Internet-explorer | Technology Blog

Internet Explorer Toolbar Customization

January 6th, 2009

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Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 display the menu bar below the address bar in the header area of the web browser. The menu bar contains links to menus like File, Tools or Help while the address bar is being used to load websites and perform searches on the Internet.

Most web browsers use a different display of toolbars with the menu bar on top and the address bar below which is also the default display in all windows and applications in the Windows operating system. There is however no option to customize Internet Explorer toolbars in the browser itself.

The only way to change the location of the Internet Explorer Toolbar is to edit the Windows Registry. To do that press [Windows R], type [regedit] and hit [enter].

Index.dat

January 4th, 2009

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A recent analysis of index.dat files on a Windows XP Service Pack 3 test system revealed hundreds of entries. Index.dat files are hidden files that contain information about visited urls, cookies and other cache related files. The information are only recorded when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is being used to browse the Internet. What many users do not realize is that data is also recorded if a software program makes use of the Internet Explorer rendering engine.

Private Browsing Not So Private After All

January 2nd, 2009

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The last year or so has been filled with announcements about private browsing. Each web browser developer implemented or announced plans to add private browsing to their web browser. Private browsing usually means to offer a sandboxed browsing session in computer memory with no information written and stored on the computer’s hard drive. Privacy is one of the biggest buzz words around and will continue to grow in popularity in 2009. The public understanding of private browsing might differ from what private browsing actually does. It definitely does not add privacy to anything that is happening remotely on the Internet. The only gain of private browsing is an increase of privacy in the local environment.

This may however be not the only problem associated with private browsing. A recent paper by security researcher Kate McKinley confirms deficiencies in all web browsers and especially in Apple’s Safari. Not only normal cookie and data handling was tested but also plugin related handling of Flash and Google Gears data. The surprising result was that no browser passed all private browsing tests.

Internet Explorer Favorites Search

December 30th, 2008

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One of the areas where Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is lagging behind is favorites management. Favorite is just another term for bookmarks in Internet Explorer. Even the latest beta of Internet Explorer 8 does not come with effective tools to manage the favorites in the web browser.

One of the main functions missing is a favorites search. Internet Explorer does not offer a way to search in the favorites which is one of the most fundamental functions for many users. Imagine having to scroll through thousands of favorites to find the one you are looking for.

Internet Explorer Favorites Search is a small plugin for Internet Explorer that adds the functionality to search Internet Explorer Favorites to the browser. It should automatically add a icon to the Internet Explorer toolbar which will open a sidebar when pressed.

Internet Explorer Backup

December 21st, 2008

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Microsoft Internet Explorer does not come with the options to backup its settings. This can be problematic for users who want to backup their Internet Explorer data for security reasons or before migrating to another computer.

Internet Explorer Backup is a data backup software that can backup various Internet Explorer related settings and options such as favorites, proxy settings, autocomplete passwords, cookies or dialup accounts.

It can furthermore be used to migrate the backed up data to another computer system. Even more interesting is the fact that the data can be restored even if Internet Explorer versions differ. It is not a problem to backup Internet Explorer 5 data and restore it on a computer with Internet Explorer 6.

A few options are provided by the backup software upon execution. Data can be backed up or restored. There are additional options to rollback and to create scheduled backups.

Ghacks Christmas Giveaway: RoboForm

December 17th, 2008

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Day 17 of the Ghacks Christmas Giveaway. The giveaway is slowly reaching the end with another week to go before it closes its door for this year on December 24. Today’s application is the popular password manager, note taking and form filler RoboForm.

RoboForm is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems and can be installed directly, on a USB device or on mobile devices such as Windows Mobile, Symbian or Blackberry. The software integrates nicely with web browsers like Firefox, IE or AOL / MSN and displays a toolbar that provides access to all the application’s functions and there is also a System Tray icon providing the same.

The password manager will automatically catch data that is entered in password forms and provides the means to store those passwords in the application so that it can be used to automatically log into the website or service.