The announcement of the next version of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 9 has caused me to also stumble upon an article that talks about what we should all be looking for in the next version of the Microsoft Internet browser.

I’m a happy user of Mozilla Firefox, which is mainly due to the ability to extend the functionality of the browser with the various plugins and add-ons I’ve found over the years to help me get more out of my Internet experience.

I’d say the big thing that Microsoft should be sure and add to their next browser is much more opportunities for extending the features of the browser.

As I think about those options, I begin to wonder why all of these add-ons couldn’t be developed in an open XML architecture that would allow the same plug-in to run on various browsers. That would take away some of the advantage of what Firefox has available to it compared to the other major browsers.

The other items that should always be addressed with a browser include a collection of "S" items. New browsers should achieve a goal of speed, security, standards and social media.

The standards could be covered with an open architecture. The popularity of a variety of social media tools should be easily integrated into your web experience as well. We should always expect security as an absolute bare minimum.

Post from: EveryJoe

Looking for a New Web Browser

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 before and I’ll continue saying it. I like Microsoft. They make software I used on a daily basis. Do they screw it up sometimes? Of course! I’ve yet to find a piece of software or any product really that doesn’t mess something up. I’ve argued many times that I think many of the lawsuits against Microsoft are just a waste. Nobody has ever forced anyone to purchase a Microsoft product. I’ve got options to choose from to this day, and I continue to choose, and pay for, Microsoft software to be installed on my machines legally.

The PC World news story talks about how there are a variety of people upset at this move by Microsoft calling it "puckish". I call it giving people what they asked for in the operating system. If you thought it was unfair for Microsoft to bundle its browser in Windows, and that that move somehow limited your choice, then not putting any browser in the operating system should give you the ultimate choice for your system. Go get whatever you want and use it.

Post from: EveryJoe

To Choose Or Not To Choose… Your Browser

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 installation will suffice. On Windows 7, this is not expected to work at all. (Windows 7 already comes preinstalled with an IE8 beta version.) Read the complete installation instructions here.

I installed the software on both my desktop and laptop, both currently running on Windows XP, and my biggest complaint is that after the first reboot (uninstalling IE8 Beta 2), when the installation of IE8 RC1 step ends, the second reboot takes place without a prompt. It is bad that a reboot is required in the first place. Any other work you may be doing in the meantime (because installation takes a few minutes) could be lost. Keep that in mind if you are trying to install it.

Another age-old issue is that IE automatically sets itself as the default browser though it is not much of a problem. That said, I welcome Microsoft’s new generosity to allow custom non-Microsoft search engines and accelerators to be set in the user preferences.

IE8 RC1 appears to be running faster than IE8 Beta 2, which itself has considerably improved over IE7. The software has been made more secure and Microsoft seems to be taking pains to be more compliant to the global web standards. The latest version is definitely a big step in the right direction for the future of the Internet Explorer.

Image Source: Internet Explorer.

Post from: EveryJoe

Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1

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 continue to ignore our need for a “Minimize to system tray” option (Opera provides the option). And we don’t always know the registry hack to minimize Microsoft Outlook. Trayconizer comes to our rescue.

The “Mozilla Firefox” icon sitting in my system tray is not a photoshop gimmick. I used a miniscule utility called Trayconizer.exe to minimze Firefox to the system tray. It is only 10.5 KB in size and, hmm, doesn’t need installation.

All you have to do is invoke the target program, Mozilla Firefox in this example, through the utility. The easiest way to do this is to set the target of a shortcut you use like this:

Replace “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”
with C:\Downloads\Trayconizer.exe “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”

It may not be possible to Trayconize all programs and I am not sure if it works on Windows Vista, but it seems to work well enough on Windows XP. You can download it here. The page shows that the utility hasn’t had a newer version in over 5 years.

Image Source: Screenshots taken on my laptop running Windows XP.

Post from: EveryJoe

Trayconize Any Program to System Tray

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 install a .EXE through the Site Advisor download page.

The latest version is about 3.0MB large, takes a lot of time to install, asks for a reboot, and even then creates annoying problems post-installation until you disable it. The problem is that every time you open Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, a popup asking you about post-installation settings appears again, asking you to Accept or Decline their EULA. The annoyance stops only after declining.

I tried this (by mistake) on a friend’s and my laptop and the problem was persistent. On one of the two, the pop-ups stopped but McAfee Site Advisor no longer had its search bar and it wasn’t showing whether a site is safe or not. That is because one has to “Decline” to get there in the first place.

I couldn’t find any fixes online yet. Let me know if you have any.

Image Source: McAfee Site Advisor Screenshots taken on my laptop.

Post from: EveryJoe

Do Not Install or Upgrade McAfee Site Advisor

Meanwhile, Michael Howard, a principal security program manager at Microsoft, made a clean post about what they have learnt from the latest bug and why they couldn’t detect it in the first place. It is a very interesting read, especially if you can put aside your demands for infallibility of security engineers and appreciate the honesty.

Whenever a security threat becomes known, Microsoft gets a lot of attention that it would prefer not to. This is leading to the exodus of the Internet Explorer users to other browser options. Gregg Keizer of ComputerWorld covers a story that says that IE’s European share fell under 60% for the first time. A more interesting part of the story is that Firefox’s user share has stalled too, after the release of Google Chrome.

Brad Linder on Download Squad discovered a tool to backup the Internet Explorer Settings. Also in the post are links to tools that can backup Firefox profiles and Opera data.

After finding Symantec Ghost distasteful in imaging Windows Vista, Brian of Reich Consulting finally tried the Windows Deployment Service and wrote about his first impressions on it.

Image Source: Internet Explorer Logo from the Microsoft Website.

