IE gets 'fixed' and users get panicky

Yesterday, my partner, who works as an IT consultant for freelancers and other individuals, had his workday interrupted by panicked calls from two of his less technically-adept clients. They said their browsers were "broken."

What happened? Along with a variety of important patches, Microsoft had pushed Internet Explorer 8 to their PCs, and these poor babes in the woods had no idea how to make it work.

It wasn't that IE8 itself crashed -- it installed fine. But users who had been happily using YouTube, eBay, various Google apps, and a variety of Flash-dependent sites -- and who had accepted their weekly Microsoft updates as a usual event -- suddenly found that many of their add-ons (such as Flash) no longer worked.

I realize that it can be hard for many of us to have too much sympathy for users who aren't knowledgeable enough to tweak a new version of their browser so that it can accept their add-ons. But think about how most of us live with our automobiles. We're capable of filling the gas tank, and checking the air pressure and oil. But when you hear a mysterious noise, most drivers have no way of knowing whether they simply need new brake pads or whether the transmission is about to give up the ghost. Unless you're a home (or professional) mechanic, spending five hours trying to figure it out isn't really a useful option.

Microsoft, apparently, feels that it is. After convincing thousands of users that the company knows what's best for them, and that they should therefore accept the weekly updates that come their way, it pushed through an update that effectively interrupted the usefulness of their systems. (Yes, Microsoft did issue a blocking tool for people who did not want to have IE8 pushed to their systems. How many users do you think heard about it?)

So what can these people do? If they have the presence of mind (and make it through several pages on the Microsoft support site), they can call Microsoft and hope for a sympathetic support tech -- one who knows how to interpret "YouTube has stopped working!" to mean "my current version of Flash isn't working with my IE8 upgrade."

If they have the funds, they can call a service or other professional to take care of it.

If they don't have the funds, they will start calling us -- the siblings/sons/daughters/grandchildren/college friends who are their go-to folks when it comes to anything technical.

Thanks, Microsoft.