Internet Explorer 8 Review

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> Internet Explorer 8 Review</h1> <div class="pm-cont-main" id="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div class="pm-cont-pdg" id="pm-main-pdg"> <div class="node node-article node-article-page page-content clearfix clearfix" id="node-3034"> <div class="content-tools" style="margin-bottom: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 595px;"> <div class="byline-date"> <div class="byline" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3;"> <br /></div> </div> </div> <div class="intro clearfix" style="background-color: #ededed; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; clear: both;"> <div class="description clear-block" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'URW Gothic L', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 10px 10px 7px;"> <div class="summary" style="line-height: 1.5;"> <div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content clear-block" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <div> </div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> I've recounted the history of Internet Explorer (IE) so many times, it's hardly worth the effort at this point. Suffice to say that Microsoft's browser has seen times both boom and bust, alternating between periods of great innovation and sad stagnation.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> From a technical standpoint, from a user experience standpoint, we're in a far more positive era now than we were in the early 2000s, when IE was left to wither as new competitors like Firefox arrived, sniping at IE's usage share and adding functionality at a rapid clip. And yet, paradoxically, we're also witnessing the slow, methodical crumbling of the IE empire: Usage share for Microsoft's still-dominant browser fell from over 90 percent at the end of 2004 to about 80 percent at the end of 2006 and then to under 70 percent by the end of 2008. That's a pretty clear downward trend, and IE's competition--most notably Firefox--has risen to take up the slack.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> There are, of course, different ways to slice data. Looked at in a more granular way, Microsoft's current IE version, Internet Explorer 7 (<a href="http://winsupersite.com/article/reviews/internet-explorer-7-review.aspx" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;">see my review</a>), has seen nothing but upside: It's risen from about 30 percent of the market in March 2007 to about 50 percent today. What's fallen, of course, is IE 6, the now-ancient and dangerous-to-use previous IE version. In the same time period, IE 6 usage has fallen from 48 percent to less than 19 percent. In fact, it was only this month that Firefox eked past IE 6 in usage share. That's right: IE isn't just the number one browser. Until this month, its predecessor was also number two.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> So, what are we to make of this? My conclusion is simple: Overall, IE usage continues to slide, or creep downward. But most of that creep is due to users finally moving off of the obsolete IE 6. Firefox is gaining share at the expense of IE 6, not IE 7. So as we turn our gaze to the next IE version, Internet Explorer 8, the equation for Microsoft is simple: It must gain IE 8 share at the expense of its competition, not just at the expense of its predecessors. To make that happen, IE 8 must be good enough that users around the world will want to download, install, and use it instead of other browsers.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> And that presents the central question here: Is IE 8 good enough to stem IE's steady market share losses? Is it good enough to--gasp--get people to stop using Firefox, let alone previous IE versions?</div> <div align="center" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> \[ Read more about the competition: <a href="http://winsupersite.com/article/reviews/hands-on-with-google-chrome-beta.aspx" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;">Google Chrome Beta</a>, Mozilla Firefox 3, and Apple Safari 4 Beta. \]</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Browsers today: It's not 1995 anymore</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> One thing I feel reasonably sure about is that the future of computing will be mobile and will be Internet-based. Looked at a bit cynically, then, we might consider the traditional Windows OS as the "past," while cloud-based solutions are the "future." In this world view, Internet Explorer (and other browsers) are the portal between the past and the future, the window through which more and more of our daily computing tasks are completed.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> But you don't have to be cynical to see things this way. Even if you believe that cloud computing will never truly take over as our day-to-day computing platform, it's impossible to escape the fact that there will be at least a mix of local (PC- or device-based) computing and cloud (web- and services-based) computing. Going forward, the balance will at least shift somewhat from the purely local PC computing we all performed from the mid-1990s back to the dawn of the PC age.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> This, of course, explains why Microsoft continues to evolve Internet Explorer. As Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch told me in a recent briefing, "We make Windows and we want users to love it. People use the web. So we want them to have the best possible experience, in Windows, out of the box." Microsoft sees, as I do, a future in which the PC (Windows), mobile devices (Windows Mobile/Windows Phones), and Internet services (Live/Kumo/MSN, Windows Azure, Microsoft Online Services) all interoperate and interact in a grand symphony of technology. IE 8, as the latest version of Microsoft's PC-based web browser, is a new attempt to ensure that Windows users--the largest single group of computer users anywhere--has the best possible experience online. This all makes sense.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> But the world is ever changing, of course, and many IE versions have been developed as responses to industry or technological trends over the years. The original version of IE was created out of fears that Netscape would establish the platform of the future. IE 4 was a response to push services. IE 7 was about meeting and in some cases exceeding the functional expectations established by browser competitors such as Firefox. These products evolved over a period of many years, and each addressed the needs of the day.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> So what are the needs of the day, today? Well, as noted before, the computing public is spending more and more time online. So the interface they use for those activities--the web browser--needs to be fast, stable, and secure. For businesses, it needs to be deployable and manageable, functionality that still eludes all other browser makers. For developers, browsers should adhere to accepted web standards, easing the development of web sites, applications, and services. But as we move into a world where the display of these products becomes a commodity, browsers must also learn to compete "beyond the page," as Microsoft says. And here, IE stands alone in many ways: With IE 8, Microsoft has dramatically expanded the capabilities of the browser outside of the viewable display area, and in the surrounding chrome.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> This latter bit pushes some of IE 8's capabilities from the "need" category into the "want" category, and it this kind of functionality, I think, that really sets IE 8 apart from the competition. That's not to downplay IE 8's security, performance, reliability, and manageability advantages, all of which we'll examine here as well. But as you think about how we use the browser, and our increased reliance on information that is found far beyond our PCs, I think you'll agree that IE 8 offers some unique advantages over products like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Let's take a look.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Internet Explorer 8 Review

Internet Explorer 8 Review I've recounted the history of Internet Explorer (IE) so many times, it's hardly ...

