The epic fail called IE9 has consequences for other programs

I was prepared to put up with the epic fail of IE9, since I hardly use the program. In the years I’ve had IE8, I’ve only opened it accidentally (e.g. when certain programs are removed, they load IE for the ‘Why did you remove it?’ customer screen).
   But I forgot one thing: some programs rely on IE to display their information, like the Windows sidebar gadgets and McAfee.
   Bit of a problem when IE9 doesn’t actually display anything.

   So Microsoft’s ineptitude has consequences that reach far further than its crappy browser.
   I wish I could tell Microsoft. Many, many years ago, after registering some Microsoft product, I was asked to sign up to the Microsoft Network. So I did.
   Then, one day, Microsoft insisted that I sign up for a Microsoft Passport, because this was the one sign-on that I needed to get in to every one of its services. Well, I didn’t use any other than registering software. But I did anyway.
   Problem: that no longer works, because Microsoft now insists that I sign up for a Windows Live ID.
   MS, this is just stupid.
   In 1999, we had a Yahoo! Group list. We no longer run it after we moved our users on to an in-house mailing list. And, you know what? My little company, a fraction of the size of Microsoft, will still honour the requests from the old Yahoo! members.
   If we can keep old user data, how come Microsoft can’t keep hold of registered customers’ data and move it over to each successive service? How can I be assured that this doesn’t actually hook me up to a third Microsoft service when in fact I only expect one?
   Or was MSN for the 1990s, Passport for the 2000s, and Windows Live for the 2010s? That we have to change each decade because Microsoft doesn’t work on a long-term basis?
   Even though quite a few people suffer from the blank screen problem of IE9, Microsoft won’t be hearing it from me.
   I understand that this bug had plagued IE9 even at beta stage, if the McAfee forums are to be believed.
   You’d think it would be pretty serious if an internet browser couldn’t display, but it looks like Microsoft never fixed it for its final release.
   The one thing it did right was providing instructions on how to remove IE9, which I followed tonight. I am glad my gadgets have returned, along with text in my McAfee security program.
   Frankly, I don’t think McAfee or any other software developer should rely on IE to deliver screens, though I can understand why, with the standardized installation of the program in Windows.
   What a pity, then, that Microsoft cannot deliver a browser that works with its own products.