IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

EricLaw [MSFT] — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:06:21 GMT

@KG: IE's security settings check only shows the warning on startup if you've set your settings so loosely that a remote web page can take over your computer with no prompt. It is simply not safe to browse the web in such a configuration.

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

KG — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:56:47 GMT

I'm sick of the popup on opening IE8 that tells me my security settings are 'bad'...who are they to decide what settings I want. let me decide that, not Microsoft...got a dam cheek and it is sure annoying and slows everthing down....back to firefox I think

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

8675309 — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:50:51 GMT

really they should design it like what wmc's oobe wizard looks like

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

jestempies — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:37:26 GMT

Certainly, as long as they leave interface design to interface designers.

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

Pog — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:18:33 GMT

jestempies, you should probably leave the lawyering to the lawyers.

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

jestempies — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:04:57 GMT

Even if they positively have to ask all those questions, they can still limit themselves to three screens and work on the language.

I also think that popping up a 'Do you want IE to be your default browser' dialog like virtually all the other browsers is _less_ likely to get EU all huffed up. The way they're doing it now is likely to be misleading.

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

Pog — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:56:28 GMT

jestempies, you're right, of course... but only sorta. it's blatently obvious that EVERYTHING about those screens was designed by lawyers.

Given the fact that the EU is stuffing their pockets with Microsoft and Intel's earnings as fast as they can, it's understandable that Microsofts lawyers made the ie team ask all of these questions.

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

jestempies — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:46:24 GMT

A word of advice, you should _never_ ask users questions they are likely not to understand, if only because it makes them feel bad _about themselves_.

If you want to present a feature like "Suggested Sites", just enable it by default and provide users with an easy way to disable it. Don't ask them if they want to use something they haven't tried yet. At the very least you should show a preview.

And if you need a simple rule to follow, just limit the amount of text to 160 chars per page, and hire a good technical copywriter.

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

jestempies — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:40:12 GMT

I'm sorry, but this "wizard" dialog represents everything I dislike about your software (and I actually _like_ your software):

Screen 1: Useless.

Screen 2: Unclear, seems like you're trying to spam me.

Screen 3: Why "express" instead "default"? Too many details and this should be the first screen.

Screen 4: Just show me a list of providers with the default selected.

Screen 5: Even if someone knew what that meant, why would she _not_ download those updates? Just download them automatically on startup or put it on screen 4 with the list.

Screen 6: I have absolutely no idea what that's about. Neither will my mom.

Screen 7: Why "SmartScreen Filter" and not "Security Filter" or "Phishing Filter"? To make it more obscure?

Screen 8: This should be a checkbox on the last screen or a pop-up when the browser starts (people are used to that.)

Screen 9: Same as Screen 6.

And why in the world does it have nine screens? Who's got that kind of time? Limit the number of pages to three, otherwise people will just close it as quickly as they can. Perhaps you should try downloading and installing other browsers, particularily Chrome.

One thing programmers have trouble understanding, is that adding more text makes a dialog less useful. More information isn't always better. More design elements is usually worse.

re: IE Setup Experience, just the facts (and the screenshots)

8675309 — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:51:23 GMT

search providers can be backed up by regedit so theres no problem deploying the same search settings