SOLVED! Disable Windows Firewall to allow IE 8 and other programs internet access
I just spent several hours reading forums and nobody mentioned windows firewall.
You need to log in as admin (if you have a seperate admin profile) and click start, then type windows firewall in the search box.
Once in the windows firewall screen, you will see it is ON for public, private, and other options. You need to click the link that allows you to change the settings. Please be advised there are settings on each tab of the change settings screen and you will need to turn off the firewall on each tab.
Why is windows firewall not automatically allowing IE8, a microsoft product, but IS allowing firefox? Embarrassing to say the least for microsoft who should know that IE is going to be used immediately by the owner of the system? This should have been a default allowed program.
Another frustrating fact is the inability to reinstall IE8 or uninstall it from the standard unistall menu? This might have been an easier fix than figuring out windows firewall was blocking it.
I recently upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 and now I am encountering all of these problems. Microsoft, when will we get past all the hype of a better os and actually have a bullet proof os?
Amazingly enough, XP was probably the best operating system that was ever made. It was light and fast. I have it on a netbook and on a laptop. Yes, it also has problems and there are security issues, but my desktop is a much more powerful computer than the other two, and it runs slow as molasses because of Vista and now, Windows 7.
The first attempt of updates was 24 updates for Windows 7, and on two occassions I received errors that the updates did not take and had to be reversed?
I'm sorry, but why was the upgrade I downloaded off of Microsoft's website not already fixed with all these updates so they wouldn't have to be downloaded later.
I have purchased microsoft products for years...always believed they are the best and better than apple. But I am getting to the point where I am willing to try other OS from different manufacturers....because I am spending huge amounts of time just keeping my microsoft systems running properly.
Here's the deal - I would pay $1000 for an OS that was fast as lightining, stable, and worked on demand. Seems every update breaks something though.
My system is a core 2 duo intel E8400 @3.00 GHZ with 6 GB ram on a 64 bit OS platform.