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Guerri Stevens
October 22nd, 2006, 10:09 AM
I bought a wireless adapter for my laptop and when I inserted the CD to install the software, it immediately told me that Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher was required, and it would go no further. My opinion of this is unprintable. I am now considering updating IE, but I don't have the faintest idea how. My current version is 5.00.3315.1000.

Any idea how to update it? I don't intend ever to use it, just have it available for things such as installing this adapter.

ndebord
October 22nd, 2006, 10:59 AM
I bought a wireless adapter for my laptop and when I inserted the CD to install the software, it immediately told me that Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher was required, and it would go no further. My opinion of this is unprintable. I am now considering updating IE, but I don't have the faintest idea how. My current version is 5.00.3315.1000.

Any idea how to update it? I don't intend ever to use it, just have it available for things such as installing this adapter.

Guerri,

These two sites should help you out here.

http://w3.z-add.co.uk/article/articleview/5/1/9/

http://browsers.evolt.org/

Gary Maltzen
October 22nd, 2006, 03:31 PM
What version of Windows are you running?
Which wi-fi adapter?

If Win2K or WinXP you should be able to install the adapter without all the IE-requiring manufacturer @#$! software. Hold the (left) shift key down while inserting the CD to keep the AutoRun software from executing. Once the CD has stopped running release the shift key and insert the adapter. When the 'new hardware' install wants to find the driver let it search the CD.

davidh
October 22nd, 2006, 10:56 PM
I bought a wireless adapter for my laptop and when I inserted the CD to install the software, it immediately told me that Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher was required, and it would go no further. My opinion of this is unprintable. I am now considering updating IE, but I don't have the faintest idea how. My current version is 5.00.3315.1000.

Any idea how to update it? I don't intend ever to use it, just have it available for things such as installing this adapter.

Guerri,

Even tho' you don't intend to use MS IE, there are various Windows programs that make use of various libraries (DLL's) built into MS IE. So for some people it may be impractical or impossible not to in-effect "run MS IE".

Since you apparently have MS IE 5.0 , that probably means that you are running Windows 98. If that is the case, then it may also be likely that there are a number of critical security updates to MS IE that you do not currently have. Unfortunately MS windowsupdate stopped allowing us to download critical security updates back in July 2006.

It may still be possible to update Windows 98 and MS 5 or 6 with all the critical security updates, at least up to the July 2006 time frame. OTOH it may be difficult to do so without accidentally hurting your system. I have not actually researched into this question.

As a stop gap precaution you probably should set security to HIGH in the Internet Zone in MS IE after you upgrade to MS IE 6, if you actually do upgrade. In any case, it would be a good idea to set security in the Internet zone as high as you can. If you ever do have to use MS IE, or some "hidden" component of it, you can always temporarily lower security level and then raise it back up again after exiting whatever site or host requires a lower security level (to run scripts, etc.)

I am currently running MS IE 6 on my Win 98 system and it has been updated to July 2006 level. As an added precaution, I also downloaded and installed McAfee siteadvisor for MS IE, and have not had trouble with it so far. (McAfee siteadvisor for Firefox crashes FF on my Win 98 PC but is ok on FF on my wife's Win XP PC.)

Just to give you a slight hint at the kinds of software that might use MS IE "under the hood" I might mention a couple: some RSS/XML readers, my Foxmail email program, Paltalk text/voice/video chat, etc.

Alternative remedies: take valium or brand-Y.

DH

Guerri Stevens
October 23rd, 2006, 06:04 AM
What version of Windows are you running?
Which wi-fi adapter?


I am running Windows 2000. The device is a Linksys Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, which plugs into the PCMCIA slot. I will give your suggestions a try and report back.

Guerri Stevens
October 23rd, 2006, 06:43 AM
I think I see the problem here. When I first tried to get the device installed, a Linksys technician walked me through steps to avoided the use of the CD's automatic process and thus got around the requirement for IE 5.5 or higher. I don't remember what steps we followed. However, just now I tried your method. When I got to the hardware wizard, I think I got two choices, one was to search for suitable drivers and the other was to display available drivers. I chose the latter, and the wizard wanted me to choose the device from its list. The only device in the list for Linksys was Linksys Ether 16 LAN card, which of course is not the device I've got.

This might explain the results I was getting from my previous installation, namely that I always got a status indicating that a cable was "not plugged in". It was evidently looking for an ethernet connector of some kind.

Anyway, this didn't work so I am continuing to think things over. I probably need an update of some kind for Windows 2000 so that the correct device will show up in the list. And I know that I really need a new computer altogether, but have enough to do right now without taking time to get one!

Gary Maltzen
October 23rd, 2006, 04:47 PM
Use "search for drivers" -- then select ONLY the CD as the source.

I'm guessing you have the WPC54G; I gave mine to my niece (for graduation) along with my laptop.