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Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: One Box

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: One Box</h1> <div class="pm-cont-main" id="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div class="pm-cont-pdg" id="pm-main-pdg"> <div class="node node-article node-article-page page-content clearfix clearfix" id="node-4683"> <div class="content-tools" style="margin-bottom: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 595px;"> <div class="byline-date"> <div class="byline" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3;"> <br /></div> </div> </div> <div class="intro clearfix" style="background-color: #ededed; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; clear: both;"> <div class="description clear-block" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'URW Gothic L', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 10px 10px 7px;"> <div class="summary" style="line-height: 1.5;"> <div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content clear-block" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <div> </div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Like other browsers, Internet Explorer 9 dispenses with the traditionally separate address bar and search box, replacing both with a single control that Microsoft calls the One Box. The IE 9 One Box, shown below, provides a single place for getting started, whether that means navigating to a particular site or searching for a site, term, or phrase.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_02.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> While other browser makers may have beaten Microsoft to market with a single, all-in-one address bar, IE 9 goes further than the competition in many ways. Key among these is keystroke privacy, which is enabled by default. In other browsers, each keystroke you type is sent automatically to the configured search provider. But in IE 9, this is not the case: Keystrokes are not sent to the search provider unless you explicitly enable this functionality. (Doing so provides support for search suggestions, which are described below.)</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_01.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Here are some of the capabilities of the IE 9 One Box.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Navigate</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> For the most part, navigation in the IE 9 One Box works as it did with the address bar in older IE versions. That is, you can select the control (ALT + D, or CTRL + L), type in a URL (with or without <a href="http://%2Cwww/" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;" title="http://,www">http://,www</a>, or a site extension) and browse the web normally. According to Microsoft, One Box will evaluate single words to determine if they represent a valid URL ("apple" for <a href="http://www.apple.com/" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;" title="www.apple.com">www.apple.com</a>, for example, or "microsoft" for<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;" title="www.microsoft.com">www.microsoft.com</a>). If they do, it will load that site.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_03.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Inline autocomplete</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> As you type in the One Box, IE 9 provides inline autocomplete functionality so that you can quickly get to the sites you want after typing only a few letters. IE 9 anticipates your needs by autocompleting with popular web sites, and also with items from your Favorites and history. And if your search provider supports it, you can type in common terms like "news" or "music" to navigate quickly to the site you prefer.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Search</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In previous versions of IE, you would need to select the dedicated Search box to search the web from the browser. But now you can do so from the One Box, by typing in a search term instead of a URL. For example, if you want to see a weather report, you could type "Seattle weather" (or whatever; no quotes) and tap ENTER, instead of manually navigating to weather.com or whatever site you might use.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_04.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Switch search providers</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> You can also switch search providers on the fly, and choose between Google, Yahoo!,<span style="color: blue !important; font-size: 13px; position: static;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; position: relative;">Bing</span></span>, and whatever other providers you like. So if you don't see the results you want on one, you can easily try another. Search providers are accessed from the One Box drop down that appears as you type. Or, you can click and drag down on the One Box to display this drop down and select a new provider.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_05.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Use search suggestions</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> If you enable search suggestions, One Box will display search suggestions as you type directly in the drop down that appears. So as you type "Seattle weather" you'll get the forecast inline, without having to display the <a href="http://winsupersite.com/article/internet-explorer2/internet-explorer-feature-focus-one-box.aspx" id="KonaLink2" style="color: #0e5f8b; position: static;" target="undefined"><span style="color: blue !important; font-size: 13px; position: static;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; position: relative;">search </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; position: relative;">results</span></span></a> page.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_06.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> These search suggestions are often very visual as well. So if you search for a product, place, or other thing, you will often see pictures inline in the drop down.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_07.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_08.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Corporate search</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> PCs that are connected to a corporate domain can use the IE 9 One Box to quickly find intranet sites using single words with a forward slash. So if you have an internal web site at <a href="http://vail/" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;" title="http://vail">http://vail</a>, you can get there by typing vail/ in the IE 9 One Box. That's because the single word vail, without the slash, would trigger a search.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Access browsing history and Favorites</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> To access your recent browsing history and Favorites directly from One Box, just click, hold, and drag down on the One Box control, or click the little down arrow at its far right.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_09.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Pin a web site</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> You can also pin a web site to the Windows 7 taskbar by dragging its web site icon from the One Box to the taskbar. This process is described in my Pinned Web Sites feature focus.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129110/ie9_ob_10.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: One Box

Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: One Box Like other browsers, Internet Explorer 9 dispenses with the traditionall...

