Internet Explorer

Click Start, type: manage add-ons.

Hit Enter on your keyboard.

Click Manage add-ons.

Select the add-on you would like to disable and click Disable.

Mozilla Firefox

If you are running Mozilla Firefox 4 or later:

Click the Firefox menu and click Add-ons.

Click Extensions, select the browser add on and click Disable.

If you are running an earlier version of Firefox:

Click Tools > Add-ons.

Go to the Extensions tab, select the add-on and click Disable.

Google Chrome

In Google Chrome, click the Customize and Control menu button.

Select Tools, then click Extensions.

Select the Extension and click Disable.

Apple Safari

Extensions can be disabled by clicking Edit > Preferences.

Go to the Extensions tab, select the Extension and click Disable.

Opera

If you are running Opera, click the Opera Menu > Extensions > Manage Extensions.

How to disable web browser add ons (Browser Helper Objects) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Years ago, opening a single home page was the normal thing to do when you launch your browser, now things have changed a bit. In this article, we take a look at how to open multiple home pages in Internet Explorer.

Click Start, type: Internet Options

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Under General tab click in the Home page field and enter the URL for each website you would like to have opened when you launch your web browser. See example below:

Click Apply and OK to confirm changes

When you launch the web browser, you will see multiple tabs automatically load your three favorite websites.

How to Make Internet Explorer Open Multiple Tabs At Launch is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

1. Internet Explorer 9 Refuses to Install.

• The first thing is to make sure you meet the minimum requirements, which is Windows Vista Service Pack 2 or later. Please remember, Internet Explorer 9 does not support Windows XP.
• If you are attempting to install Internet Explorer 9 on supported operating systems and its still refusing to install, try disabling your Antivirus, it might be interfering with setup. Consult your Antivirus documentation for instructions about how to do this.
• Make sure all open applications are closed and probably do a restart just before.
• Make sure you are installing the right architecture. Internet Explorer 9 comes in 7 specific versions for different versions and architectures of Windows.

- Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7 32 bit
- Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7 64 bit
- Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows Server 2008 R2
- Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows Server 2008 64 bit
- Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows Server 2008 32 bit
- Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows Vista 64 bit
- Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows Vista 32 bit

You can find out which version and architecture of Windows you are running by clicking Start > right click Computer > click Properties. Take note of the Operating System Type:

• I notice every version and edition and architecture of Windows I have installed IE 9 on, the browser needs to download pre-requisite components or it refuses to install. This means, you cannot do an off line install in some cases unless your Windows installation is fully updated or you are running Windows 7 with SP1 installed.

A work around for this is to download the necessary pre-requisite updates first for Internet Explorer 9 or run Windows Update and make sure Windows is full updated.

• Prerequisites for installing Internet Explorer 9

2. Internet Explorer 9 Takes too Long to Startup

You can try resolving this by disabling items that load when you open Internet Explorer.

If there are additional browser objects you believe might be affecting the browser performance, you can disable them by accessing the Manage Add-Ons menu at any time.

Click Tools > Manage add-ons.

3. Cannot view some of my favorite websites in Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer 9 is very new and there are many websites that support the browser, but there few unique ones that might still be optimizing their sites to support the browser. The best recommendation is to try viewing site in compatibility mode. Press Alt on your keyboard > click Tools > Compatibility View Settings > Check, Display all websites in Compatibility View

If the site still refuses to load, turn off ActiveX filtering or Tracking Protection from the Safety dropdown menu

If you continue to experience problems viewing your favorite website in Internet Explorer 9, Compatibility Mode is a great feature that allows you to view sites designed for older versions of the web browser.

To do this, go to website, in the Address bar, a Compatibility view button will appear in the address bar which indicates that the site might have some problems being viewed in IE 9. Click it and it will refresh the page and display it properly.

4. Compatibility Mode Still Does Not Help When Trying to View Sites Properly.

Its possible the side has coded to support a much older version of Internet Explorer. Holding down the alt key, and pressing 5, 6, 7 or 8 will let you choose an older version of Internet Explorer to render the site in.

