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Posts with tag Internet Explorer

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware, Browsers

Use RepairIE to tweak, lock down, and fix Internet Explorer


Fire up the half-megabyte, portable RepairIE and you're presented with five tabs to help make administering Internet Explorer an uncomplicated process.

Configuration options are broken down into appearance, features, network connections, search, and security. To change a yes/no option, simply double click it and confirm your action.

RepairIE provides an incredible number of options for configuring not only the Internet Exlporer interface, but its options menu as well. For starters, you can restrict your users from altering the homepage or toolbars, prevent them from downloading files, and disable access to file URLs.

Read more →

Filed under: Internet, Security, Browsers

LastPass updates with form filler, releases pocket version


When I first wrote up LastPass, two of the big features it lacked that a lot of people were looking for were portability and the ability to remember form data. Their development crew has been hard at work ever since and have just released a new version of the add-on as well as LastPass Pocket.

If you're not familiar with it, it's a plugin for both IE and Firefox designed to securely keep your web logins securely synchronized across multiple computers. It's got a ton of great features like a secure password generator, single click login, onscreen keyboard (to thwart keyloggers), and secure password sharing (in case you need to give a friend access to an account).

I was happy enough being able to keep all my logins in sync on all my machines, but the form filler is definitely going to save me some headaches. To see it in action, check out the LastPass screencast.

Read more →

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Browsers

Microsoft Drops IE8 Beta 2 - First Impression


As a longtime Firefox user, I didn't pay too much attention when Microsoft announced the impending release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Still, after using the first beta and not running into the kind of horrible issues some of our readers reported, it warranted a download.

After a brief test drive, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Installation was almost totally painless, though I wish Microsoft would figure out how to pull off a reboot-free install. Pages rendered quickly and accurately, the Firefox import worked very well, and my LastPass toolbar worked without asking for an upgrade. The Google toolbar, however, failed to work.

I also appreciate that IE prompted me to disable an addon - the Acrobat toolbar - when I closed it's toolbar. It's a small but useful feature. Slices and accelerators are showing a lot of promise, and the two I tried - Stumbleupon Buzz and send to GMail - worked nicely. You can see the Stumble slice at work in my screenshot.

I'm not sold on SmartScreen yet. I expected Web of Trust-like funcionality, but it's just not there. I ran around several keygen sites that make WOT cringe and didn't get a single alert from IE. That needs adressing. I like the idea of InPrivate as well, but would like to be able to mix tabs instead of running two separate instances of the browser.

If you do install the new version, be sure to check out the IE 8 Gallery, a new website that provides one-stop access to accelerators, slices, search addons, and toolbars. It's much, much less annoying than the IE7 addon site.

Let us know your thoughts if you've demoed the new beta!

Filed under: Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, Social Software, web 2.0, Browsers

Firefox? Who's that? Opera says 4.7 million have downloaded version 9.5

Browser WarsAre the oldschool browser wars starting up again? It sure seems like it.

Flock has a preview of their version 2 out, Firefox launched version 3 today, and Opera launched version 9.5 on June 12th.

Who's missing from this uber release party? Oh, that would be Microsoft's Internet Explorer...the browser with the #1 market share. After their less than stellar (and way less than standards compliant) version 7, Microsoft better come up with some EPIC for Internet Explorer 8.

Opera as you know is focused on security, speed, and mobile.

The sometimes over the top Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner stressed that Opera 9.5's most innovative and most important feature is the cross-link between your desktop and mobile devices. A feature that other browsers haven't even bothered to start playing with yet.

Will Opera's mobile first, desktop second strategy work? We shall see.

4.7 million downloads in 5 days is impressive, but can Firefox surpass that in a single day? Not if they can't keep their own site online.

Stay tuned!

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Microsoft, Mozilla, Search

Don't let search results fall off of the cliff - Climb the Surf Canyon

Surf CanyonWhen we saw Surf Canyon, we figured it was just another search add-on. It was obvious after installing it and searching around on Google for about 3 minutes that we were wrong.

Here's why.

Surf Canyon wants to bring those meaty good search results to the forefront. You know, the ones that we never see on page 2,3,4,100 on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Do you ever search past the first 2 pages? We don't.

That's where Surf Canyon differentiates itself. It has developed search technology that recommends posts to you based on the content of the top search results on each of the search engines.

It sticks a bull's eye next to the results and when you click it, you'll see results that are recommended. Not only that, it'll tell you the search result page it was found on. See this example here:

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Apparently, Mac FireFox users iz smart.

browseriq

According an online survey/test performed by a group called IQLeague, MacPPC users who browse the interwebs with Firefox are the smartest web users alive.

Alexander Uslontsev says:
"IQLeague guys have some kind of online IQ test on their site and they group IQ scores of all visitors by different geographical locations (city, country, etc.)

Here is an interesting part - they also group IQ Scores by referrer website and by client browser and operating system."

MacPPC Firefox folks have an average 104.35 IQ, whereas those who use Firefox on Windows 98 have an average IQ of 91.66. Hey, what's wrong with Windows 98? We know plenty of smart people who still rock on the W98. Ok, maybe one. And we swear they're super smart.