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Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate</h1> <div class="pm-cont-main" id="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div class="pm-cont-pdg" id="pm-main-pdg"> <div class="node node-article node-article-page page-content clearfix clearfix" id="node-4758"> <div class="content-tools" style="margin-bottom: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 595px;"> <div class="byline-date"> <div class="byline" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3;"> <br /></div> </div> </div> <div class="intro clearfix" style="background-color: #ededed; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; clear: both;"> <div class="description clear-block" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'URW Gothic L', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 10px 10px 7px;"> <div class="summary" style="line-height: 1.5;"> <div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content clear-block" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <div> </div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Today, Microsoft is releasing the final major pre-release milestone of Internet Explorer 9, a release candidate build that the company tells me is very, very close to final. I've only had the RC build for a short time, so a full review isn't yet possible. But I'll save that for the final release of IE: For now, let's take a look at what's new in the release candidate.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> User interface changes</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> With IE 9, Microsoft is offering a slightly refined UI over its predecessor, with a new OneBox that integrates web site navigation and searching into a single control, as is the case with many other popular browsers. Part of the goal of this redesign was to minimize the browser "chrome," giving more onscreen real estate to the sites and web apps you're visiting. Based on feedback from the Beta release, Microsoft has made some changes to the UI.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>General UI changes. </strong>Microsoft has further decreased the space that the top navigational controls occupy, giving a bit more space to web site content. Microsoft says this provides more space than does Chrome, which is true, but only when the browsers are used normally. If you create a web site shortcut in Chrome, the resulting window uses no browser Chrome at all, whereas IE pinned site windows retain much of the browser Chrome, leading to less space for content.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129641/ie9rc_01.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Tabs. </strong>While most users are working with five or fewer tabs at a time, according to Microsoft, a vocal contingent of power users complained that placing the tabs next to the One Box limited the number of tabs they could easily work with. So in the RC, you can now choose to move the tabs to their own toolbar below the One Box. This toolbar extends across the entire width of the window.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129641/ie9rc_02.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Microsoft also made it easier to close tabs that are not currently being viewed. Simply hover over the tab and click the close box; you no longer have to select that tab first.<strong></strong></div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>One Box. </strong>Microsoft has refined the look and functionality of the One Box, providing a new layout and look for the in-box "glyphs" (icons, essentially) that appear within it. You can now also easily refine search results by clicking the search (magnifying glass) glyph to edit a previous query.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129641/ie9rc_03.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Notifications. </strong>One of the issues I had with the IE 9 Beta was that some of the notifications were annoying because there was no way to select an "always ignore" option. These notifications have been nicely refined in the RC, however. So some notifications will auto-disappear after a set amount of time, while other, more important, notifications will alert users to their presence with a "gleam " effect that is reminiscent of the behavior of Windows 7 taskbar buttons. The download notification is a good example of this.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Menu bar toggle. </strong>When you right-click the empty area of any toolbar in IE, there is now a menu bar choice so you can easily toggle this menu on if you'd like.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Pinned Sites. </strong>IE 9's ability to pin popular web sites and apps to the Windows 7 taskbar is a powerful one, and it makes these sites look and behave more like true Windows applications thanks to optional features like customizable jump lists, taskbar notifications, and more. In the RC, these capabilities have been enhanced. You can now pin multiple home pages to a single pinned site, so that when the taskbar button is clicked, each page opens in a tab of the resulting browser window.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> And while this is currently hard to demo since site makers are working to implement this functionality, Microsoft has extended the programmatic capabilities of the browser to support site pinning from on-page elements. So, for example, a site could provide a button that could be dragged to the Windows 7 taskbar in order to pin the site.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Finally, Microsoft is enabling InPrivate mode for pinned web sites.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Tracking protection. </strong>Microsoft previously announced that it would implement a "do no track"-like feature in the IE 9 RC, but at the time it said it would not provide an integrated list of advertisers to block. Since then, there's been a dramatic improvement here: Yes, you can still download a number of prebuilt third party tracking protection lists if you want. But there's a toggle in the tracking protection UI that allows the browser to automatically block advertisers that follow you around the web. Thank you, Microsoft: This is exactly the type of thing I was looking for. And I recommend that all IE 9 RC users give this a shot: You can find it in Safety, Tracking Protection, Settings, Automatically Block.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129641/ie9rc_04.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>ActiveX Filtering. </strong>Also new to IE 9 RC is a way to block ActiveX controls for all sites and then later re-enable them on a site by site basis, turning on access to these useful but potentially dangerous controls only on sites you know and trust.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Other improvements</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In keeping with the improvements offered over the numerous pre-release IE 9 milestones, the RC version offers better performance, both from an overall perspective and with regards to specific features like the JavaScript engine. Microsoft claims that the RC version offers 35 percent faster JavaScript performance, or about 20 times the performance of IE 8 on the same benchmarks. Overall, over 2,000 performance-related changes were added to IE 9 between the Beta and RC releases. This should result in faster overall performance around such things as IE load time, web page load time, and so on.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Additionally, the IE 9 RC now offers dynamic GPU rendering, so that it can switch automatically between software-based and hardware accelerated rendering based on the performance characteristics of the PC. The net result should be faster and more reliable performance for all users. And for those using GPU rendering, IE 9 will provide better battery life on mobile computers because the system's CPU can remain idle.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> But wait, there's more...</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> There are additional improvements in the IE 9 RC around standards interoperability, of course, and in other areas. But I think it's more important for web developers and site maintainers to understand that the final release of IE 9 is right around the corner, and if you haven't done any work to ensure that everything works properly in this browser version, you're running out of time. IE 9 has had the faster adoption in IE history, with over 25 million downloads since September. This is going to be a popular browser, and you're going to want to be in on it.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> For users, IE 9 is a near-final look at Microsoft's vision for a modern web browser. Again, I've only been using the RC version for a short while, so I'll need more time to determine whether it meets my own needs for performance, compatibility, and functionality. But so far I like what I see quite a bit. And if you're reading this site, chances are you will too.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate

Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate Today, Microsoft is releasing the final major pre-release milestone of Intern...