5. Cannot View Video and Access Certain Web Applications in Internet Explorer 9

• If you are unable to view video from sites such as YouTube or any site that utilizes Flash, you need to update your Adobe Flash Player. Adobe recently updated Flash with optimizations just for Internet Explorer 9. You can download it here.
• If you are running a 64 bit version of Windows, make sure you are using the 32 bit version of Internet Explorer 9 since Flash is currently not commercially supported on Internet Explorer 9 64 bit. Click Start > All Programs > Click Internet Explorer (the one that is not listed as 64 bit).
• If your desire is to use Internet Explorer 9 64 bit and you would like to view Flash content, Adobe has a preview release of Flash Player for 64 bit Windows, please learn more here. Please understand, this is software is still in development.
• Many desktop and web applications are built on top of the JAVA Virtual Machine which is a platform for writing special programs that are cross platform aware. Meaning, a program written using the JAVA Virtual Machine can run on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux without alteration. Unlike certain applications, where you have to get the operating system specific version. Some uses for JAVA include, playing online games, running small applications such as a web page counter and uploading photos to Facebook. If you unable to access JAVA based applications in Internet Explorer 9, try updating your installation of JAVA. Please learn more from our Notebooks.com article about how to update JAVA Here.

6. Internet Explorer 9 is Unstable From Time to Time

If Internet Explorer 9 becomes unresponsive or closes unexpectedly, then it is most certainly attributed to a installed extension (or what is known as a add on). My recommendation is to reset Internet Explorer 9 to its default factory settings and reinstall any extensions as needed.

• To reset Internet Explorer 9 to its default factory settings, click Start, type: Internet Options
• Hit Enter on your keyboard
• Go to the Advanced (tab)

Under Reset Internet Explorer settings, click the Reset… button.

7. After Installing Internet Explorer 9 and Restarting My Computer, Windows 7 is Reporting it is Non-genuine.

There could be a number of reasons attributed this, it is possible that Windows could indeed be non-genuine and you do not realize. It is possible this is also an anomaly and restart of your computer will resolve the problem.

Another thing you can do is to check the validation of your computer. Run the Microsoft Genuine Diagnostics Tool to find out.  It will generate a report of your Windows 7 license. If any of the product keys match any of the known black listed keys blocked by Microsoft, this means you are victim of piracy.

Example: 00000-065-0000000-00000

The unique product id is represented by the 3 digits, in the above example, it is 065. If you product id matches any of the following unique id’s (065, 066, 067, 068 for Ultimate, 220, 221 area for Pro and the 230, 231, 221, 232 area for Home Premium), then you are using a license that was not intended for use outside of its licensing agreement. Your best course of action to resolve this problem is the following:

You can confirm that your software is genuine now. It’s quick and easy. Click the ‘Validate Windows’ button, if the validation check fails, then click on the ‘Get Genuine’ button to get a WGA Kit.

8. After I installed Internet Explorer 9, My Internet Connection is Not Functioning Properly

This should be a rare one, but if you do experience problems connecting to the Internet after installation, you can try a number of things.

• - Click Start, type: CMD
• - Right click CMD and click Run as administrator
• - At the command prompt, type the following:

ipconfig/release then ipconfig/renew then ipconfig/flushdns

• Type EXIT to close the command prompt, restart your system and try connecting again.

If the problem persist, I would suggest resetting your wired or wireless router if you are connected to one. First power it down, disconnect it, reset it using the reset button. Wait 10 mins. Reconnect it, start it up and try connecting again. Depending on the router model and brand, you should consult your owner’s manual for details.

9. Internet Explorer 9 Seems to Not Be Installed Properly, How Can I Reinstall It?

• Click Start, type: view installed updates
• Hit Enter on your keyboard
• Search for windows internet explorer
• Select it, right click it and click uninstall
• Restart the machine, then reinstall Internet Explorer 9

9 Tips for Troubleshooting Internet Explorer 9 (How To) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Microsoft’s Announcement about IE9 installing through Windows Update:

Since its availability on March 14th, IE9 has been available for manual download and we are pleased by the early and continued enthusiasm for IE9. We are seeing not only strong customer and business demand, but some of the highest web and application compatibility rates in IE history, not to mention all the sites that are taking advantage of HTML5 and IE9’s Windows 7 integration. On March 28^th, we began to upgrade existing IE9 Beta and RC users through Windows Update.