Post from: EveryJoe

Internet Roundup About the Internet Explorer

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 is a free Ubuntu training course. Ubuntu is Linux for human beings, isn’t it?

A survey found that only 1% of people are using Google Docs, and many of those use Microsoft Office already. However, Colleen feels that the Microsoft’s stranglehold on office suites may be slipping away with Microsoft promising and postponing their next release and the availability of too many options for the users.

Juan says that 2008 is the year of iPhone, which is not very debatable in the user sense though this is also the year for RIAs, Twitter (@bsravanin) and cloud computing. But then, he is an Apple guy. :-) He also shares the offer that MacUpdate is having as a holiday promo. A good offer, far better than dreaming about the Apple 24″ LED display which is about $900!

Speaking of promos, Jason has a post about the Sears Wish Promotion, similar to the HP Magic Giveaway which has recently ended. There is already several Top 10 lists too, like the top 10 viral videos of 2008. I personally don’t like the fact that these lists do not consider the rest of the year that is still to be lived through. The more important news is, in case you haven’t already heard, that a serious security flaw has been exposed in the Internet Explorer and it is advised to not use it for financial and other sensitive transations of any kind.

While you wait for the security update, be sure to take note of the 8 security bulletins that Microsoft is ending the year with. Various OS users may want to check out the 2008 Service Pack 2 beta releases.

Post from: EveryJoe

Tech Channel Roundup of Year End Retrospections and Forecasts

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 cafés require you to use their own systems. If you find yourself in such a place, keep the precautions suggested here in your mind. Most consumers overestimate PC safety. If you’re one of these most consumers, pay more attention.

Unplug any media devices like floppies, CDs, DVDs, and pen drives if they are not yours or if you are not going to use them. Floppies and pen drives are especially prone for communicating infections.

Clear all private data from the web browser before and after using the Internet. This itself could save you a lot of embarrassment and security with the usage of Internet, remove any weak malicious scripts originally running in the background, and delete any passwords it may have saved without notifying you. For Internet Explorer, Tools -> Internet Options -> Browsing History -> Delete, checking everything (except the option of preserving favorite website data). For Mozilla Firefox, Tools -> Clear Private Data, checking everything.

Use a proxy site for whichever site it may be possible for greater anonymity, especially from the future visitors of the cyber café.

Don’t be surprised if the system is infested with viruses, adwares and spywares. Viruses usually harm the computer, not you, so ignore them. Adwares annoy you, but usually nothing more, so again ignore them. Spywares can track your usage patterns, even collect sensitive data from you (including passwords), so be extra careful about signing into any of your accounts and think four times before opening your online bank accounts. Most online banking websites these days offer a virtual keyboard, so make use of them for extra security.

Before leaving, double-check everything and make sure to permanently delete any files you may have saved on the computer. All said and done, it is always a better idea to trust thy neighbour than that cyber café. At least you can nail down the usual suspects.

Post from: EveryJoe

Take These Precautions in a Cyber Café

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 majority of the users.

Following are a few Firefox add-ons that I depend quite a lot on:

Streaming videos from hundreds of youtube-like websites is easier thanks to DownloadHelper.

FireGestures enables mouse gestures. Customizable mouse gestures.

Flash ads are some of the most annoying critters on the Planet Web. Flashblock blocks all Flash content by default, replacing it with a simple ‘f’ icon. It costs an extra click when you want them running though.

Security is increasingly a concern when online. McAfee SiteAdvisor warns you immediately if a site is a dangerous destination. It gets its data from McAfee’s large dynamic library of websites and their statuses.

URL Fixer trusts our capability of typing erroneously and automatically fixes them for us, making us get used to the typos.

There are add-ons alternative to almost all these, and more. You can get them from the addons home page on Mozilla. If you’re new to Firefox, and are lost about finding and installing add-ons, let me be of service.

Which Firefox add-ons do you use?

Post from: EveryJoe

Which Firefox Add-ons Do You Use?

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.

Microsoft developed IE before some Web standards such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) were developed, and so older versions don’t support some current standards. Developers would write applications to work with IE rather than to support Web standards, since the browser was the de facto standard for surfing the Internet for so many years. Microsoft also was lax in updating IE to meet the demands of Web standards, since there was little competition in the browser market for years.

With the release and subsequent popularity of open-source browser Mozilla Firefox three years ago, a browser’s need to stay current with Web standards once again moved to the forefront. When Microsoft developed IE7, released in October 2006, the company had good intentions and decided to improved support of Web standards with the new release.

However, Web sites that were created for older versions of IE didn’t work properly on IE7. Microsoft hopes to remedy this problem so the situation is not repeated with IE8, according to an IE Blog posting attributed to Dean Hachamovitch, a Microsoft general manager on the IE team.

“With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in developing Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards with excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing Web,” according to the blog posting.

Hachamovitch said Microsoft is taking a cue in lessons learned from making improvements to CSS in IE7 that “made IE more compliant with some standards and less compatible with some sites on the Web as they were coded.” The key design goal for IE8, he said, is compatibility with existing Web sites and Web standards supported in other browsers to provide a premium user experience.

“As a developer, I’d prefer to not have to write the same site multiple times for different browsers,” according to Hachamovitch’s post. “Standards are a (critical!) means to this end, and we focus on the standards that will help actual, real-world interoperability the most. As a consumer and a developer, I expect stuff to just work, and I also expect backwards compatibility. When I get a new version of my current browser, I expect all the sites that worked before will still work.”

Microsoft said the final release of IE8 depends upon feedback received from the beta process.

Source

Post from: EveryJoe

Microsoft to Release IE 8 Beta 1 in First Half of 2008