Microsoft has published the whitepaper “Enhancing the performance of Windows Internet Explorer 8” recently which provides information about Internet Explorer 8 performance issues and how they can be resolved.
The company addresses five general issues that from their experience and statistics affect Internet Explorer 8 performance the most. The whitepaper concludes with two advanced tips to increase the performance of the web browser.
The main part of the browser analyzes the general issues starting with web browser add-ons and toolbars that can be a reason for a low performance. Every Internet Explorer 8 user has between 5 and 6 add-ons installed which can drop the performance of the web browser according to Microsoft.
The whitepaper lists the top 20 add-ons that are installed. Included are popular add-ons like the Google Toolbar, Windows live Sign-In Helper, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Windows Live Toolbar and Yahoo Toolbar but also lesser known add-ons like the Kingsoft Browser Shield, Baidu Toolbar or the Adware Stickypops.
Add-ons attribute to more than 70% of all Internet Explorer 8 crashes, a figure that seems incredibly high. Microsoft explains the different ways add-ons are installed in Internet Explorer (for instance through software installations) and details how add-ons can be removed to speed up the web browser.
The next four issues that the whitepaper addresses are:
- Checking the computer for malware and spyware.
- Verifying the Restricted Sites list.
- Making sure you have the latest add-ons and software updates.
- Reset Internet Explorer 8’s settings
The advanced tips explain how to increase the connection limit of Internet Explorer to optimize the performance, and to analyze the user agent.
The whitepaper can be downloaded for free at the Microsoft website.
Update: The whitepaper is no longer available. The link that pointed to it on the Microsoft site returns a 404 not found error when you try to open it.
Things have changed a bit in 2016. Microsoft launched Edge, a new add-on and plugin-free browser for Windows 10 that will replace Internet Explorer eventually.
The default browser for home users is Edge on Windows 10. While they may use Internet Explorer as well as it is part of Windows 10, most Home users probably stick with Edge or switch to a third-party browser instead.