Annoying bug in IE9 - Anyone else see this too?

In IE versions prior to IE9, if you drag the address from the address bar onto the desktop, it would create a shortcut to the site on the desktop.

Now in IE9 (RTM), if you do the same, it still creates the shortcut but then closes the tab and re-opens it into a new instance of IE9 (???). Interestingly, once it does this, you can't drag the tab back into the original IE9 instance. Somehow that tab is not compatible. Now if you dragged the tab out into a new instance of IE9, then you would be able to drag it back again into the original IE9 instance.

Weird.

Didn't we have a whole thread on this already?

Basically it's because you're creating a 'pinned site' if you do that. You can get the old behaviour of just creating a shortcut by holding down Shift when you drag the address.

Ah, I guess I missed that thread. Thanks for the tip. Mark as "not a bug".

Why didn't they leave the old behavior alone and make the new one require holding down the Shift key?

@joechung: For most people pinning sites will be the desired operation.

13 hours ago, AndyC wrote

@joechung: For most people pinning sites will be the desired operation.

To the Windows 7 task bar, I'd agree. To the desktop, I'd think consistent behavior with the last 13+ years of Windows might have a leg up. I guess it depends on whether the majority of URLs you drag to the desktop make sense as applications instead of just pages on websites. Most of mine are the later.

That is the behavior I would expect too. Drag to taskbar/start menu=pinned site; drag to desktop=url link. Also, the Shift key is not well documented.

Speaking of Internet Explorer 9 issues. I have an issue where there are audio glitches when using the scrollbar in Internet Explorer 9. I'm listening to music in foobar2000 or iTunes, happens both places. It doesn't when using Chrome. I am using a 5m or so long USB cable with an SPDIF adapter on the other end, going out from my laptop. Anyone else experienced this problem? It is IE 9 specific. I haven't tested IE 8 but it doesn't happen in Chrome. It's quite annoying: audio should always have top scheduling priority. Maybe the USB cable is too long tho...

21 hours ago, BillB4 wrote

That is the behavior I would expect too. Drag to taskbar/start menu=pinned site; drag to desktop=url link. Also, the Shift key is not well documented.

I don't believe Windows exposes a way of doing that does it? It probably can't in case some hypothetical future version of Windows didn't have a task bar. And so unless IE did some nasty behind the scenes hackery (OMG! IE provides different information to Explorer than my shell replacement etc...) there isn't a way to do that unless the shell chose to.

@exoteric: The hardware acceleration might be messing up your audio, in which case it would be an issue with either your video or audio hardware.  If you try disabling hardware accerlation in IE9, do you still experience the problem?  If that's the issue, maybe your lucky and there's a driver or firmware update available.

2 hours ago, Richard.Hein wrote

@exoteric: The hardware acceleration might be messing up your audio, in which case it would be an issue with either your video or audio hardware.  If you try disabling hardware accerlation in IE9, do you still experience the problem?  If that's the issue, maybe your lucky and there's a driver or firmware update available.

I suspected hw accelleration but didn't think you could disable it. Nice that it's possible. It turns out you are indeed correct. Switching to software rendering makes the problem go away. I have a Sony Vaio VPCEB1S1E. I'll see if there are updated drivers. And man it's annoying how overloaded the OEM installation is...

OK, this is still a problem. Do the following:

1. Open a few tabs in IE9.
2. Create a folder on your desktop, and open it.
3. From one of the tabs in IE9, drag the address bar link into the folder.

Notice:

1. The tab closes, and then re-opens into a new instance of IE9.
2. While dragging, it clearly states "Create link...", yet why is it modifying the source?
3. There are no alt keys you can press to get different behavior.

14 minutes ago, BitFlipper wrote 

There are no alt keys you can press to get different behavior.

Yes there is, you hold down SHIFT, you get the old behaviour (creating a .url), you don't you get the new behaviour (creating a .website, to support pinning).

Why is this a problem at all? If you want to save a temporary link to the site, add it to your favorites. I can honestly say that prior to IE9 I had never dragged a website to the desktop or taskbar.

5 hours ago, spivonious wrote

Why is this a problem at all? If you want to save a temporary link to the site, add it to your favorites. I can honestly say that prior to IE9 I had never dragged a website to the desktop or taskbar.

Because some of us do and have used that functionality for the past several years and have no need for the new functionality, and find the way it behaves, with it closing the tab and opening a new window, jarring.

11 hours ago, AndyC wrote

*snip*

Yes there is, you hold down SHIFT, you get the old behaviour (creating a .url), you don't you get the new behaviour (creating a .website, to support pinning).

This is not how it works for me when the link is dragged into a folder (whether Shift is pressed or not). It closes the old tab and opens it into a new instance of IE9. It is only supposed to be a link, it shouldn't start closing and re-opening the tabs in different places. How could that possibly be the desired behavior?

The shift key does not change the behavior in my case: Windows 7 IE9 RTM.

Any ideas on how to create links on desktop without reloading the page on a new tab?

This is driving me crazy.

Found solution here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/151853-internet-explorer-9-enable-disable-ability-pin-sites.html