How to Prevent Internet Explorer 9 From Automatically Installing

Click Start, type: windows update.

Hit Enter on your keyboard.

Click the link to view important updates are available.

In the list of Important right click Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7, right click it and click Hide Update.

That’s it! Internet Explorer 9 will not install itself automatically.

When you are ready to install Internet Explorer 9, just go back to Windows Update, and under Control Panel Home click ‘Restore Hidden Updates’.

If Internet Explorer 9 was installed automatically, you can uninstall it manually, and your previous version of Internet Explorer will be restored. For more information, check out our guide on to how to uninstall Internet Explorer 9.

How to Prevent Internet Explorer 9 from Automatically Installing Through Windows Update is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Here is how you uninstall the Internet Explorer 9 Beta:

Click Start, type: view installed updates

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Next, search for internet explorer

Select Internet Explorer from the search results and click Uninstall on the command bar

Click Yes

Wait while Internet Explorer 9 is uninstalled. You might be prompted to restart your system.

Your previous version of Internet Explorer will automatically be restored. You are now ready to upgrade to Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate.

Microsoft recently announced, computers running the Beta or RC will automatically be updated to Internet Explorer 9 (RTW or Release to Web) when it is available.

How to Uninstall the Internet Explorer 9 Beta is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Go to Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate download page.

Click the Download now link

If you are running Windows Vista, click the link to Other versions. Internet Explorer 9 only supports Windows Vista or Windows 7.

The Internet Explorer 9 web page should automatically detect your installed operating system.

Click Yes

Click Install

Make sure all open applications or instances of Internet Explorer are closed. To guarantee a smooth installation, also disable your Antivirus utility.

Internet Explorer 9 RC features a simple, stream lined installer. The installation should only take a few minutes.

Once the installation is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer. Do so to confirm changes.

Internet Explorer 9 installed

How to Install Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

In this article I will show you how to clear your browser history in five of the most popular web browsers.

Internet Explorer 8 and 9

Click Start, type: internet options.

Hit Enter on your keyboard.

Under Browsing history, click Delete.

(Windows XP users, click Start > Control Panel > Internet Options or click Start, right click Internet Options > click Properties).

Google Chrome

Press Control + H on your keyboard or Click the Customize and control Google Chrome wrench located at the extreme right hand top of the window.

Click History.

Click Edit Items…

Click Clear all browsing data…

Mozilla Firefox

Click Tools > click Clear Recent History or press CTRL + Shift + Del.

Click the Details button then check the following: Browsing & Download History, Cookies, Cache. Firefox gives you the option of selectively removing certain information and retaining other parts.

Click in the Time range to clear: list box and select Everything.

Click Clear Now.

Opera

Click the Opera Menu, then click History.

Select the name, (you can make non-adjacent selections), then click Delete on the toolbar.

Apple Safari

Click History menu, the click Clear History.

How to Clear Your Web Browser History (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

I recently transitioned my personal blog from Windows Live Spaces to WordPress, but one of  the things I noticed was the amount of comment emails that are sent to my Windows Live Hotmail inbox. Fortunately, Hotmail makes its easy to customize and configure your inbox and with the new wave 4 release./ Now that the service includes unlimited rules, you can create as many rules as you need to keep your inbox clean and organized.

The first thing I will do is setup a folder just for messages from WordPress. To do that, under the folders pane in Hotmail, click New Folder. Inyour case, create the folders you need for rules you plan to create.

Give the folder a name and click Save.

Next click the Options link at the right hand top of the Hotmail page.

Under Customizing Hotmail, click Rules for sorting new messages link.

Click New.

Select the type of messages you want this rule to be applied to, you have a number of options:

In my case, I will select Sender’s address. Avoid using criteria with invalid characters such as period or exclamation sign.

