Are you really still using Internet Explorer after all these years of me promoting and talking up Firefox? If you are, Microsoft released IE 8 last week, and already people are running away from it because of compatibility and stability problems. Like always, hold off on these types of upgrades for at least 3 months and let others be the… Read More »Hold off on the Internet Explorer 8 upgrade
I went against my instincts today for your benefit and delved into Internet Explorer 8. IE 8 will be the default browser in Windows 7, although their are rumors that it will be possible to disable or even uninstall it. IE 8 is a step up from IE 7, albeit a very small step. It still loads pages slower than Google Chrome and Firefox. The features that allow you to customize IE 8 are sparse and implemented by very few vendors. And with IE over market share dropping weekly, IE becomes less and less relevant. Nevertheless, I put together a short video giving you a quick tour of IE 8.
Incidentally, IE 8 will be released for Vista starting tomorrow. It isn’t a mandatory upgrade, and overall, I stillRead More »7 Days with Windows 7 – Day 3
Every day I make my appointed computer help rounds, someone marvels at my use of browser tabs. Tabbed browsing started almost 9 years ago with the Opera browser and continues today with the excellent implementation in Firefox. Internet Explorer finally got on board a couple of years ago and tabs work ok with it too.
If you are not using tabs in your Internet browsing, then you really aren’t browsing, your floundering around the Internets. Learn to use tabs, you can do it. Use my video tutorial (click here) to learn this helpful and time saving technique that will change the way you look and use the web.
I just finished installing the Windows 7 Beta version released by Microsoft on Friday. I installed it on my Toshiba Intel dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It was running Windows Vista which took more than 4 minutes to fully boot (I consider the boot up process to be finished when the hard drive stops spinning and I don’t have to compete with a still booting computer to do what I want to do), and running any applications was like walking through molasses. I can say that my expectations were pretty low, but I am pleasantly surprised…so far.
On my way out the door today, I came across this article outlining one of the largest security breaches yet with Internet Explorer. I have been recommending for years that you switch to Mozilla Firefox. Today, I’m taking a harder line and recommending that you should never use Internet Explorer except in the extremely rare instance where a site truly requires Internet Explorer (IE) to run properly. For your safety and the safety of all of us connected to the Internet, please download and use either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
Many years ago, I shared with you how to back up your address book. We have talked about how to back up your favorites, but never written it down. This tip will walk you through saving your favorite places in case of a disaster. Even if you have thousands of favorites, they will easily fit on a floppy disk (if you still have one) or better still, a USB Flash drive.
For some reason, I have seen this issue about six times in the past few weeks with Windows XP computers. The browser (both Firefox and/or Internet Explorer) symptoms include:
The solution to your browser not displaying the images or backgrounds properly is removing the high contrast setting in the Control Panel. Here’s how:
If your web site viewing is looking a little goofy, and pictures, menus and text aren’t displaying properly, give these steps a try!
An extremely slow and sick computer!
Today, again, I ran across a family who has multiple teenagers (3 in this case) who use a computer that has become polluted with spy and adware. I see this situation again and again, week after week. This computer was less than 2 months old!
Give the typical teenager a Windows based computer (doesn’t matter if it is XP or Vista) and within weeks (sometimes hours) the computer is almost useless. Parents always ask me the next logical question, “Why did it happen?”
Last week, Google released their own web browser, Chrome, to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Many of you have asked my opinion and wondered what it all means. In a nutshell, I think that any competition is good competition. And with a name like Google behind the project, that adds even more fuel to the fire.
Google Chrome is fast, easy on the eyes, but offers few features that aren’t already available in Firefox, Opera, and other browsers. However, I think that more people are likely to use it because of the Google name, and they won’t be disappointed. Watch my video below for a quick introduction to Google Chrome and more commentary.
I would love to hear your comments about Google Chrome as well.
Since I use Firefox exclusively for my browsing, I haven’t seen this problem yet, but today I ran into a computer that could print from anywhere but Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). Turns out that, in her case, the upgrade to AVG 8.0 caused the problem. A standard installation of AVG 8 installs a security toolbar in Firefox, if you use it, or Internet Explorer 7. The toolbar is meant to help users from clicking on potentially harmful web links. However, the toolbar, like most toolbars, slows down browsing speeds and in the case of Internet Explorer 7 with Windows Vista, it also disables the ability to print!