What else did IQLeague uncover? Those that use Internet Explorer on Windows NT are smarter than those that use Internet Explorer on Windows XP.

iqtest

Iz u smart? - Take the test yourself!

[hat tip to boing boing]

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Linux, Social Software, Beta, web 2.0

iComment, because we can't shut up about anything

Comment on Google.com using iCommentWe really like snarky comments. Or maybe we just really like the sound of our own voices, if by saying sound we mean "incessant tapping" and by voices we mean "keyboards." So needless to say, when we heard about iComment, we were intrigued.

iComment is a plug-in for either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox-based browsers. The install instructions have a definite Windows slant, but we can verify it seems to work quite dandily in Linux. The idea behind iComment is simple. It allows you to leave your two cents on any website, or photo, or bit of text that appears on a page. You want the rest of the world to know how freakin' annoying a gratuitous bit of Flash on a page is? Tell 'em!

Of course, there are some issues that limit the usefulness of this plug-in at the moment. The first and foremost is the one that really can't be helped -- every plug-in starts somewhere. Through iComment, we are able to see the comments other people have left on a site, as well as our own. Very cool, but it's a bit of a hunt to find sites with comments, as this is a relatively new service. It is sort of interesting to hear, though, that the development team is working on a "friend/private" function where you can share comments with approved friends.

Read more →

Filed under: Microsoft, Social Software, Beta

Me.dium among early web apps optimized for IE8

Me.dium
The big announcement at this week's MIX08 conference was undoubtedly Microsoft's latest version of Internet Explorer, IE8. With all the questions flying around about standards support and what's under the hood of the new browser, we wanted to make sure you didn't miss the news about web apps that are getting a boost from IE8. One of the early entries showcased at MIX08 was the social browsing platform Me.dium.

Me.dium is a service that turns websurfing into a social experience, adding the ability to chat with other users and see what sites they're browsing. IE8's Activities feature, which finds microformats in web pages and lets you work with them, is a great fit for Me.dium. If you're going to share social data, why stop at webpages? Me.dium is also planning to include IE8's Web Slices in its recommendation features, so you'll be able to see the most popular pages and slices in your Me.dium network.

A lot of other services should be announcing integration with these new features soon, but Me.dium got an early jump because Microsoft specifically asked them to prepare something for MIX08. That can't be bad news for Me.dium's value as a company or the features it brings to the table for users.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Windows, Freeware

Internet Explorer Retitler: Because you can

We didn't think we would find another entry in the "totally useless but very cool for a few seconds software" section so soon, but as luck would have it...

Internet Explorer Retitler is small, simple, and does what it says. Open the program up, type in any title you want, and hit the "retitle" button. The next time you open Internet Explorer you'll see your new title in the title bar (along with whatever site you happen to be visiting).

Now we'll construct an imaginary dialog between us and a loyal reader.

Reader: What else does it do?

Download Squad: Nothing.

Reader: Does it have any preferences, any customizations?

Download Squad: Nope.

Reader: So what good is it?

Download Squad: The only limit, friend, is your imagination. How about typing in a marriage proposal to your significant other (oh, that would be so geeky...)? How about playing a practical joke on your friend? Or maybe programming a reminder to yourself, so that every time you open IE, you are reminded of some event or some inspirational thought?

Internet Explorer Retitler is mercifully free, and Windows only.

[via Softpedia]

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, web 2.0

Internet Explorer 8 will support web standards by default

Back in January, Microsoft caused quite a stir when they announced that the default behavior of Internet Explorer 8 would be to render web pages the same way as they are rendered in IE 7. The problem with this? One of IE 8's most touted features is its web standards compliance and its passing of the Acid2 test. However, web developers and standards advocates were miffed at the idea that rendering the "correct" way would require an additional line of code.

Well, it looks like Microsoft is listening. Yesterday they announced that the default browser behavior will be to render according to standards. If sites want to render in the "quirks" mode (thus, look the same as it would look in IE 7), the site maintainers will need to add in a line of code to reflect that.

The rationale from the original decision stems from the problems Microsoft had when migrating from IE 6 to IE 7. IE 7 had to sacrifice standards compliance in order to deal with rendering problems held over from IE 6. Thus, a web page that was built around IE 6's weirdness would look horrendous in IE 7, despite actually being displayed "properly." Thus, Microsoft made the decision to work out a way to render older sites without the appearance of breakage.

By changing course, Microsoft joins other browser makers like Safari, Firefox and Opera is operating with standards compliance out of the box. We have to give Microsoft credit for at least listening to the response from the community.

[via Webware]

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Productivity

Clear your browser cache with these one-click solutions

Clear Cache Add-inIf you are a web designer or developer, one of the issues you probably face on a daily basis is browser cache. For those who are unaware of this issue, your browser - whether it be Firefox or Internet Explorer - captures all web pages and images when you browse and saves them in the browser cache. This is so that next time you go to a website, you can quickly access the saved files in your cache rather than re-download the image or related content.