The next option is to select where I want those messages to go, in my case, it’s the WordPress folder I created earlier. Since I already created the folder, I will click in the ‘Move to Inbox’ If you have not created a folder, just enter the name in the Move to a new folder field.

Then click Save.

Your messages from that particular address will automatically be moved to that folder.

You can now review or delete the filter. Keep creating filters in Windows Live Hotmail until you have your messages sorted how you want. Just remember if you send the email messages to a specific folder they won’t show up in your inbox.

How to use Message Rules in Windows Live Hotmail For a Cleaner Inbox is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Windows Live Hotmail wave 4 now lets you not only pin to the Taskbar, but quickly access aspects of the service through a Windows 7 Jumplist. Tasks you can access include your Windows Live Home Page, Inbox, Calendar, Contacts and Send Mail.

Just as a reminder, if you don’t know how to create a pin icon, simply hold down your left mouse button the icon for the URL in the Address Bar. Then drag it to the Windows 7 Taskbar.

…and release, voila! Its that simple

When you click the shortcut, you will now see a lovely Co-branded Windows Live Hotmail wave 4 experience:

Windows Live Hotmail and Internet Explorer 9 integration

Resources

Download Internet Explorer 9 here

Enjoying the Beauty of the Web with Internet Explorer 9

Windows Live Hotmail

How to Pin Hotmail To Your Windows 7 Taskbar is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

This means the user experience is critical, particularly navigation, performance and presentation. Microsoft’s competitors in the web browser market have been continuously innovating over the past 3 years. Firefox 1.0 which was launched in 2004 focused on providing a secure, simple experience. Google Chrome launched in September 2008 focused primarily on simplicity and performance. Both are continually improving their respective browsers with frequent updates.

Internet Explorer has remained strong, but Microsoft realizes that the pace of innovation needs to be revamped. I recently noted some of the significant improvements that have been introduced over the past four years and a lot of them are notable, such as visual search, web slice, color coordinated tabs, integration with Windows 7 and stronger security with technologies such as Private Mode, Phishing Filter and many other features.

Microsoft is focusing on the most important part of the web browser in Internet Explorer 9, the web page. Internet Explorer 9 offers substantial improvements to Internet Explorer 8: a streamlined interface, full hardware-accelerated HTML5, modern SVG and native JavaScript integration, support for the Web Open Font Format as well as faster overall performance. The new Internet Explorer 9 Beta provides a more secure, stable and fast browsing experience.

Installation

Internet Explorer 9 is BETA, which means it’s currently in development and is probably not recommended for production use. There are some key ways you can test it out, which includes a Virtual Machine such as Windows Virtual PC or a non-production test machine. I currently have a test system setup with Windows 7 Ultimate x64, specifically running Service Pack 1 beta, I also have a VM running Windows 7 Enterprise x64 RTM.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta is compatible with Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 PCs. It is not available for earlier versions of Windows Vista or with PCs running Windows XP – so don’t even bother if you are running that version of Windows.

As Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch puts it “Building a modern browser requires a modern operating system,”

Microsoft said that the reason for dropping Windows XP are based on technical reasons, such as lack of support for Direct2D and DirectWrite DirectX APIs (applications programming interfaces) in Windows XP. These API’s in addition to security technologies are built into Windows Vista and Windows 7 and just cannot be back ported Windows XP. Windows XP is a 9 year old operating system, the extra burden to support 3 separate versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7 in addition to various editions and Server releases is probably a bit too much even for a Company with the resources of Microsoft). Its time people move on to Windows 7, if you want to experience the benefits of Internet Explorer 9, upgrade to Windows 7 or at least a minimum of Windows Vista SP2 (preferably Windows 7). If Windows XP users cannot accept this decision, then you can download Internet Explorer 8 which works great on that release.

Simple, elegant Setup

Installation quick and easy

Yes, you still have to do this.

