JavaScript differences between IE7 XP and IE7 Vista?

[ddadmin]

Does anyone know what differences exist in JavaScript/ DHTML rendering between IE7 XP and IE7 Vista? Clearly there are some, because I was over at my brother's this weekend (who uses Vista), and was surprised that a few scripts on DD don't run correctly in IE7 Vista. For example:

1) Image Thumbnail Viewer II: Basically nothing shows up, I suspect due to the IE filters used somehow.

2) DHTML modal window: When a window is activated onclick, the "veil" doesn't cover the entire document, just the viewable window.

I tried Vista, and didn't like it at all. So many security prompts even for the most obvious things, so many incompatible programs (even MSN 8.1 doesn't run, I needed to downgrade to MSN 8.0), not to mention a whole bunch of other nuisances. So clearly I don't want to have to buy a Vista PC now just to run a few DHTML scripts on it. lol

[mburt]

Yeah... it's pretty bad, the fact that they were saying that Vista would be all that much better, and it turns out that most people don't like it.

[thetestingsite]

As for right now, I can check what's going on in IE7 on XP (Home and Pro). As for testing on Vista, I will have to wait untill I go into work tomorrow so that I have access to a Vista PC (I haven't tried to install VNC on it yet due to those said security prompts).

[ddadmin]

I was mainly wondering if there is documentation somewhere listing the differences between the two versions of IE7 as far as JavaScript/ DHTML rendering. Clearly there are differences if I'm witnessing them first hand, but I'm curious on the how/why part.

[thetestingsite]

Ah...I would think that the Microsoft website would have some info on it. Although, M$ has been known to not talk about their flaws.

[techno_race]

Another example - I make a holiday detection JavaScript. Set it for Christmas. Open it in IE7 on Vista. It says it's Christmas. I try it on a professional-made one. It also says it's Christmas. I check my calendar. It's the middle of February.

[jscheuer1]

A quick Google search tends to imply that this information hasn't been gathered together yet:

Search:

windows vista browser rendering quirks

Results:

http://www.google.com/search?client=...utf-8&oe=utf-8

I get the impression that the added security of Vista combined with the fact that it really doesn't seem to have all the kinks worked out yet may be at the root of these rendering differences.

How about a:

document.write('This page best not viewed in Windows Vista')

Added:

It just occurred to me again answering a similar question to this one elsewhere that, although there are apparent differences, I think folks will be exaggerating this in their minds and seeing differences where there are none or attributing the cause to Vista when it is in fact something else.

[ddadmin]

Yep, I did try to research this topic on Google first, though didn't come across anything useful.

I think folks will be exaggerating this in their minds and seeing differences where there are none or attributing the cause to Vista when it is in fact something else.

To a certain extent that's bound to happen, but when something that works in Win XP IE7 perfectly fails miserably in IE7 Vista, as if these are two different browsers, I think there's something inherently different about these two browsers that Microsoft should let developers know, for everyone's sake. Lets see how long I can avoid getting a new PC soon in light of this latest snag on the road. I've been going about fine for close to 5 years now with my current PC, and planned to at least go another year. heh

[jscheuer1]

I've been looking at things on the web some more too but, nothing specific jumps out. I get the impression that this 'default protected mode' for browsing in Vista may be preventing certain features (as you alluded to with filters) from being available.

I didn't mean to imply that there are no differences though. I did run across a dated (circa 2006) IE Blog entry on naming and testing for IE 7 Vista. The major difference is that in Vista the OS is NT 6.0 (for testing) and they wanted to refer to IE 7 Vista as IE 7+ and caught a lot of flack for that as it is so much like saying IE 5.5+ to cover 5.5 and later.

[Twey]

I think that in Vista's version, ActiveX is disabled by default, which would explain the filter troubles.