I think Windows does the rest for you.

But yeah, IE definitely does need a little TLC. Anything over about 6 tabs slows it to a crawl, and over 8 you're constantly pushing against a complete app lockup/crash, which in itself is worse than Firefox since there's no auto-recover mode. My main gripe about Firefox is the inverse of this; because I don't constantly have to limit the number of tabs I have open, I have a tendancy to leave a bunch of tabs open at a time.

[Perry Reed]

It still happens in IE8. As far as I can tell, it occurs when the image is no longer in your Temporary Internet Files cache, for whatever reason. Usually, I can get around it by refreshing the page and then trying to save the image again.

[smileyguy]

IIRC, this bug only occurs when the IE cache is full.