October 19, 2006 · 1 Comment
Microsoft just managed to release the full version of Internet Explorer 7 just on time and is ready for public download. You can get the latest Internet Explorer bits in 2 ways.
If you don’t install it by yourself then by the time the next Windows Update happens (if you have it configured to update automatically) you’ll get the new Internet Explorer.
I agree that it looks like its been forced upon you. I can see that. But, don’t worry, there is a hack available to stop the automatic Windows Update from upgrading your Internet Explorer.
Here is how,
- Copy this command (except the quotes) to a .BAT or .CMD file “REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0″ /v DoNotAllowIE70 /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f“
- Run the file, by calling it in the command prompt or by double-clicking it.
Note: When you are ready to allow Windows Update to upgrade your browser then change the above switch from 1 to 0 for the REG_DWORD. Here is the script for allowing automatic update to do its job. “REG ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0″ /v DoNotAllowIE70 /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f“
Okay, so by now you must have gotten the latest Internet Explorer 7 bits and must have (mostly) installed it already. Then, what’s next? Wait there is more on the line. You can extend your Internet Explorer experience by installing some of these add-ons (that’s a new thing to IE of what Extensions are for Firefox).
There are a bunch of add-ons available, like for example,
- Pop-Up Blockers
- Parental Controls
- Download Managers
- Developer Tools
- Offline Browsers
- Music and Audio Players
- Video Players etc.
Keep in mind that there are a whole bunch of add-ons available under each category and so please pay attention before choosing one. But some of the add-ons are really useful and I hope that the add-on community will unleash more as now IE7 is available for the mainstream public.
Hope there won’t be an SP1 right away!!!
Until then, enjoy your new Internet Explorer 7.
Categories: IT · Tips N Tricks · Tools · Windows XP
October 19, 2006 · 1 Comment
I may be missing something here or may be Google (and may be other leading search providers for that matter) is/are missing this feature. And I’m sure if Google is missing this then you might also be feeling the same as me if you are an active Google searcho’holic.
I rely heavily on Google search for even small little things like, lets say, checking a syntax when I code and things like that. It does a decent job of giving me what I want. Note the word “decent job” and I mean it. At times MSN Live Search has gotten me the correct result set than Google.
So, I search for something and it gives me that gazillion number of links and pages and then its my headache to go thru it to reach my result set. I’ve noticed that I always end up with paging thru the search results to arrive at what I was looking for. You might get an impression that rather I should use specific keywords to arrive at the desired result set. To a certain level I agree. But not in all the cases.
For example, a while back I’ve posted about a transformation pack that transforms your Windows XP into Windows Vistas’ look and feel. A while back I was looking for to see where I am on the search results on Google when I use the search term “Windows Vista Transformation Pack”. For the first few weeks I was on the first page of the search results, at times as the very first entry, but then over time I’ve got dropped to the second page. Now when I searched for that term it came up with a bunch of pages and I had to browse thru it to find out where I am. I know what I was exactly looking for but I felt I was forced to browse thru the result sets. It would be a lucky day if you could locate the entry on one of those first few pages. Since I was on the second page it wasn’t been a big hassle. Now think about an entry getting pushed down to the 10th of greater pages and you know the pain if you are to locate that.
It would have been a simple thing for Google (or any other search providers for that matter) to implement a feature that would help us locate an entry within the search result. I don’t mean to say that to bring up the entry to the first page. That I know I should have used a different search term like for example “Windows Vista Transformation Pack + askar” to arrive at the correct entry. But what I’m talking about here is a way to locate an entry within the gazillion number of pages that comes out of a search result so that we can jump down to the entry of interest. Do you see what I mean?
I’ve looked into Google, Yahoo Search, Windows Live Search and some other leading search providers and to my irony no one seems to provide that functionality. Did they take it all for granted on us to go thru the gazillion number of result pages so that they can advertise on each of the page? Do you think that way?
Categories: IT
