Microsoft has admitted that its recently launched
Internet Explorer 7 browser can slow down users’ PCs.
“The computer may respond very slowly”, said the company, “as
the integrated Phishing Filter in the browser evaluates web page
content”.
The anti-phishing tool was a key new feature to the browser, but
Microsoft has been forced to issue an update for Windows XP and
Windows Server systems loaded with the browser, to help them avoid
slowing down.
Microsoft said the problem can occur when the web page viewed
contains many frames or many frames are viewed “in a short
time”.
The company said Internet Explorer 7 evaluates the whole web
page when each frame is viewed. Therefore, said Microsoft, “CPU
usage may be very high”.
As well as the update download, Microsoft also offers the
perhaps surprising workaround of disenabling the anti-phishing
filter altogether – even though it was a main reason for IE7 being
introduced in the first place.
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