Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7

Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8, and IE 8 sports lots of new features. We take overview the best features of Internet explorer 8 in this blog.

Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7

Instant search

In Internet Explorer 8, as you start typing in the Live Search box, IE offers instant results to match what you are typing. For example, it offers previously visited sites, just as in previous versions of IE. But it also starts searching for that word or phrase within Live Search and within your history.

Instant Search Feature in IE 8

Web slices

Web slices in Internet Explorer 8 let you keep track of content from sites through the Internet Explorer 8 Favorites Bar. For example, Live Search offers Web slices for weather that you can add to your Favorites Bar, and you can get weather update notifications when they occur. eBay is another example, offering to track an auction and notify you when bid changes occur.

When you visit a page that offers a slice, you see a green icon, which is under the mouse cursor. To subscribe to the slice, click the icon. Internet Explorer opens a dialog box asking whether you want to add the Web slice to your Favorites Bar. Click the Add to Favorites Bar button to add the slice. When the slice is updated, Internet Explorer highlights the item in the Favorites Bar.

Web Slices Feature in IE8

Accelerators

Accelerators are another new feature in Internet Explorer 8 that simplify and speed up browsing tasks. For example, if you were using an earlier version of IE and found an address on a Web page for a restaurant you wanted to visit, you’d probably have to copy the address to the Clipboard and then navigate to another site to map that address. With the Map with Live Maps accelerator, all you need to do is highlight the restaurant’s address and then click the blue accelerator icon that appears above the text. If you hover the mouse over the Map with Live Search option, IE displays a pop-up window showing the location on a map. You can click the menu option to open the map in a new Internet Explorer tab.

Accelerators Feature in IE8

Better navigation

Internet Explorer 8 adds several improvements to simplify navigation. For example, when you open a new tab from a page, Internet Explorer 8 places the two tabs next to each other and color codes them so that you can see that they are related. You can right-click a tab and close that tab, close all other tabs and keep that one open, remove the tab from its group, and access a list of recently closed tabs so that you can easily reopen them.

Better Navigation IE8

Searching on a page is also improved. The Find on Page toolbar, which you can open by pressing Ctrl+F, performs an instant search as you type. It offers search results as you type each character. It also highlights search results on the page rather than locates them one at a time, as in previous versions of Internet Explorer. also highlights search results on the page rather than locates them one at a time, as in previous versions of Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 8 offers several other navigation improvements, including a smarter address bar that provides an instant search of your History, Favorites, and RSS feeds; better page zoom; smarter back navigation; and a compatibility view for viewing Web pages that are not fully compatible with Internet Explorer 8.

InPrivate browsing

InPrivate Browsing

InPrivate Browsing in IE 8 helps you minimize your exposure on the Internet. This new feature helps prevent your browser history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords from being saved by the browser, effectively leaving no evidence of your browsing or search history. InPrivate Browsing also can block content from external sites — sites that the page you are visiting is pulling data from. Blocking these third-party sites can help minimize how and whether your browsing habits are tracked.

InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer 8

Other new IE features

The new features described in the preceding sections are just some of the new features in IE 8. You’ll find better performance, better crash recovery, additional security features for phishing and malware attacks, better favorites management, and more.

Windows Live

Enable Windows Live Accelators

If you have been a Windows Vista user, you might be surprised to see that some of the programs you are accustomed to using are no longer included with Windows 7. For example, you won’t find Windows Mail included in 7. Instead, these programs have been pulled from Windows and made part of Windows Live, a set of online services and programs from Microsoft. These programs include:

Windows Live Accelators

• Messenger: Use Messenger to text chat, video chat, or make phone calls to others.
• Mail: Formerly Outlook Express, then Windows Mail in Windows Vista, Windows Live Mail lets you send and receive e-mail and work with online newsgroups.
• Writer: Use this program to blog and share photos and videos on many blog services.
• Photo Gallery: Manage your digital photos, edit them, share them with friends and family, and even stitch together photos to make panoramic shots.
• Movie Maker: Create movies and video clips, and add titles, subtitles, music, and special effects.
• Family Safety: Control what sites your children can see, view reports about their browsing history, limit searches, and decide with whom they can communicate when they are using Windows Live Messenger.
• Toolbar: The Windows Live Toolbar gives you quick access to Windows Live and Live Search in Internet Explorer.

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• What’s New in Windows 7

• Taskbar and Full-Screen Improvements in Windows 7

• New Ways to Work in Windows 7

• Music and Video Sharing in Windows 7

• Better Device Management in Windows 7

• Troubleshooting and Alerts in Windows 7

• Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7

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Windows Live Essentials (Windows 7)

We’ve already covered how to download and install these, and done in-depth looks at Mail, Photo Gallery, and Writer – these Microsoft-developed programs add a lot of functionality to a new Windows 7 install.

Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows 7)

Windows 7 is the latest and greatest, but Windows being Windows, you’re not going to venture out into the Wild Blue Yonder that is the Internet without some protection. The Microsoft-developed Microsoft Security Essentials is basic but functional antivirus that will keep you covered at no extra cost to you.

A New Web Browser (Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer is okay for some people, and Microsoft has done a decent job with Internet Explorer 8. That being said, it leaves a lot to be desired – the default settings make it consume a lot of valuable screen space, and it’s just not as fast as the competition.

Everyone has his or her favorite Web browser – Mozilla Firefox is a popular and full-featured alternative with a lot of community-developed and useful add-ons, and anyone looking for a fast and clean interface might find a friend in Google’s Chrome.

An IM Client (Windows 7)

Windows Live Essentials comes with Windows Live Messenger, but what if you use AIM or Google Talk or Yahoo Messenger to keep in touch with your friends and family? What if you use a combination of all of the above?

For you, I might recommend Pidgin, an open-source chat client that can connect to all of the above simultaneously if you’d like it to. Its one major shortcoming is that it does not yet support video chat, but it is lightweight and completely ad-free.

An Audio Editor (Windows 7)

Windows Live Movie Maker has you covered for making video, but what about audio? You don’t want to be stuck trying to make anything professional-sounding in Sound Recorder.

Audacity has you covered here. It’s a free audio recorder with lots of different effects, and you one-man bands out there can even use it as a multitrack audio recorder. It’s great for aspiring musicians, students who want to record lecturers, or Web 2.0 moguls who need to record and edit podcasts.

It can export audio into several different open-source formats, and you can download the Lame MP3 plugin (per directions at the site) and you can even export into the popular MP3 format!

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