In some recent Microsoft news on PC World, the company has decided to make another version of its new Windows 7 operating system without Internet Explorer included. In fact there’s no browser whatsoever included in the operating system.

This is a move by the software company to perhaps appease the European Union in their antitrust case against the company. The move comes in the shadow of a similar operating system offering it made available earlier through Windows XP N and Vista N. The "N" denoted that there was no Windows Media Player included in the operating system.
I’ve said it …read more

Microsoft released its first release candidate for the Internet Explorer 8 this Monday. You may have received a notification had you installed IE8 Beta 2 on your PC. Others can download it from the official IE8 Beta page if interested. While this version is not the final release, a release candidate is considered to be a feature-complete version with a potential to be the final release unless any critical bugs are identified.
On Windows XP, the installation needs two reboots – one after uninstalling IE8 Beta 2 and another after installing IE8 RC1. On Windows Vista, a single reboot after the …read more

The ability to minimize programs to the system tray has been made possible for a reason. There are always programs which we don’t intend to exit but do not use as frequently.
During work, e.g., we open a web browser – because we are so used to it – but more importanly have several other programs opened simultaneously. While navigating from Microsoft Outlook to Eclipse to the work folders using Alt + Tab, it is irritating to find Mozilla Firefox in between. Also, the task bar has only this much place.
Still, most of the web browsers like the Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox …read more

McAfee provides a nice add-on for Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer called Site Advisor. I used to run McAfee Site Advisor v2.8 until recently. It identifies whether a site or a search result is safe to its knowledge or not and is one of the best add-ons to use in a cyber café.
Do not make the mistake of installing it or upgrading it now.
Firefox’s “Find Updates” in Tools –> Add-ons could not find the latest version 2.9 just like the Mozilla Add-ons website couldn’t recommend it because Site Advisor is not your normal .XPI add-on. One has to download and …read more

Various news pieces centred around the recent Internet Explorer security threat and its subsequent patch release.

We are still more than ten days from the new year, but a majority of the world has already started retrospecting the last twelve months and forecasting the next twelve.
Jayvee inspects the culture of FAIL on the Internet and finds that video advertising is going to decline. Actually, the rate of growth of online advertising has reached a saturation point even though online advertising itself is continuing to rise.
In these tough times, when the economy has been slowing down, Clair suggests that choosing Linux and open source software has become more necessary. For those who are already in that path, there …read more

In India, I visited many a cyber café which were in a sorry state both in terms of hardware and software, even those part of larger well-known cyber café chains. People visit these places usually for the Internet, and so it doesn’t matter whether the hardware and software are state-of-the-art or not as long as the web browser is functional.
Everybody, even those owning a PC may have to visit a cyber café some time or the other. Unlike a place like Starbucks with free wifi where you can plug in your PC into the network, a large number of cyber …read more

Jason tells us that Firefox turned 4 yesterday. Mozilla Firefox as an alternative web browser to Microsoft Internet Explorer has been a blessing. A web browser is perhaps the most used PC tool. Consider this: Would you be willing to use a PC which is incapable of connecting to the web?
While Internet Explorer still has over 70% market share, and while there is no straight answer to which web browser is the best, there are several reasons why users are preferring Firefox: open source, security, speed, and add-ons. In fact, the last factor is the most weighing factor for a …read more

Microsoft plans to release the first beta of the next version of Internet Explorer in the first half of 2008, and said that IE 8 has passed a key Web standards test that ensures the browser won’t “break” the Web.
IE8 has passed the “Acid2 Browser Test” from the Web Standards Project, which shows whether a browser renders a Web site in a certain way. If the browser renders the site correctly, it means the browser supports certain accepted Web standards.
Microsoft posted a video about the browser passing the test on its Channel 9 Web site.