Anilrgowda

We are major Microsoft Vista users, having it deployed on a variety of machines with different hardware configurations.
Since installing Vista, we have been experiencing a common issue on Vista Home Premium, Vista Business and Vista Ultimate packages, all using Internet Explorer 7.0 with the latest service packs installed.

The issue involves the untimely crash and restart behavior of Internet Explorer 7.0 in Vista. Here is a scenario of the behavior:
A user is using Internet Explorer with multiplate tabs open, and potentially multiple browser instances open (which is very common behavior).


Suddenly, and without warning, Internet Explorer will experience a crash. The crash is sudden, because often it doesn't seem that anything special was happening to cause it (no risky behavior).


Next, it will restart itself


The user will finally be left with a single Internet Explorer window, with a single tab pointing to the user's homepage.


The first major disturbing issue with this problem is that multiple windows and tabs are lost without any warning or chance to save information. In today's world, the browser is an application platform, a banking platform, and a work platform...so unexpected window and tab loss equates to uncontrolled data loss.

More disturbing is the fact that we have experienced this issue multiple times while the machine in question was idle...no user actions were being taken. A user can walk away from a desk (say, at lunch)...return to the desk, and find only a single browser window open to the homepage, with NO NOTIFICATION OF ERROR.

Previous to Vista and Internet Explorer 7, browser crashes did occur, and were problematic. In those cases, it was infrequent to have a crash occur that could leave the users not sure it had happened, because there was no error window...only a browser opened to the homepage.

This issue seems to be related to available memory resources...the lower the amount of ram, the more likely this will be experienced.

Until this major problem is resolved, it is recommended not using Internet Explorer 7 with Vista, on machines with less than 2 gig of ram (the exact amount will depend on what is running on the machine). Likely, Firefox will be the best alternative in situations where it is workable.

Source:Boolean Labs - algorithms.exposed.to.the.web.

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