Now, onto the installation. Simple, quick and intuitive is how I would describe it. It took approximately 3 minutes to complete the installation. Similar in appearance to Windows Live Essentials wave 4, Microsoft uses a minimal installer. I am a bit disappointed that there isn’t one single 32 and one single 64 bit installer. Users still have to choose which architecture and version of Windows (7 or Vista) they are running. A Restart was required.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 first launch

First Launch

The interface in Internet Explorer 9 has been streamlined to focus on the content of the web page removing some of the overbearing qualities of past versions. It’s a philosophy itself first spoken about with the introduction of the Windows AERO User Experience. The idea of making the content of the window be the star. With Internet Explorer 9, the web page is front and center more than ever. The toolbar area has been exquisitely designed, Microsoft has cut the amount of toolbars down to just one. The Navigation buttons (back and forward), Address Bar and Tabs have been fused together along with a few toolbar controls (Home, Favorites and Tools). This might come across as controversial and I personally am still in the adjustment stages. What I love though is the simplicity of it all, there is not this heap of features presented, just the essentials that a user needs especially since the idea of web pages are more app centric in this release. Having a litter of tabs in one window is not necessarily the best idea, you can read on further to understand why.

I notice when I launched the browser for the first time, I was greeted by a small notification strip at the bottom of the window recommending I Speed up startup and browsing by disabling add-ons.

Clicking the ‘Disable add-ons button, leads to a dialog which will display a list of add ons that might be affecting the web browsers performance. Talk about intuitive, this gives users better insight about how they can improve the performance of their web browsing experience.

As you can see in the above screenshot, add ons with red bar indicate how much time they are taking to load. Those with gray bars are minimal and can be left alone. A really great feature!

Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer 9

User Experience

Website’s are probably not something users pay much attention to in the sense that, a lot of the details invested in application development and user experience that are often applied to desktop programs. With Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft hopes to change that thinking, the aim is to make website’s more app centric. In fact one of the cool things you can do with Internet Explorer 9 optimized website’s on Windows 7 is pin them to your Taskbar just like any other application such as Word or Photoshop.

A number of high profile web developers have focused on revamping their websites just for IE 9, these include Ebay, CNN, Redbull, Amazon.com and IMDB, to name a few. Microsoft announced 70 partners who have all optimized their sites for the beta. The intention really is to blur platforms a bit, to make the web as much a part of the desktop as possible. It’s an interesting approach. What I believe this will do is create better brand consciousness among web developers to focus more on the quality of the website, such as how easy it is navigate, the use of colors and layout, even down to the most minute details such as the Webicon.

When you pin a webicon to your Taskbar, you will notice familiar Windows 7 functionality, such as the ability to right click the icon and access Jump List. This is great for my favorite sites that I open first thing everyday, such as Twitter, Facebook, CNET News, ZDNET and many others. There is could be more intuitiveness about how you pin a webicon to the Taskbar, I thought you did it by right clicking a Tab, but later discovered this is done by holding down on the web sites emoticon in the Address Bar, then drag it to the Taskbar. Although drag and drop is a natural action over the years, a quicker method I would recommend is to have a right click the webicon menu in the Address bar with a pop menu displaying option to pin to the Taskbar.

Co-branded identity

Here is an interesting branding idea I noticed is a part of Internet Explorer 9. Web developers can now customize IE on the fly to reflect the core identity of their site. An example of this is through elements such as the Back and Forward Navigation buttons with colors specific to that website. Similar color coordinated colors for applications on the Taskbar, such as a blue button representing Microsoft Word. It’s a more engaging way for sites to embrace the desktop and a bit of personality along with clear identification to a user.

Chrome and Firefox have a lot of catching up to do with features like this.

This is just a tip of the iceberg though, the key integration is when you check out the Jump List features, not all sites support it at the moment, but I am sure they will over time. Two examples are Twitter and Facebook. When you pin either social network to the Taskbar, you will see unique Jump List Tasks such as @Mentions, Direct Messages, New Message, Search and Favorites. Facebook offers its own unique task such as News, Messages, Events and Friends. This immediately blows Chrome and Firefox out of the water. The idea of opening up the browser and typing in a URL or click a favorite link to your site, then navigating to a specific location is unnecessary. Jump List integration is just spectacular!

