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The only "tweak" that will improve IE's sluggish performance is to install Chrome or (even better) Safari 4.

I don't know. I ran Ed's "tweak" when he first made the post on his blog and somehow IE8 "feel" snappier. I don't know though if "feels" snappier because I ran the tweak expecting it to work but IE8 does "feel" snappier to me.

The real fix is to zap your PRAM.

You have been a great audience. I will be here all week. Tip your waitresses.

"The only "tweak" that will improve IE's sluggish performance is to install Chrome or (even better) Safari 4."

For once, you may be right. It might just be a matter of perception and once the user sees how much Safari sucks on Windows, it might improve their perception of IE8. Good tip there!

That Raf Rivera doesn't stuff around does he?

@robertsjoe What type of sad  life does one lead if they cling to that sort of negativity?

Perhaps you could find yourself a nice Linux-loving enclave of the internet (don't tell me you can't find one) and join a mutual appreciation society where you discuss how awesome it is in your cave, and how everyone in the other cave is wrong.

Never mind that the rest of us don't live in caves.

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I think it was faster after the tweak but it wasn't really slow before the tweak. So maybe its all in my imagination. I'll try it on my older slower machine and see if its just the power of suggestion.  I wish there was a tweak to make FF3.0 load within a day or two of starting it. 3.1 beta is fine loads instantly same # of bookmarks and feeds. Chrome is fast but its butt ugly and Safari on Windows is as bad as itunes anywhere.

I'm using IE6 running in wine on FreeBSD and I gotta say IE8 has come a long way. Now they need to get going on 9 and I hope it doesn't take tree years.

"Zap your PRAM"

LOL! Man, I haven't heard that one in years!

@whiplash55: Hey, I saw your reply about IE7Pro but before I could reply, Paul had closed the thread. That alsways happens to me!

Yep. I know about IE7Pro :-) It's the only addon, that I know of, that IE(8) really needs, and hopefully we'll get IEPro for IE8. I don't use the Mini Download Manager in IE7pro but the spell-checker is nice!

PS RE: "Chrome is fast but its butt ugly."

I'm not sure about that but what I don't like about Chrome is its lack of features common in other browsers. I like Chrome and can see myself using it in the future, when it has more features, but right now I just don't know.

I think it was faster after the tweak but it wasn't really slow before the tweak. So maybe its all in my imagination. I'll try it on my older slower machine and see if its just the power of suggestion.  I wish there was a tweak to make FF3.0 load within a day or two of starting it. 3.1 beta is fine loads instantly same # of bookmarks and feeds. Chrome is fast but its butt ugly and Safari on Windows is as bad as itunes anywhere.

I'm using IE6 running in wine on FreeBSD and I gotta say IE8 has come a long way. Now they need to get going on 9 and I hope it doesn't take tree years.

Dang. The quote should have been "Chrome is ... butt ugly."

I don't know if it's an ugly browser (in Windows XP), thought could do with some paint.

I think it was faster after the tweak but it wasn't really slow before the tweak. So maybe its all in my imagination. I'll try it on my older slower machine and see if its just the power of suggestion.  I wish there was a tweak to make FF3.0 load within a day or two of starting it. 3.1 beta is fine loads instantly same # of bookmarks and feeds. Chrome is fast but its butt ugly and Safari on Windows is as bad as itunes anywhere.

I'm using IE6 running in wine on FreeBSD and I gotta say IE8 has come a long way. Now they need to get going on 9 and I hope it doesn't take tree years.

Either the forum software is repeating things, or several posters from whom I wouldn't expect that are.  (I only will post this once.)

I think it was faster after the tweak but it wasn't really slow before the tweak. So maybe its all in my imagination. I'll try it on my older slower machine and see if its just the power of suggestion.  I wish there was a tweak to make FF3.0 load within a day or two of starting it. 3.1 beta is fine loads instantly same # of bookmarks and feeds. Chrome is fast but its butt ugly and Safari on Windows is as bad as itunes anywhere.

I'm using IE6 running in wine on FreeBSD and I gotta say IE8 has come a long way. Now they need to get going on 9 and I hope it doesn't take tree years.

Chrome butt ugly? Yet you use Windows. That immediately tells me that you have no taste.

@mikegalos: Still not goingt o give Dave Winer as being the co-creator of XML-RPC (along with MSFT)?

Sorry to disabuse your "science" but on my Vista 32 bit Ultimate machine IE8 performed significantly faster after the useless Bott tweak than before. Before, it was a pig. After, it seems almost as fast as Google Chrome or Safari 4.

@robertsjoe.

You said:

"Chrome butt ugly? Yet you use Windows. That immediately tells me that you have no taste."

Check again, he says he uses FreeBSD. 'Guess the opinion that Chrome is butt ugly has gone cross-platform.

This tweak worked on my PC at work and it was definitively not in my imagination.

Before the tweak IE8 needed several seconds to open a new tab and after the tweak it has been taking less than one second.

Moreover IE8 has been definitvely more responsive.

So yes the weak work.

This said it is not the first time that an apparently  useless tweak fix some problem on some Microsoft product.

I remember that there was a stupid ,and almost impossible to guess, tweak to fix a problem with the  install of the french edition of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

We were able to install it without trouble the first time.

However at the second install ,it was almost impossible to install it.

The tweak to fix it was to change the language of the SQL Server 2005 with aim to use from french to english.

After we get no more problem with CRM install.

At least Ed Bott is doing some work. From a look at last weeks postings you seem to have played with a few consoles, read a few blogs and re-installed windows 7. All the screen shots must be really stretching you.

