Risks of installing Internet Explorer 4.0 (frwd)

[Paul Wittry <ppw3@premier1.net>]

  Hello Group,
  
  Mind if I throw a log on the fire? This forwarded message appeared in:
  
  Risks-Forum Digest  Friday 17 October 1997  Volume 19 : Issue 41
  
  Have fun!
  
  Paul
  
  ____________________Forwarded_Message__________________
  
  >Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 21:41:18 -0700 (PDT)
  >From: "Bryan O'Sullivan" <bos@serpentine.com>
  >Subject: Risks of installing Internet Explorer 4.0
  >
  >I just downloaded and installed Microsoft Internet Exploder 4.0 onto my PC
  >running Windows 95 at home.  Among the optional features that come with this
  >release are a few tidbits that were included with Plus!, the mostly-useless
  >set of bells and whistles that was packaged separately from Windows 95.
  >
  >Two of these features are opaque window manipulation (when you move or
  >resize a window, the entire window moves in real time, rather than a
  >rubberband representation being tweaked) and anti-aliasing of large fonts.
  >The anti-aliasing feature is quite useful; it makes fonts in large point
  >sizes noticeably less pixelated.  However, in this feature lies a small, and
  >somewhat malicious, piece of code.
  >
  >This snippet of code apparently checks to see whether it is being asked to
  >render a font by the Netscape Navigator browser (or, indeed, any component
  >of the Communicator 4.x suite).  If it is, it gives back a plain old
  >jagged-edged font; otherwise, in every instance I have been able to check,
  >it gives back an anti-aliased font.
  >
  >This appears to be a clear instance of discriminatory coding on the part of
  >Microsoft, and is intended, one presumes, to make Navigator look somewhat
  >cruddy in comparison with MSIE (not to mention all of the other software on
  >a system).  It begs a troubling question: what other features were included
  >in MSIE 4.0 that were intended to, in some sense, impede the software of
  >Microsoft's competitors?
  >
  >
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