This presents an issue for web designers when they make a change to a website, when their own browser uses the cached files rather than downloading the new version off the server. What web designers need is an easy way to empty their cache. We have two suggestions for this type of functionality:
  • For Firefox, check out the Clear Cache add-on. This fantastic extension will add a broom logo to your Firefox toolbar that will instantly clear your cache when you click it.
  • For Internet Explorer, we suggest you look at CachePal. Installing this will give you one-click access to the cache clearing functionality.
We hope these utilities will ease your web development duties. Check them out and let us know what you think in the comments.

[via NoHeat]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

AM-Deadlink: Find dead and duplicate bookmarks in IE, Firefox, Opera

AM-DeadLink, while lacking a creative name, does serve a creative purpose. The program will scan through your bookmarks: Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera; and locate all the dead links that have taken up unwelcome residence, like those malign spirits in the movie Poltergeist.

Can you believe Poltergeist was rated PG? We still think about it...about the clown...it's not under the bed, it's right behind you Robbie!

Okay, where were we? Yes, AM-DeadLink. Like we said before, the program detects dead links and duplicates in browser bookmarks. If a bookmark has become unavailable, or if you find a duplicate, you can verify it in the program's internal browser and delete the bookmark permanently.

The program itself is easy to operate, with simple toolbar buttons and drop-down menus to select the browser you wish to clean up. AM-DeadLink can also scan .CSV files and tab-delimited text files for dead links. If your bookmarks are lacking favicons, AM-DeadLink can import them into your bookmarks, with the option to pass over or overwrite all existing favicons.

AM-DeadLink is freeware, and Windows only.

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Bring back closed tabs in Internet Explorer 7

It's happened to us all: we've gone a little bit trigger happy with our mouse, and inadvertently closed a tab that we didn't want closed. We've recently covered a way to get those tabs back with Firefox. Now, with IE7 Open Last Closed Tab, those regrettable clicks can be undone in Internet Explorer 7 as well.

The add-on is small, simple to install, and does what it says, all qualities to be adored. Once you download and install the add-on, IE will look and act the same as before. If you need to open a closed tab, you have two keyboard options:
  • Alt+X will restore the last closed tab, complete with history.
  • Alt+Q will bring up a screen to let you select from all your recently closed tabs (up to 200!).
A heads up: there are Amazon advertisements that load on the screen where you can select from your closed tabs. However, you can easily turn them off by clicking the "disable product bar" option on the top of the tab.

IE7 Open Last Closed Tab requires Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Server 2003, XP, or Vista.

[Via the How-To Geek]

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Productivity

Organize your IE7 Favorites

IE7Recently, we told you about some ways to organize and manage your Firefox bookmarks, and one of our readers asked for similar suggestions to use with Internet Explorer. Since we want Michael and our other IE-using friends to loved too, we put together a few ideas for you.

Favorites Box
lets you add extra attributes to your bookmarks to make them easier to find and organize. Add comments, categories, tags, or login information or even set up a reminders. This one's free to try, but sets you back $19.95 if you want to keep it.

Favorites Finder
is a free extension that adds keyword functionality to your bookmarked sites so you can access them in just a couple of keystrokes. Just type a few letters of the site you're looking for and Favorites Finder will search your bookmarks and find all the matches, including whatever's in your folders.

Power Favorites
is a slick little extension that merges bookmarks from IE, Opera, and Firefox, then syncs them across multiples computers. You can annotate each bookmark with notes and tags, then view them by tag list or tag clouds. (Tag clouds? Are you listening, Foxmarks?) Power Favorites has a 30-day free trial, then it's $19.95.

When you finally decide to winnow down that super-long list of Favorites you've accumulated over the past two years, it's a pain to have to check each bookmark to make sure the site still exists. Use the free tool Favorites Inspector instead. It will plow through your whole list for you and alert you to any "404 error" pages so you can delete those Favorites instead of filing them.

Filed under: Productivity, Google, Beta, Search

Beta launch of Google Toolbar 5 for Internet Explorer enables keyboard navigation and access

Google Toolbar version 5 for Internet Explorer has just been made available as a public beta. Does the beta tag scare you? Not to worry; Google's beta tag has traditionally meant something a little more polished than most beta software (for example, Gmail is still in beta, as is Picasa).

Version 5 introduces a number of new features, including access to your Toolbar settings from any computer that you log into with your Google Account, improved suggestions for broken links, and new keyboard navigation and access.

The keyboard navigation is simple and sweet. From inside a browser with Toolbar installed, the global shortcut Alt+G places your cursor in the Google Toolbar search box. Pressing the Tab key brings keyboard focus to the button placed immediately after the search box, and right and left arrow keys move focus between buttons.

The ability to access your Toolbar settings after signing into your Google account fits into Google's focus for giving unity to your browsing experience, whether you be on your home, work, or laptop computer. Google already has other tools to help accomplish this (e.g. Google Browser Sync, though that is only available as a plugin for Firefox), and Toolbar access is a nice addition.

You'll need Internet Explorer 6.0 or later in order to install Google Toolbar version 5.

[Via the Google blog]

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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