Disabled by default: Microsoft ups the ante in its war against VBScript on Internet Explorer Microsoft is dealing with the seemingly never-ending dribble of security problems with VBScript by muffling its cries. In Internet Explorer 11, at least. The browser gang had already deprecated the tech in Internet Explorer 11 unless you really, really wanted it but, as of July, upped the ante by disabling it by default for …
"So the Surface RT is really a tablet sized unsupported Windows phone rather than a Win 10 tablet"
Not unsupported - just unloved.
The RT tablets are still supported since they're just an ARM build of Windows 8, and they're set to receive security updates until 2023 - the only redeeming feature in the ecosystem in the end - 10 years of updates would be nice in Android and IOS as well. (some perspective: iOS 6 and Jellybean 4.1 were released in 2012 as well)
This is a good learning experience for you 3 guys to never buy a locked down device in the future...
</condescending>
You can jailbreak that device easily and perhaps try: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2353048
Firefox would be semi-trivial to port to ARM, including Windows RT ARM (WARM) *if* there was enough interest to warrant about 20 hours development time. Unfortunately due to its artificial limitations, all they are really good for now is filling up more landfills. Good job Microsoft.
The current Edge is being taken out back and shot. They're replacing it with a version of Chrome with Edge painted over-top. I can't imagine that would be easy to port to RT. It would probably be cheaper to just give everyone with a working Surface RT a new Surface Go.
we understand that writing secure non-trivial code is difficult, and even when problems are clearly identified, they're not easy to completely fix. ....
Unless and until one accepts that complete fixes are not possible, one will always be battling the past in the present whilst the future plays out free reign in the ...... well, shenanigans of others that continue to appear and multiply ever stronger and more persistent than just anything almighty?
And only shared there/here as a question for you to ask yourself.
Just ask Intel
The actual take-away point here is that Webkit, which started as the rendering engine in Konqueror before being Borged by Apple (along with CUPS), is becoming the de-facto web standard renderer. Only Firefox stands alone with Gecko now that IE's awfulness has bitten the proverbial dust.
Chrome is just a trojan horse for Google's services, as is Edge for MS'; regardless of IE's undead state (Un-bloody-dead! What's the bloody point?) you still can't trust a web browser to have your best interests front and centre.
VBscript would have had to go through similar security changes to JavaScript even if it wasn't proprietary, making it effectively a JavaScript clone without the cross-platform support.
Interacting with applications outside of a restricted browser sandbox seems useful up until it's obvious that it's a massive security hole.
I'm very surprised VBScript support has hung around this long. Silverlight, which came out to replace VBScript as Microsoft's proprietary anti-compatibility system is long gone. I've been a professional web developer for 10 years and even before that I don't recall a time where VBScript was a reasonable option for programming client-side scripting. Even thinking back to when I was in high school having a web application that only works in IE doesn't make any sense.
Internet Web Version = No.
Intranet Web Version = Maybe.
In the days before .Net and modern web development languages, it was a viable tool in the toolbox of things that could be used to for automating custom business processes.
HTA files were a way to duct-tape different systems together using Internet Explorer. I once wrote a system to integrate an internet-facing online store (it used Zen Cart or OS Commerce, I forget) with UPS Worldship running on a shipping station in a warehouse. It would automatically download new orders (via xml over https), print out the barcoded picking tickets, insert the customer information into the shipping software and read the weights and tracking numbers out of the UPS Software via ODBC, update the shopping cart with shipment status and tracking information, print invoices to include in the box, send shipping notices to customers with their tracking numbers and estimated delivery dates, etc. -- all automated and running in background. The only thing the warehouse picker had to do was pick up a box and picking ticket at one end of the line, fill it with product, stick it on the scale, stick the picking ticket under the barcode scanner, press enter after the last box was weighed, tape up the box and apply the labels (which were automatically printed as well)
There was even a automatically refreshing web-based dashboard that the front office could use to see how many orders were queued, how long the oldest order had been in the queue, any products that were nearing re-ordering points, etc. -- but that part used Javascript and PHP so that it could be pulled up from anywhere,
It was relatively simple to design and implement using HTA and VBScript, but to do the same thing today using "modern" development tools would take 4 times as long and would be harder and more expensive to maintain. If I remember the hardest thing to do was figure out a way to automatically print the invoices on a local printer and the picking slips on a remote network printer.
Of course there were disadvantages too - but just like anything else you had to weigh and pros and the cons and determine the fitness for the application.
(and yes, this was all done more than 10 years ago)
It never did make any sense, except to Microsoft.
We are here today because Microsoft couldn't be arsed to bring itself to respect web standards, and now it's coming back to bite its ass.
About time too. No sympathy for the poor, poor managers at Microsoft who have to juggle with all the legacy leprosy that is IE while trying desperately to pull MS into the 3rd millennium. There is only one solution : burn it down. Cut the limb off. Protect the rest of the body.
If Microsoft were truly serious about killing off IE they would remove it as pre-installed on Windows 10 and make people actively have to go and download it if they require it for a specific use. 99.99% of home users have no need for IE anymore and it wouldn't be an issue for business users to have to download it if it was required.
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