More Windows 7 Integration

The integration doesn’t end there either, Internet Explorer 9 also takes advantage of other Aero functionality such as Snap. One of the cool effects in Windows 7 is Aero Snaps which allows you to snap to windows to the side of the screen which automatically fills the half of the screen. This is great for doing reference or comparison activities. With Internet Explorer 9, it’s a breeze.

Here is an example, I have two tabs open in my Twitter window (my Twitter Home Page and my @Mentions page), suppose I want to compare the two at the same time. With IE 8 or Firefox, I could do a Tear off tab action then use then use the Aero Snaps feature to compare both windows. But why bother going through all that process?

What I will do is simply drag the window with my Twitter Home page to the left of the screen. Now check out the next option

Here you can see I am simply dragging off the tab for my @Mentions window to right.

There I go, as easy as that. Now I can do whatever comparison or reference I want with both windows on-screen. When I decide that I am finished, all I have to do is simply redrag it back into the original window! How amazing is that???

Its synergies like this that show the level of sophistication and thought that has gone into the user’s experience for this release of Internet Explorer 9. It’s another example of why Internet Explorer 9 was not possible on Windows XP.

Performance

Of course, this is probably the most critical area of the Internet Explorer 9 experience. Since March, Microsoft has been releasing a preview of the engine powering this release. Early testers have been impressed. I personally didn’t take the time to try it out and preferred to wait until today when Microsoft released a full featured beta. Microsoft has made some critical improvements, I noted earlier such as the Disable Add on feature. But this is only a minor aspect. Internet Explorer 9 is going at the deepest level meaning the entire computer contributes to the browsers speed, these include processor, memory and in particular Video Graphics or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Microsoft calls this Accelerated Graphics. This provides are more dynamic web experience by utilizing the power of the GPU to handle the rendering and processing of video and images to speed up presentation and load time of pages. This is based on low level improvements introduced in Windows 7 and Vista through Direct2D.

I decided to try out 15 of my favorite websites I tried last year in my Internet Explorer 8 review, along with two other browsers, Firefox 3.5.9 and Google Chrome 6.

I did these test on a 8 MB Flow Cable connection.

The results are interesting, of course Internet Explorer 9 is still in development, so we might even see additional improvements as Microsoft continue tweaking under the hood. Also, as more sites become optimized, we might even see greater performance, but for now, these are the results I am seeing. They are unscientific, since I did using a stop watch. Time is listed in seconds.

I tried out loading a wallpaper image off Microsoft’s Windows 7 Personalize Gallery, here is a link to the image I loaded here There wasn’t anything to report as all 4 web browsers loaded the image instantly. Testing browser performance is tricky, the fact that some of the load times are very negligible, I seriously have wonder if its worth doing if you are already on a fast broadband connection.

More Cool Features

I want to start wrapping up this early preview, I have been working on it since this morning. So, I want dive more into changes to user interface. As you can see the interface is major update, its refreshing, inviting and attractive. It makes you want to use it and benefit from it more. Internet Explorer 8 included some well needed improvements to the Address Bar such as auto complete suggestions for sites that you might want to go to, suggestions are based on your history of websites you like to visit, your personal web browsing history and Feeds that you have subscribed to. Typing in a URL offers some address bar tricks, if you click the arrow below the URL in the middle, it will reveal a number of commands:

• Go to Enter
• Navigate to Ctrl + Enter
• Open in a new tab Alt + Enter
• Open in a background tab Alt + Shift + Enter

Autocomplete suggestions in IE 8, as noted, are based on your sites visited, or your browser history. In Internet Explorer 9, you can now get real-time feedback based on Bing results. This is turned off by default and you will have to manually turn it on (privacy reasons). The most dramatic improvement is the fusion of Search into the Address, just like Google Chrome with its Smart Bar feature. So, you not only can enter URLs, you can do web searches right there too.

Here you can see, I don’t get any suggestions for CNN.com in Internet Explorer 8

Suggestions from Bing, I can even choose other locations such as Google Internet Explorer 9.