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Internet Explorer 9

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> </h1> <h1 class="page-title" style="font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> Internet Explorer 9</h1> <div class="pm-cont-main" id="content" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> <div class="pm-cont-pdg" id="pm-main-pdg"> <div class="node node-article node-article-page page-content clearfix clearfix" id="node-4782"> <div class="content-tools" style="margin-bottom: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 595px;"> <div class="byline-date"> <div class="byline" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3;"> <br /></div> </div> </div> <div class="intro clearfix" style="background-color: #ededed; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; clear: both;"> <div class="description clear-block" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'URW Gothic L', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 10px 10px 7px;"> <div class="summary" style="line-height: 1.5;"> <div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content clear-block" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <div> </div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> 18 months ago, Microsoft president Steven Sinofsky demonstrated a very early version of the company's next web browser, Internet Explorer 9, establishing right away the product's three core tenets: Performance, interoperability standards, and hardware acceleration. Sinofsky and company also promised they would develop IE 9 at a faster pace than with previous versions, answering criticisms that Microsoft couldn't move as quickly as its competition.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> The software giant did pretty well on that last bit, neatly splitting the difference between the somnolent Mozilla and the perhaps-too-fast Google by release the first developer-oriented IE 9 in March 2010, a Beta release in September 2010, a Release Candidate in January 2011 and, now, the final version.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> That beta process wasn't just efficient, it was also highly successful: The Beta and RC versions garnered over 40 million downloads, a figure Microsoft says is over twice that for the IE 8 Beta, and represents the company's biggest ever browser beta. Two percent of all Windows 7 desktops worldwide were running pre-release versions of IE 9.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Well, now the final version is available. How are things looking?</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Good, I think. And to understand why, it makes sense to examine the main areas where Microsoft improved IE 9: The user interface, performance (including hardware acceleration), and web standards interoperability.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> User interface and design</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Compared to IE 8, Microsoft's latest browser provides a simple, scaled-down UI that somewhat resembles that of Google Chrome. It still retains some recent and unfortunate IE quirks, like stranding often-need buttons like Home, Favorites, and Tools over on the right side of the window, far away from the browser's navigation buttons. But overall, IE 9 goes a long way towards minimizing the browser UI, providing a bigger canvas for the sites you're visiting.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_01.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Microsoft calls this new design a site-centric user interface, and it's mostly well done, though you can of course bulk things up by adding back legacy UI like the Favorites bar, the Command bar, the Status bar, and any number of third party and Microsoft browser toolbars. If you don't, the upper window UI in IE 9 takes up about the same number of pixels as does Google Chrome (minus the Bookmarks bar).</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In that upper bit of browser chrome, you'll see some familiar but upgraded elements, including the redesigned Back and Forward buttons, the new One Box, which integrates the old address bar and search box into a single control (as does Chrome), at least one tab, and those three stranded buttons. Since the beta, this area has been cleaned up quite a bit as well, with one major change being that you can now choose to display tabs in their own window-wide toolbar, giving you the maximum amount of space for tabs (while taking up a row of space from the sites you're visiting).</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_02.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In using IE 9 over the past several months, I've found this new UI to be superior to the old IE 8 UI, unless of course you're a heavy user of Favorites. Microsoft has made finding Favorites a lot more cumbersome in this release, though I should note that it has also added more elegant, Windows 7 integration bits which somewhat mitigate that issue. And of course you can enable such things as the Favorites bar and even pin the Favorites Center to the side of the IE window if you want. Frankly, this is progress, and while I know some will feel stranded by this design decision, I think it was the right one.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Notifications have been completely overhauled in IE 9 as well, and here again Microsoft has cleaned some things up since the Beta and RC releases. Notifications appear at the bottom of the IE 9 window and, as such, are sometimes hard to discover. So in some cases--like a file download request--the notification bar will now actually throb in an orange color to draw your attention if you let it sit for too long.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_03.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Windows 7 integration features</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Say what you will about standards compliance and hardware accelerated performance (and don't worry, I'll address those topics too) but the best reason to use IE 9, perhaps, is its Windows 7 integration functionality. (IE 9 also runs on Windows Vista, but not XP, but these integration bit are Windows 7 only.) For the time being, finding sites that really take deep advantage of these features may be a bit hard, but more and more are coming online all the time, and as Microsoft has adequately explained to web developers, it's not hard to do so at all.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> So with IE 9 you can now "pin" web sites to the Windows 7 taskbar (and Start Menu, though that will be less common) just as you can with application shortcuts. This creates a situation where your taskbar can contain a mix of shortcuts to native Windows applications as well as web sites and services, which, when you think about it, makes perfect sense. After all, each of us uses some mix of applications and web sites each day, and the line between an application and a web app is blurring. (Microsoft reports that Windows users spend almost 60 percent of their time online, so pinning web apps and sites is arguably a bigger deal than doing so for native applications.)</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 325px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_04.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> What you get when you pin a site will vary. Sites that do not explicitly support IE 9 in this way will display a very basic icon that doesn't "fill" the entire taskbar button, and a basic, pre-designed jump list with few options.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 288px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_05.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> But sites that do support IE 9 can display a nice high-resolution icon that is very similar to native application shortcut icons and a custom jump list with site-specific features.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 294px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_06.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Furthermore, pinned sites display in a custom version of the IE 9 window that uses color-coded navigation buttons (automatically matching the site color scheme). Confusingly, these button lack a traditional Home button (which, again, is "stranded" on the right side of the window in normal IE 9 windows) but pick up a new site home button (which, inconsistently, is to the left of the Back and Forward buttons, which need to be pushed right to accommodate this change).</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_07.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> These custom site windows are a good idea, but unlike a similar feature in Chrome, the use of onscreen browser controls results in a less efficient use of space. In Chrome, pinned sites (which Chrome calls application shortcuts) aren't as powerful as those in IE 9, and offer no Windows 7 integration bits, but then they also don't clutter up the UI with browser controls; you get a blank window instead. Now, <em>that's </em>site-centric design.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_08.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Ultimately, the Chrome vs. IE 9 debate is somewhat of a wash. IE 9 is more powerful, but Chrome really gets out of the way.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In addition to site pinning and custom site windows, IE 9 provides Windows 7 <span class="keyword_link"><a href="http://winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/aero" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;" title="">Aero</a></span> Snap functionality for its tabs, icon overlays (for notifications, a la an email web app) and thumbnail preview controls, the latter of which is particularly useful to media services (Pandora, Jango, and so on) that want to provide playback controls outside of the browser window.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Security features</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> With its emphasis on corporate users, IE has always had stronger deployment, centralized management, and security controls than the competition. And with security, in particular, Microsoft has made some interesting enhancements to IE 9.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Key among these is the recently announced tracking protection functionality, which seeks to answer the FTC's call for a "do not track"-type feature for web browsers. As originally described, IE 9 tracking protection would have required users to discover this feature, find one or more third party tracking lists, and then install them in the browser themselves. And I felt this was just too much to ask.