***shakes head and mutters to self*** Well, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink....

It really sounds to me as if you have an education problem, not a user problem. If you won't/can't even attempt to explain why IE is a risk to the company's bottom line then you're stuck with all the work IE generates for you.

If I was you I'd create a memo explaining that IE is a security risk. I would include links to the CERT site's recommendations to avoid IE altogether and give a cost analysis of combating spyware/malware in IE. I'd lay out very plainly how much labor and software costs are involved in fighting the problems associated with IE.

I would also ask if the risk of compromising the company's internal data is worth the rewards of viewing some web pages correctly. Then I'd distribute the memo/email widely and see what shakes out. You might be surprised at how company policy can change when it is seen that something as simple as a browser change can lower overall IT support costs and lower the risk of having the company network hacked.

That way you can at least say you tried, and if your company network is compromised through an IE vulnerability you can point out your memo on the subject.

Non-IT people aren't stupid, just uneducated in IT matters. As I see things it's the IT departments job to educate them. If their own IT department won't educate them, who will? Who's supposed to be looking out for them if not their IT department?

I guess I just don't understand all the objections IT people have to attempting to improve their own situation through educating their users. I spent close to 20 years in a service industry and I always took it upon myself to educate my customers as much as possible. I had happy customers as a result. They appreciated being told how things could be better for them over all. I see no reason to believe that non-technical people wouldn't react the same way in this technical field because it's still a tech dealing with a non-techie. The principle is the same. It just requires some effort of the part of the techie to explain things in a way that a non-techie will understand.

Don't feel like I'm picking on you Slypie. Your response is typical for most techies. It was the common response in the HVAC field too. However, it was a misperception that a non-techie wouldn't make a good decision when given the ability to understand what was at stake through the usage of analogies and solid data.

Ffreeloader, I work for a company where we have 9 offices across the country. There are 4 of us in IT based in Newcastle. A domino developer who doesn't do my job, a manager who does little support and 2 support engineers including myself who do all the support for 250-300 PC's, 20+ servers and about 200-250 people, I would love to have the time to go through IT princliples and best practices. Like a lot of companies, IT is under funded, under staffed and stressfull. We do the best we can with what we are given hence why I'm looking for a new job next year.

When I started out in IT I was full of ideas and enthusiastic about my job for about 6 months but basically nobody gives a toss about being educated in IT security/best practices as all they are bothered about is being able to check the football results. Hence why I want my MCSA then I'm going to start to look at getting out of IT support. Maybe I'm unlucky with where I am. Hopefully my next job in IT will restore my faith in what I do.

i'm still using internet explorer are these other browsers really that much better, if so where can i get hold of one, and which i best, thanks

Firefox - which is what the thread was about originaly, is available from www.mozilla.org.

Harry.

My first preference is Opera, but I find it crashes far more than either firefox of IE. That said, its has a feature whereby you can resume from the previous session which is handy. I do wish Opera would be more stable as I prefer it to Firefox. Firefox is my second choice. IE is really only used if a site fails to load in either of the other 2 browsers (don't get me started on lousy web design...)

I do find IE 7 slower than either opera or firefox. Pages do look good though..

That's odd Clyde, I use Opera on two PC's one running XP Pro and the other XP Media centre edition and it never crashes for me

Also IE7 is more secure than IE6, well at least it has features which help protect you from malicious scripts and you can re-set things if your browser gets high-jacked. I still prefer Opera though.