The new tab button is so much faster than Internet Explorer 8. I am sure many of us know how molasses slow it was, not anymore! It opens instantly and displays a list of your most recently visited websites. It looks like Tab Gallery has been incorporated into the new new tab page. It’s very interesting the changes they have made here with the use of colors. Users will notice that a display of all your popular sites that you visit most often are shown, along with a color coordinated bar below each, indicating how actively you visit the site. The length of the bar is an indication of frequency.

From here you can do task like Reopen closed tabs along with your last browser session. You can also hide sites you don’t see or reveal or even start an InPrivate Browsing session. It would have been nice to have non-adjacent selection support here to quickly close a batch of sites on the fly.

The three buttons at the top right don’t reveal anything new, the Home button does as it suggest, takes you to your home page. The Star reveals all your Favorites, History and Feeds. The Bolt (Tools menu) list all common Options and Settings for the browser. I am disappointed that Internet Explorer 9 does not introduce a new Internet Options window. I personally think its cluttered and need to be revamped with a similar look and feel to the one in Microsoft Office 2007/2010. It would be nice if the IE Team added a File menu tab similar to the one in Office 2010 apps, with a Backstage like interface.

Last year I asked for some things I would have liked to see in IE 8, did they make it in IE 9

• Download Manager – trust me, it needs it, I find it very handy in FireFox and Safari – Pause/Resume, Manage. Yes, finally! Microsoft has introduced an interesting approach for downloading and running an executable in Internet Explorer 9. The old download dialog has now been phased out and replaced by a notification strip at the bottom when you click a download link, you have the option of running it, saving it or click cancel. You can click the View Button which will reveal the all new Download Manager.

The all new Download Manager

You can quickly access the Download Manager by pressing CTRL + J or click the Tools menu and click View Downloads.

• Non-adjacent Selection of text on web pages. Nope, didn’t make it.
• Customizable toolbar, I personally wouldn’t mind if buttons such as Home, Feeds, Print, Page, Tools and Help were on a another toolbar group such as the Address bar group, I need more real estate for Tab’s that’s much cleaner. The new Favorites Bar in particular eats up a lot of space. Nope, and for obvious reasons, the new layout is more focused on putting emphasis on the web page instead of the browser window.
• List View layout for Options, similar to Office 2007 Options dialog. Also make the Advance settings a part of the list view Options, this includes: Accessibility, Browsing, International, Multimedia. Nope, discussed earlier, well, I can still hope.
• Make Print Preview utilize a Tab instead of opening a separate window. Nope, but what I notice is that Printer Preview took a long time to compose a window of the preview.
• Close button Tabs like Firefox. Nope, hopefully by RTM I wish. Since we are on the topic of Tabs, there are some love aesthetics improves, there is a faint level of transparency, color coordinated tabs are more subtle compared to IE 8.
• One unified 32-bit and one unified 64-bit installer. Note, you must download for Windows 7 64 bit, Windows 7 32 bit, Windows Vista 64 bit and Windows Vista 32 bit. Microsoft, would love if you could simplify this.

I have only touched the surface with this introductory preview, but so far I am most impressed by this release of Internet Explorer, it’s the absolute best in years. The emphasis on engaging more with the web page, allowing web developers to offer unique experiences that integrate more with the desktop make Internet Explorer 9 truly one of a kind. You are not going to see some of these benefits on Windows Vista, which makes it an even better reason to upgrade to Windows 7 if you haven’t already from Windows XP. It’s still early days yet and I am most looking forward to seeing more sites show off their unique experience over time. Again, the streamlined interface, jump list integration, new tab page improvements, superior performance over IE 8 and even competitors such as Firefox and Chrome, deep integration with Windows 7 Aero Effects such as Snaps, I have to say it, I believe Microsoft has the best web browser in the world right now. Stay tuned for more updates.

Download Windows Internet Explorer 9 BETA

Windows Internet Explorer 8 RTM Review

Internet Explorer 9 Beta: Enjoying the Beauty of the Web is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.