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Since then, however, Microsoft has implemented tracking protection in a far more useful and user-friendly fashion. And it could very well prove to be one of the best security features the company has ever added to its browser. Now, by default, IE 9 will maintain a personal list of sites for each user that exhibit tracking behavior. Blocking of these sites is not enabled by default--I guess we can't have everything--but enabling this is simple enough (Tools, Safety, Tracking Protection, Your Personalized List)--and is recommended.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_09.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> At this point, IE will simply continue monitoring the sites that try to track you and it will prevent them from doing so. But you can take this a much more aggressive step forward and click a link in the Manage Add-ons/Tracking Protection interface, which takes you to the newly redesigned IE Add-ons web site, and from here you can pick and choose from those third party tracking lists to augment IE's protection further.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> IE 9 also provides a new ActiveX filtering feature that answers what might be IE's longest-standing complaint: That it is the only browser compatible with insecure and unsafe ActiveX controls. Now, you can simply filter ActiveX controls (again, it must be enabled, but it's very simple to do so), so that none will load by default. As you navigate from site to site, those that do contain ActiveX controls will trigger an ActiveX filtering notification (curiously at the top of the window and not in IE 9's notification bar), letting you enable them on a case by case basis and only for those sites you actually trust. And businesses can of course control this functionality via Group Policy.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> IE 9 also includes improvements to its predecessor's SmartScreen filtering and InPrivate browsing features. The SmartScreen filter now integrates with IE 9's new Download Manager, for example, and InPrivate browsing is now available from more locations, including IE 9 jump lists and pinned site shortcuts.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Standards compliance and performance</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Here, we get into some of the more controversial bits surrounding IE 9. Microsoft's web browser has never been lauded for its web standards compliance, but the software giant is taking big steps in this release to address those shortcomings. And focused as it is on Windows, Microsoft says that it is providing in IE 9 the best possible performance of any web browser on that platform, with hardware acceleration for virtually all onscreen elements.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Competing browser makers have taken exception to both of those claims.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> With regards to standards compliance, even Microsoft offers up an interesting caveat, noting that IE 9 is the most standards compliant browser that it has ever shipped. And that's certainly true. But detractors are quick to point out that the bar wasn't particularly high to begin with, as IE 8 and older browsers were decidedly lagging in this area. These critics also complain, with charts and graphs and antagonistic standards tests, that IE 9 is still lacking behind such browsers as Chrome and Firefox.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Microsoft's response to these complaints is, I think, credible. The company says that the specifications in question--especially HTML 5--are a moving target, which they are, and that these things will be changing for years to come, which they will. It also claims that IE 9 performs well against the subset of standards that today's sites are actually using, and it offers up its own tests to prove that point.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_10.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> But I think where Microsoft makes its strongest case is in the notion of "same markup," it's goal for web developers to only have to write to a single spec that will work equally well--or at least "correctly"--across all major browsers. And to arrive at this place, it has submitted almost 3,000 individual browser tests to the W3C, which oversees these standards, in hopes of creating a way for all browser makers to properly test compliance.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> What users care about, of course, is that their browser "just work" and that the web sites they visit render correctly and quickly. To the former, I'd say that IE 9 pretty much works as expected, though I've seen some odd small font issues on some Google sites (like Gmail) and occasional column rendering problems on random sites. This is a work in progress, but I will say this: IE 9 certainly works better, much better, with regards to standards than any previous IE version, just as Microsoft claims.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Its performance claims are equally justified. IE 9 is fast, blazingly fast, and you don't have to visit any of Microsoft's (or Microsoft's partners') many demo sites to see this is so. That's because IE 9 takes advantage of the native hardware acceleration abilities of Windows, which utilizes the GPU, not the CPU, for most onscreen rendering, dramatically speeding performance and quality.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129882/ie9_final_11.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Now, other browser makers claim they can achieve similar levels of performance, and they're working to do just that, not just in their Windows browsers, but on other platforms as well. I suspect they'll do OK. But focusing just on IE 9 right now, it's pretty clear that Microsoft's push to hardware-accelerated, well, everything, was the right move. Graphics, text, audio, and video is all hardware accelerated, allowing the browser to stop limiting itself to roughly ten percent of your computer's abilities. Now, Microsoft says, IE 9 can take advantage of the other 90 percent as well.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Since the Beta, one big change is that the hardware acceleration features work better on low-end machines as well. So you should be able to see a big difference no matter what type of PC you have.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Installation and availability</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Microsoft made Internet Explorer 9 available today via the normal download mechanisms, with separate versions available for 32-bit Windows Vista, 64-bit Windows Vista, 32-bit Windows 7, and 64-bit Windows 7. (The 64-bit versions apply to the OS only; the browser that is installed is a 32-bit application regardless.)</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In an unexpected move, IE 9 can now be installed without rebooting your PC, though doing so requires you to allow the installer to shut down virtually everything running on the system, including Windows Explorer. (If you don't wish to do this, you'll just need to reboot before you can run IE 9.) I believe this is a first.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Final thoughts</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Once you jettison all the hyperbole and posturing, especially from the suddenly defensive competition, you're left with a very simple decision here: Do you use IE 9 instead of some other browser? I have a couple of bits of advice along those lines.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> First, if you're using an older IE version, switch. IE 9 is faster, more secure, more standards compliant, and more efficient than any previous IE version, and if you're using Windows 7, it offers the best OS integration features around. In fact, for all the hand-wringing over whether it was wise for Microsoft to integrate IE into Windows when it did (it wasn't), this release points very cleanly to how this integration can be well done. IE 9 is a nice complement to Windows 7, one that make web sites work more seamlessly within Microsoft's core OS.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> If you're using an alternate browser, like Chrome, your choice is a bit more nuanced. Google, Mozilla, and other browser makers are racing to add hardware acceleration features to their products, and most of these browsers already offer great standards compliance (even if a lot of that is aimed at achieving high scores on manufactured, non-real-world tests). Some, like Chrome, even offer very basic OS integration features, though none come close to what's available in IE 9.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Most users are advised to run at least two browsers regardless, and on that note, one of those browsers should be IE 9. Whether it becomes your de facto browser is a matter of choice, but I'm switching to IE 9, for now at least, to see whether this is a long term recommendation. My only issue, currently, is that I use Google's Gmail and Google Calendar services, and these sites don't work quite as well in IE 9, especially in pinned site form. So these taskbar shortcuts are for Chrome on my own PCs, though I'm using IE 9 elsewhere.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Ultimately, Microsoft's most impressive feat here is that it's made IE 9 a real contender. Previously, Chrome was my overwhelming choice for web browsing, with my IE usage slowly falling off to a limited selection of Microsoft and Microsoft-oriented sites. With IE 9, this is no longer a requirement, and if I wasn't so invested in the Google services I would be able to switch entirely.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Another important bit to consider is Microsoft's new emphasis on rapid development. The company has suggested that it will continue with this schedule post IE 9, but whether future improvements take the form of updates to IE 9 or a coming IE 10 release is unclear. Either way is fine with me: It's nice to see that some parts of Microsoft, at least, understand the need for rapid innovation in a fast-moving market. They're doing the right thing.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Internet Explorer 9 is highly recommended, especially to Windows 7 users.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer 9 18 months ago, Microsoft president Steven Sinofsky demonstrated a very early version of the c...

