Introduction of Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2): be warned

The much-heralded Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2) version just became available from Microsoft a short time ago, at which time the company put out a promotion describing all of its desirable new features. So I downloaded it, which was very easy, taking only a few minutes. But, a day or two later, I found to my horror that I could no longer paste text from a Word Perfect page (by using "Edit" and "Copy") onto a page of a new e-mail (using Outlook Express) that I was creating. Other than very short ones, I always create e-mails that way (so I can edit and use Spell Check in Word Perfect before copying to the e-mail).

At first, I had no idea that my problem was caused by the downloading of IE7 because I didn’t know that there was any connection between Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. After much time spent, I learned that the downloading of IE7 was causing the problem. To uninstall it I had to contact tech service at Hewlett Packard (Windows XP had been installed at the factory on my computer) to remove it and go back to IE6, which cost me $45, my computer being out of warranty.

The situation was like taking a prescription drug that offers benefits in one way but has unacceptable side effects.

IE7 may be wonderful for anyone who doesn’t use my method of creating e-mails, but if you do, be warned.