One of the most commonly used pieces of software on personal computers worldwide; Internet Explorer is also one the buggiest. In fact, it will be difficult for any user to remember a longish web-surfing session when he/she did not encounter at least one Internet Explorer error.

Ever since Microsoft Inc. won the browser wars in the late ‘90-s by tightly integrating their Internet Explorer product with the Windows platform and thus shutting out the rival product from Netscape Inc., they let their browser division stagnate and languish. There was no reason why they should continue to pour money into a game that had already been decided in their favor. So the development and maintenance of Internet Explorer largely stuck to where it was in the late ‘nineties, and remained there till very recently.

Meanwhile, the internet developed into a veritable jungle. Numerous new ways to exploit and take over other people’s computers were invented and used. New beasts like cross-site scripting, unblockable pop-ups and other bits of malicious code embedded in plain-looking html went on a rampage, making it very very unadvisable for users of the undercooked Internet Explorer to go online unprotected by various brands of anti-malware programs.

Just to find out how many Internet Explorer errors you never even get to know about, try this out. Activate script debugging and notifications for script errors before you go checking your web-based mail or your favorite news website or blog. You can access the relevant options through the Tools -> Options -> Advanced menu inside Internet Explorer. It’s a good bet that you’ll find it impossible to do any real work, and want to turn it off in a few minutes.

Turning Internet Explorer error notifications off, however, isn’t the best solution. The errors keep mounting up, you just don’t get to know about them. Another thing to do is to turn off scripting support altogether, through the same menu. But on most modern interactive websites, that would also turn off most of the functionality.

To add to Internet Explorer’s woes, Netscape’s old product seems to have risen from the ashes, sporting a new look and much, much improved performance – it’s called Firefox. It’s small, fast, extensible, and features many revolutionary concepts (think tabbed browsing, for instance) that Microsoft never thought of. Started and maintained by a voluntary non-profit organization, this upstart new kid on the block has eaten into Internet Explorer’s market share at an incredible rate.

Because of its tight integration with the Windows shell, Internet Explorer errors also generate another kind of problem – when the browser goes down, it often tends to take the whole system down with it. A bad script on a website hosted halfway across the world may be responsible for crashing your bedroom PC ten times a day.

Microsoft is sitting up and taking notice, but its new product, Internet Explorer 7, is still playing catch-up with the dark horse that stormed past while it was having its beauty sleep.

To avoid Internet Explorer errors, then, you should switch over to something that’s freely downloadable, far more secure and much lighter on the system – Firefox, or Opera, which is another little-known but outstanding browser that deserves much more popularity than it gets.