Internet Explorer 6 printing problem

[djm]

Hey everyone

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to post this problem but I'll post it anyway and if it is the wrong forum then my apologies but if anyone could help I would really appreciate it.

So here goes...

No doubt you all recognise the following problem while trying to print from a browser:

A error has occured in the script of this page.

Line: 1021
Char: 1
Error: 'body.tagName' is Null or not an object
Code: 0
URL: res://C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHDOCLC.DLL/preview.dlg

Do you want to continue running scripts on this page? yes or no?

I receieve this message everytime I try to print from an HTML file / document (which are not uploaded or online) but not when I try to print from an actual online web page...

I am aware that this problem is within the iepeers.dll file and occurs quite a lot, affecting a lot of people but I have still not been able to fix it despite the numerous resources online to help me fix this problem.

Also as I mentioned earlier, my problem seems to be from trying to print within an HTML file / document and not from web pages...

Any help on this would really be appreciated.

I am using Windows ME and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1.

I have also attached a jpg image of the problem below.

Thanks guys

djm

[cr3ative]

Use a different browser. IE is borked on your system.

I installed IE7, and now can't even get an About dialog without the thing crashing.

cr3

[djm]

yeah tempting but I'd rather fix the problem than avoiding it. And besides, not many browsers are as good as IE

djm

[cr3ative]

not many browsers are as good as IE

*collapses*

*waits for Twey to arrive*

[djm]

haha...fair enough...

djm

[Twey]

not many browsers are as good as IE

...
Actually, I think you'll find it's the other way around I'm going to concentrate on Firefox here, but it's not the only example, merely the most currently prominent one.
Ahem.

• User interface: "Tabbed browsing" is a marvellous concept, and has been around for a long, long time. Recently made popular by the Firefox browser, I can show you screenshots of text-mode browsers with working tabs. However, IE's makers have only just caught on to this (IE7 should have them), preferring to clutter up the desktop with windows.
• Web annoyances: I seem to be unable to use IE for more than an hour without getting snowed under by popups, popunders, installation requests, **** adverts and big red-and-green-flashing banners proclaiming that I'm the "ONE MILLINTH VISTOR TOO ARE SIGHT" (up to five times in a row, oddly). IE now has some rudimentary popup blocking, but it's still far from the standard of Firefox, and Firefox' extensions allow for further security - I almost never get unwanted popups, and the few that do manage to get by (I haven't had one since August, and that the seventh in total I've ever suffered using Firefox for a good couple of years) are opened in tabs in the background - a simple matter of middle-clicking the offending tab, without a need to even look at it.
• Security: Internet Explorer is listed by sans.org as the number six Windows vulnerability of all time. To quote:

  1. Large Number of vulnerabilities over the last few years in comparison to other browsers - 153 IE vulnerabilities since April 2001, according to the Security Focus Archive.
  2. Longer Time to patch known IE vulnerabilities - Users have had to wait in excess of six months from the time the vulnerability is disclosed before Microsoft issues a patch.
  3. Active X and Active Scripting controls themselves have not been found to be open to particular exploitation, but can be used to bypass the security constructs of the browser and potentially impact upon the host system.
  4. Large number of unpatched vulnerabilities - 34, according to http://umbrella.name/
  5. Spyware/Adware vulnerabilities - This affects all browsers and systems that facilitate access and use of web resources.
  6. Integration of IE browser into the Operating System, which makes the OS more vulnerable to exploitation.

Internet Explorer has only one thing keeping it in the market at the moment: ironically, its biggest problem: the integration with Windows. This leads to several misconceptions and partial graspings of facts:

• Internet Explorer is faster than other browsers. Internet Explorer is preloaded at startup, giving the impression that it is faster to load than other browsers. In fact, this is not true: the loading time is merely moved around.
• Internet Explorer renders more pages correctly./Internet Explorer has more features for web developers. Unfortunately true. However, this is not a good thing: the reason it renders more pages correctly is that the pages are built for it, not the other way around. This creates a disadvantage for users of other browsers, as many of IE's features are not standards-compliant, resulting in pages only viewable (or only viewable correctly) in Internet Explorer, and impacts upon the Internet's biggest boon: its platform independence (as Internet Explorer is only available for Windows and Mac OS, and the Mac OS version doesn't render things quite the same as the more popular Windows version). Hence, any page that relies upon these "more features" will not display properly in uplevel browsers.
• Internet Explorer is easier to use. It follows the general theme of the operating system, but it is not the only browser with an easily-grasped interface. Most other popular browsers, as well, are capable of importing settings from Internet Explorer or the surrounding operating system, with no manual setup by the user.

Internet Explorer is also "irrevocably" tied in with the operating system. In all likelihood, Microsoft do this just so that they can continue to distribute their browser with their operating system, keeping it as the dominent browser amongst Windows users (opinions differ). From the Windows user's point of view, this means that he or she gets lumped with a piece of buggy, insecure software that he or she may not even want to use.

Some alternatives you might want to try (none require purchase):
Firefox (currently the second most popular browser)
Opera (a browser that prides itself on speed)
Netscape (now owned by AOL)
The W3C's Amaya
Links (a very nice [comparatively ] text-based browser - the one with tabs I mentioned)

P.S. You caught me at a bad time to ask about Internet Explorer... my motherboard just got fried, and I'm stuck with using Windows and IE on my friend's PC until I get another