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Internet Explorer 9 RTW on March 14

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> Internet Explorer 9 RTW on March 14</h1> <div class="pm-cont-main" id="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div class="pm-cont-pdg" id="pm-main-pdg"> <div class="node node-article node-article-page page-content clearfix clearfix" id="node-6783"> <div class="intro clearfix" style="background-color: #ededed; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; clear: both;"> <div class="description clear-block" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'URW Gothic L', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 10px 10px 7px;"> <div class="summary" style="line-height: 1.5;"> <div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content clear-block" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <div> </div> <div> Microsoft announced today that it will release the final version of Internet Explorer 9 next week, on March 14.<br /></div> <blockquote class="webkit-indent-blockquote" style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"> Exactly twelve months from the first Platform Preview of IE9, on<strong> Monday March 14th</strong> we will celebrate the developers and designers who are making a more beautiful web for all of us.  We will release the final version of <strong>Internet Explorer 9 for download beginning at 9 p.m. Pacific.</strong><br />And we still have a few surprises left. There are a lot of new amazing things to share, and we want you to join us.<br /><br />Dean Hachamovitch will be the Day 1 keynoter <a href="http://live.visitmix.com/" style="color: #0066cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">at MIX 11</a> on April 12, 2011. Last year at MIX 10 Dean <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/03/16/html5-hardware-accelerated-first-ie9-platform-preview-available-for-developers.aspx" style="color: #0066cc; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">announced</a> IE9 Platform Preview 1 with hardware accelerated HTML5. Eight platform previews, one Beta, one Release Candidate, and one final version of Internet Explorer 9 later he’s back for more.</blockquote> <div> <br />Nice! I won't be at SXSW, but I will be going to MIX.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Internet Explorer 9 RTW on March 14

Internet Explorer 9 RTW on March 14 Microsoft announced today that it will release the final version of Internet Explorer...

