14 DAY TRIAL // A major issue encountered by several Gmail users who tried accessing their accounts while using the latest Internet Explorer in Microsoft's Windows Vista was reported on the Google Groups forums. Blank login screens are bad news no matter where you're trying to log in, but when it's about email, people tend to be really nervous and anxious for a solution.
Fortunately for them, as searchengineland.com's "rustybrick" reported, a Gmail Guide addressed the problem firsthand and gave users encountering it a few alternatives to go around: "I've got an update -- our engineers have identified the problem and are working on a fix. For the time being, there are several options available for users affected by this issue: 1. Use IE7 to access the newer version of Gmail at http://mail.google.com/mail?hist=0 2. Set your IE7 preferences to always clear your cache when you close IE. 3. 3. Use IE7 to access the classic version of Gmail at http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1 4. Access your account with another browser such as Mozilla Firefox. Please keep in mind that this update refers to users receiving a blank white page on login when using IE7. Thanks for everyone's patience and participation," he said.
Another interesting solution that a user on the forum found to be working (because I'm not experiencing the same problem I wasn't able to test it for myself) was to add an "s" at the end of the address, something like httpS://mail.google.com/mail/account_id=***************. I capitalized the "s" in order to make it more visible. Normally, that is not necessary.
Whether the problem was with a Windows update, most likely, or with something the Gmail team had included with the latest additions was not mentioned, but in the end, the only thing that matters is that the users' access to their email accounts is not blocked.