Cumulative update may hose IE6

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 20 December 2007 00:37

Business IT - Technology

Applying the Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer issued by Microsoft this month may cause Internet Explorer 6 to crash when visiting a web site.

Microsoft officials say that the while the update does provide protection against the vulnerabilities it addresses, "a small number of customers" using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP2 are encountering this problem.

Microsoft has provided instructions for making a registry change that will work around the problem. Non-technically inclined users may find it easier to switch to an alternative browser such as Firefox or Opera.

While no promises have been made, it seems likely that Microsoft will provide a fix (as opposed to a workaround) for the problem on a subsequent Patch Tuesday.