IE 5.5 is good, but needs more tools & power to enhance browsing the Internet. Netscape 6 is also good, but falls short of Internet Explorer. Opera’s also a good browser, but has need for a lot of enhancements to improve your browsing experience.
Step in …. IE 6, well, IE 6 Public Preview, which is a Beta version that’s gotten most of the bugs removed. It looks the same as IE 5.5 on the surface, but when you look at the toolbar, you’ll notice the first change. Look a bit further & you’ll see a few more changes. Anyway, enough of the waffle & on with what’s new - - - that is useful to you all!
Personal Bar - - - - This is the customisable sidebar which is used for searching, news, stocks, shares, weather & other stuff. It also doubles up as your media player, which plays, music, videos & various other mixed media formats without having to open separate programs. You can download other bars from Microsoft & other companies, like search bars, calendar tools & plenty more. - - - - In all, this is quite a good enhancement to IE.
Image Toolbar - - - - Here’s a very useful new tool, which is very handy for virtually everyone! The image bar pops up each time that the cursor passes over an image on a webpage. It basically gives you the option of:
- Save Image - - - - Saves images to ‘My Pictures’ folder, which is created in ‘My Documents’ when you install IE 6.
- E-Mail Image - - - - Does what it says. Choose your image on the webpage & have it e-mailed to a mate with relative ease.
- Print Image - - - - Again, does what it says. Choose the image & it’s printed out. You still get the choice of quality of print before the actual printing begins.
The image toolbar floats slightly above the image that you’re looking at (when the cursor passes over an image) & disappears as soon as the cursor moves away from the image. - - - - This is an excellent new tool that’s handy & works well.
Auto-Image Resizer - - - - Saves hours scrolling up & down pages to see the image when it’s a big image. This tool automatically resizes the image so that you can see it fully on the browser window. There’s no loss of quality with any of the pictures that are resized. - - - - Another very useful enhancement that speeds up the browsing process for all.
Media Bar - - - - This is far better than the old Radio Bar! The media bar has its own volume control & lets you listen to radio & CDs on your PC whilst browsing the Net. You can load up Windows Media.com (https://windowsmedia.com) & search for media files to listen to & while away your time. - - - - What can I say? Most people will probably find this useful.
Contacts/Instant Messaging - - - - Now you’ve got a contact bar which lets you use Instant Messaging, but without having to open MS Messanger. You access the messenger functions from within your browser window. This has all the functions of MS Messenger, but saves having to open separate programs. - - - - I’ll use this one a lot!
Web Privacy - - - - This has to be one of the most important enhancements & I’m sure it will be welcomed by all! We all like the idea of being able to restrict the information that’s sent out whilst online. Well, now you’ve got the choice of how much or how little information is sent out from your PC. You are notified when a website contains 3rd party Cookies & can stop the information going out. This tool is fully customisable & the power is now in your hands! - - - - A long overdue enhancement to stop information being taken from your PC without your consent.
Fault Collection - - - - If IE crashes, freezes or closes prematurely the Fault Collection tool springs into action. The tool collects the data of the crash, freeze or whatever & makes a report. You decide if the report is sent to Microsoft or not. The idea is that MS can decide if a bug or just a normal problem caused your problem. It basically lets MS see if there are any unsolved bugs in the browser. - - - - Useful, but a lot of people will be dubious of what’s sent to MS.
As for the Personal Bar, you can download a range of bars from the MS website. There’s not much of a range of bars just yet, but in due course there’ll be loads of them to download. At the moment you have the choice of downloading search bars, news, stocks & shares, media & MS’s calendar tools. I tried the calendar & found it very useful, but it can take a while to load as its web based.
You can download IE 6 Public Preview from:
https://microsoft.com/windows/ie/preview/default.asp
Please remember that this is still a Beta version & that there’s bound to be some bugs that aren’t solved as yet! I only downloaded this software, as I am very experienced & confident with my computer & software. If you do download IE6 PP, you should backup all-important files before you install the software as it could be too late after you install the software! After the installation, make regular backups … just in case there are any problems & you have to reinstall Windows! So far I haven’t had a problem running IE6, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t get any in the future!
Anyway, the full version of IE 6 is looking good & it will be well worth the download once the finished full version is on general release. It took an hour to download all the files for IE 6 & the installation went very smoothly. If you are interested in IE 6, you should take a look at the Microsoft website where you can find loads of information on the program.
That’s it folks … Tom