You're not even doing any work here - you're posting what two other writers are working on.

rj, responding to your recent post about the takeover of the 7/IE8 combo, two things.  First, you forgot that Safari was the first to go, AGAIN.  Second, through responsible disclosure by the event organizers, MS already has fixed the flaw with the released to web version of IE8, making the attack worthless.  So, thanks for trying, but you are wrong, once again.  But that's like saying water is wet.

"Chrome butt ugly? Yet you use Windows. That immediately tells me that you have no taste."

My macbook air boots windows 7 by default now.  W7 is KILLING mac os.

Was listening to TWIT. It's funny that Paul was complaining about MS not listening to user feedback until a week ago and now he complains about MS listening to user feedback. :)

bobbyjo,

"@mikegalos: Still not goingt o give Dave Winer as being the co-creator of XML-RPC (along with MSFT)? "

Sure. As you may recall, it wasn't meant to be a thorough dissertation on the protocol, just a discussion of what pingback meant. Happy to give Dave Winer at Userland credit as an author along with Microsoft for XML-RPC and for SOAP.

Glad you're finally admitting even partially that Microsoft invented key technologies you're using. That's a big step for you.

Odd. Both my IE8 installlations have been excellent and for the first time I didn't bother installing Firefox on my home machine.

A colleague said the complete opposite and that he'd move to Firefox for the first time as IE8 was a bloated "dog".  I sent him the Ed Bott article and he said it fixed both his installations first time.

"Zap your PRAM"

Doesn't "Pram" make car air filters or something?

trieste,

Yeah, it's called a "blog." That's what it's for. As for Ed doing "work," what did he really do?  He read something someone else wrote, tried it out and published (too soon, as it turns out) a tip about it. Sounds like ... a blog.

But I don't think anyone's ever suggested i don't work enough before. Given that I spent about 12 hours this weekend writing, mostly for my next book, I guess I'm a bit taken aback by that comment. But don't make the mistake of thinking this blog is all I do. It's by far the smallest piece.

Shark,

Funny as in ha-ha or funny as in weird?

I don't think its either. But then what you said is simply inaccurate.

What I've commented on is that Microsoft did not get enough feedback early in the beta and is responding to feedback now, late in the game, too much. This isn't contradictory as you suggest, not at all.

BTW, what this all comes down to is simple. Raf knows how to break into things and find out how they work. When he says this "hack" doesn't do anything, he says so from a position of understanding, not conjecture. Ed's usually far more rigorous in going about and getting to the truth. But he pulled the trigger on this "tip" far too early, which he pretty much admits. What we're seeing here is simple: People see what they want to see. It's a classic placebo effect. Ed tells them this will speed up IE and, lo and behold, IE now runs just fine.

BTW: I once saw a massive flying saucer formation in Phoenix.  (No, really.) That doesn't prove that there's life on other planets.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I think Chrome is quite attractive. I'm sure it's the minimalist, Google-type UI that does it, sort of like Gmail or whatever. The get-out-of-your-way interface.

@Paul

Why not just boot these guys from posting here?

I mean, look at what they do to every topic you post:

* Off-topic links just to start a flame war.

* Personal insults to you and others.

* General trolling just to disrupt and pimp for Apple on a site called Winsupersite.com.

I would have had no tolerance for that type of nonsense. A good back and forth discussion between mature adults? That's great! Their nonsense and childishness should have been taken care of long ago.

@Paul

Raf may be a really, really, really great computer scientist but... If Ed's tweak works, and it works for me as well as others, Rafael, like Einstein when he talked about quantum physics, may be wrong.

Regarding IE8 starting slowly, this can be caused by a long list of blocked sites in the restricted sites zone.  If you're using the Immunize feature in Spybot S&D and SpywareBlaster then the number of entries can easily be over 10,000.  For some reason this didn't have a big impact on IE7, but it slows IE8 badly.  I used Deldomains.inf to clear the sites list and IE8 startup performance improved dramatically.

"Ed tells them this will speed up IE and, lo and behold, IE now runs just fine."

....like the economy....

"What we're seeing here is simple: People see what they want to see. It's a classic placebo effect. Ed tells them this will speed up IE and, lo and behold, IE now runs just fine."

I repeat it,i didn't saw what i expected to see as generally this kind of trick doesn't work as expected for me.

This time i didn't expect any significant improvement of IE8 speed and responsiveness but it is exactly what gets: greater speed and enhanced responsiveness.

@Paul,

I have to agree with Master3. There's a fine line between intelligent discussion and what these trolls or "icabalists" as you have denoted are are doing. There are plenty of ways to retool the supersite blog to ban, ignore, or moderate this blog. Its really bad when these guys hijack this forum for their self deluded ideology.  So far none of them have really brought any real arguments to the table. I would recommend considering a modification or greater moderation.

I believe IE 8 works just fine. compared to the beta and pre-RC code, its definitely gettting the job done and themsome. Since Rivera has been pretty spot on about most of the tweaks, hacks, and creations that he's done, Rivera has credibility with me. So I will definitely take his word on it. However, I do trust Ed Bott as well.

@mikegalos: "Glad you're finally admitting even partially that Microsoft invented key technologies you're using. That's a big step for you."

I do give credit. In this case, you didn't give Winer credit. :)

"Funny as in ha-ha or funny as in weird?

I don't think its either. But then what you said is simply inaccurate.

What I've commented on is that Microsoft did not get enough feedback early in the beta and is responding to feedback now, late in the game, too much. This isn't contradictory as you suggest, not at all."

Sure. But it sounded funnier when I said it. :)