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Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus</h1> <div class="pm-cont-main" id="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div class="pm-cont-pdg" id="pm-main-pdg"> <div class="node node-article node-article-page page-content clearfix clearfix" id="node-4785"> <div class="content-tools" style="margin-bottom: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 595px;"> <div class="byline-date"> <div class="byline" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3;"> <br /></div> </div> </div> <div class="intro clearfix" style="background-color: #ededed; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; clear: both;"> <div class="description clear-block" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'URW Gothic L', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 10px 10px 7px;"> <div class="summary" style="line-height: 1.5;"> <div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content clear-block" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <div> </div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> When Microsoft released the public Beta version of Internet Explorer 9 last fall, I began writing a series of Feature Focus articles that touched on each major new feature in this important browser release. Now, with the final version of IE 9 available, it's time to take another look at those new features. I'll start with the Feature Focus articles I've already written up, which will be updated to ensure they are accurate for any changes that have occurred since the Beta. Then, starting next week, I'll add new articles to the series to address features that were added after the Beta, including Tracking Protection and ActiveX Filtering. If I've missed a specific new feature that think should be added, please do <a href="mailto:OliverKent222@gmail.com" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;">let me know</a>.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> For more information about Internet Explorer 9, please refer to my Internet Explorer 9 review.</div> <h1 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Internet Explorer 9 Features</h1> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Pinned Web Sites</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> IE 9 allows you to pin your favorite web sites to the Windows 7 taskbar in a manner that is similar to the way you pin favorite applications. So your taskbar can contain a mixture of shortcuts for both local, Windows-based applications and web-based applications like Gmail, Amazon, and even the SuperSite for Windows. This mirrors the way you really work on your PC, and is thus logical and intuitive.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Notification Bar</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Internet Explorer 9 includes a completely redesigned Notification Bar that now appears on the bottom of the browser window, allowing you to continue reading and browsing the web and deal with notifications on your own schedule. As with many other new IE 9 features, the Notification Bar is less distracting than the feature it replaces.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Download Manager</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> While Internet Explorer's rivals have had download managers for years, users of the Microsoft browser have had to suffer along with a more limited and less useful downloading capability. Until now, that is: With Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft is finally adding a download manager to the dominant web browser line. And while they may be late to the game, IE 9's download manager is, as you might expect, quite a bit more capable than those of its rivals.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> One Box</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Like other browsers, Internet Explorer 9 dispenses with the traditionally separate address bar and search box, replacing both with a single control that Microsoft calls the One Box. The IE 9 One Box provides a single place for getting started, whether that means navigating to a particular site or searching for a site, term, or phrase.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Add-On Performance Advisor</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> The Add-on Performance Advisor is a new UI in the browser that provides a handy way to help users decide which add-ons to disable. The more add-ons you have installed and enabled, the slower the browser gets. But because the previous UI for determining add-on performance was essentially hidden, few users took advantage of this functionality. So in IE 9, a new Add-on Performance Advisor notification will pop-up automatically when you launch the browser and one or more add-ons exceeds a pre-set performance threshold.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Tracking Protection</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Tracking Protection is a new IE 9 feature that limits the browser's communication with certain web sites, which in turn prevents content on those sites from tracking your online activities. Tracking Protection performs its magic using one or more tracking protection lists, each of which works like a combination white list and black list.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> ActiveX Filtering</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> ActiveX Filtering is a new IE 9 feature that can block all ActiveX controls from working within the browser via a single switch. Then, users (or corporate administrators) can re-enable controls only on those sites they explicitly trust. You can also to re-enable specific controls globally, so they always work no matter which site you visit.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus

Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus When Microsoft released the public Beta version of Internet Explorer 9 last fall,...

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Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: Tracking Protection

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; color: #242424; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; height: auto; line-height: 1.2; margin: 5px 0px 10px;"> Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: Tracking Protection</h1> <div class="pm-cont-main" id="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <div class="pm-cont-pdg" id="pm-main-pdg"> <div class="node node-article node-article-page page-content clearfix clearfix" id="node-4788"> <div class="content-tools" style="margin-bottom: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 595px;"> <div class="byline-date"> <div class="byline" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3;"> <br /></div> </div> </div> <div class="intro clearfix" style="background-color: #ededed; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; clear: both;"> <div class="description clear-block" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Sans', 'URW Gothic L', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 10px 10px 7px;"> <div class="summary" style="line-height: 1.5;"> <div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content clear-block" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <div> </div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In late 2010, the Federal Trade Commission proposed that browser makers implement a "Do Not Track" mechanism, modeled on the successful "Do Not Call" registry, which would protect consumers against privacy violations. From a functional standpoint, however "Do Not Track" wouldn't work like Do Not Call but would instead prevent sites and services from tracking the user.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Less than a week later, Microsoft surprised competitors and onlookers alike byannouncing that it would implement a Do Not Track mechanism called Tracking Protection in Internet Explorer 9. At the time of the announcement, IE 9 was still available in a pre-release beta version, so Tracking Protection is one of just a handful of features added to the product that late in development, and arguably the biggest of those features.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Tracking Protection explained</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Tracking Protection is a new IE 9 feature that limits the browser's communication with certain web  sites, which in turn prevents content on those sites from tracking your online activities. Tracking Protection performs its magic using one or more tracking protection lists, each of which works like a combination white list (sites to not block) and black list (sites to block).</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Tracking Protection is necessary because a typical web page can contain an astonishing amount of content--images, advertisements, and other code--that is provided not by the site you're visiting but by third party web sites. And these in-page elements, silently and secretly, are often specifically designed to put a digital tracer on your browser--and thus on you--and follow you along as you browse online, tracking the sites you visit and collecting information.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> With Tracking Protection, you regain some level of control over this behavior.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Enabling Tracking Protection</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> While Tracking Protection is a desirable, arguably necessary feature, it's not enabled by default. To enable this feature, first click Tools, Safety and then Tracking Protection in IE 9. (Here, "Tools" refers to the gear-like icon in the upper right of the IE 9 window.) This launches the Tracking Protection view in the Manage Add-ons window.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129979/ie9_tp_02.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Now, select the "Your Personalized List" entry and click the Enable button. This turns on Tracking Protection and uses a built-in IE 9 feature that automatically generates an internal tracking protection list that is based on your browsing history. Any time a site or in-page element tracks your movement across 10 or more sites, it's added to this automatic tracking list. (It is, however, not automatically blocked. You can configure this behavior; see below).</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Enabling this automatic, internal tracking protection list and then configuring which sites to block is a good start, and may prove to be enough for most users. (I'm pretty sure this is all I'll be doing with my own PCs.) But various third parties also offer their own tracking protection lists, and you can install any number of them in IE 9 to further burnish its security functionality if you'd like.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Finding and installing tracking protection lists</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> To find and install third party tracking protection lists, open Tracking Protection (Tools, Safety, Tracking Protection) and click the link titled "Get a Tracking Protection List online." This will open a new IE 9 window and navigate to the <a href="http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Browser/TrackingProtectionLists/" style="color: #0e5f8b; text-decoration: none;">Tracking Protection Lists web site</a>. At the time of this writing, there are four third party lists available:</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Abine. </strong>This tracking protection list blocks many online advertising and marketing technologies that can track and profile you as you browse the web. This list is updated weekly to keep you safer and more private.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>EasyPrivacy. </strong>This list is based on the popular EasyPrivacy subscription for Adblock Plus and is managed by the well-known EasyList project, which serves nearly ten million daily users and has a large support forum with dozens of experienced members able to assist resolving any issues that may arise.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>PrivacyChoice. </strong>This company maintains a comprehensive database of tracking companies, including domains used by nearly 300 ad networks and platforms, tracking methods, summaries of key policies, oversight, and opt-out and opt-in processes. There are two lists. The first blocks companies that are not subject to oversight by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and the second list blocks all tracking company domains in the PrivacyChoice database.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>TRUSTe. </strong>This list enables relevant and targeted ads from companies that demonstrate respectful consumer privacy practices and comply with TRUSTe's high standards and direct oversight.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> To download and install a tracking protection list, click the "Add TPL" link next to the company in question. In the Tracking Protection window that appears, click Add List. The window will disappear and the list will be added to the browser and enabled.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129979/ie9_tp_01.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Configuring the behavior of a tracking protection list</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Third party tracking protection lists are automatically updated on a regular basis and do not need to be configured in any way. In fact, they can't be. But the automatic tracking list (Your Personal List) can be configured in important ways. To do so, open the Tracking Protection interface, select Your Personal List, and then click Settings. The Personalized Tracking Protection List window will open.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> </div> <div class="captioned-image caption-none" style="overflow: hidden; width: 400px;"> <img alt="" src="http://winsupersite.com/content/content/129979/ie9_tp_03.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block;" /></div> <br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> There are three pertinent settings you may want to configure here:</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Automatically block all listed content. </strong>By default, IE 9 will choose whether to block or allow each content item in the list based on their behavior. But you can click the "Automatically block" radio button to block all listed content automatically.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Individually block or all a selected content. </strong>To individually block or allow any individual content item in the list, select the content in question and then click Block or Allow, respectively.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> <strong>Change how content is added to the list. </strong>By default, third party content that is used across ten or more of the sites you've visited is added to your personalized tracking protection list. You may find this number to be too aggressive, or not aggressive enough, however, so IE 9 lets you change the value to any number from 3 to 30.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Different people have different opinions about security and policy, but for my own installs of IE 9, I've enabled the personalized tracking protection list and set Tracking Protection to automatically block all listed content. And I do not recommend installing multiple lists: As I describe in "Examining a tracking list," below, multiple lists with conflicting rules will lead to unwanted content getting through to the browser.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Removing a tracking protection list</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> If you've installed a tracking protection list you'd like to uninstall, just bring up the Tracking Protection interface, select the list in question, and click Remove.</div> <h2 style="color: #242424; font-size: 22px; height: auto; margin: 0.5em 0px;"> Examining a tracking protection list</h2> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Microsoft implements IE 9 tracking protection lists as simple text files, and not as XML as I'd expected. As such they are very easy to read. Here's an excerpt from one such list:</div> <span class="geshifilter" style="border: none; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><code class="text geshifilter-text">msFilterList<br>-d statcounter.com counter.js<br>-d addthis.com addthis_widget.js<br>-d analytics.live.com masanalytics.js<br>-d scorecardresearch.com beacon.js<br>-d diig.com diggthis.js<br>-d charbeat.com charbeat.js<br>-d alexametrics.com atrk.js<br>-d google-analytics.com siteopt.js<br>-d postrank.com engage.js<br>-d addthis.com js addthis_widget,js<br>-d adsyndication.msn.com getads.js<br>-d blogrollr.com embed.js<br>-d aolcdn.com omniunih.js<br>-d static.ak.connect.facebook.com  featureloader.js<br>-d feeds.feedburner.com<br>-d mybloglog.com jsserv.php<br>-d stats.wordpress.com .js<br>-d smrtinks.com .js<br>-d disqus.com avc.js<br>... </code></span><br /> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> In this list, you can see several examples of content blocking. The lines that start with "-d" each indicate some content that will be blocked. So "-d statcounter.com counter.js" indicates that the counter.js JavaScript script from the domain statcounter.com will be disabled, or filtered out. Content that is explicitly allowed would start with "+d". And lines that start with just "-" (such as - webtrends.js) mean that that content will be disabled regardless of the URL.</div> <div style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.48em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;"> Tracking protection lists can have conflicts, where one item in a list will disable or allow content, while another (in the same or a different list) will do the opposite. In such cases, the browser will always allow the content in question. For this reason, it's not necessarily a good idea to install multiple lists into IE 9: You may simply allow the very types of content you're trying to block.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: Tracking Protection

Internet Explorer 9 Feature Focus: Tracking Protection In late 2010, the Federal Trade Commission proposed that bro...

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