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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
February 8, 2009
Q. What can you tell me about Internet
Explorer 8?
A. Internet Explorer 8 is now in its
RC-1 stage. RC-1 (Release Candidate) means
that for all practical purposes, it is
finished and barring anything unexpected, it
is about ready for public release which
could happen soon.
This
article is quite long but there is a lot new
or improved in Internet Explorer 8. Probably
more featured than most will ever use or
need, but just in case, here a synopsis of
them.
Accelerators
Accelerators let you use web
service providers more quickly and easily.
For example, you can highlight a word on a
website, right click, and select the "Define
with Encarta" accelerator to obtain a
definition of a word without having to
navigate to a separate website.
Internet Explorer includes
several accelerators, including search,
mapping, definition, and blogging
accelerators using Microsoft Windows Live
web services. Accelerators can be added and
removed via the Add-on Management feature.
Manage
Add-ons
Internet Explorer's Add-on
Management feature lets you view, enable,
and disable the list of add-ons which can be
loaded by Internet Explorer. Add-ons
you can manage include browser helper
objects, ActiveX controls, toolbar
extensions, explorer bars, browser
extensions, search providers, accelerators, InPrivate blocking lists and InPrivate
subscriptions.
Application
Compatibility Logging
This feature in Internet
Explorer is designed for use by developers
and IT professionals to determine the
compatibility of their websites with
Internet Explorer. When you activate this
feature, Internet Explorer logs data points
about your interaction with web pages in an
event log, which can be viewed with the
Windows Event Viewer.
AutoComplete
Internet Explorer's
AutoComplete feature lets you more quickly
fill out web forms and navigate to websites
you have visited in the past. If you choose to
use AutoComplete for passwords, they will be
stored encrypted on your computer.
AutoComplete information is not shared with
other users of your computer.
Automatic Crash Recovery
As you browse the web,
Internet Explorer's Automatic Crash Recovery
feature stores information about your
browsing session on your hard disk in the
event of a crash, hang, or other unexpected
shutdown. If your browsing session is shut
down unexpectedly, Internet Explorer offers
you the opportunity to resume your last
browsing session.
AutoSearch
from the Address Bar
If you enter text in Internet
Explorer's address bar that does not resolve
as a valid web address, or the text begins
with a question mark, "search", "find", or
"go", the AutoSearch functionality will
redirect you to your default search provider
to help you locate the site you are looking
for.
Clear History
Internet Explorer's History
folder contains a list of links to the
websites and Windows shell locations (i.e.
drives and folders) you have visited
recently. This can now be done directly from
the browser. Just click on Safety, then
Delete Browsing History.
Controlling Cookies
What is a Cookie?
A cookie is a small text file
that is placed on your hard disk by a
website. Cookies are uniquely assigned to
you, and can only be read by a website or
web server in the domain that issued the
cookie to you.
A cookie is often used to
personalize your visit to a website or to
save you time. For example, to facilitate a
purchase the cookie could contain shopping
cart information such as your current
selection, as well as contact information
such as your name or e-mail address.
Blocking
Cookies
You have the ability to
accept or decline cookies. If you decide to
block one or more cookies, the websites that
use them might not function correctly. For
example, if you do not allow cookies at all,
you might not be able to view some websites
or take advantage of customization features
(such as local news and weather, or stock
quotes).
Note:
Blocking all cookies may prevent you from
accessing many websites. The next two
Internet Explorer privacy levels, High and
Medium High, may be more suitable. In
addition, it is possible to block a cookie
for a specific site via the Manage sites
dialog
Removing
Old Cookies
Cookies previously saved to
your hard drive can still be read unless you
remove them. This can be done directly from
Internet Explorer using the Safety dropdown
menu.
Delete Browsing History
Internet Explorer's Delete
Browsing History feature lets you clear with
one click the cookies, website passwords
that you asked Internet Explorer to save,
entries in Internet Explorer's history
folder, web form data, temporary Internet
files, the Last Tab Group, and files and
settings stored by some Internet Explorer
Add-ons that have been saved on your
computer. You may also clear some of these
items individually, as explained in the
Removing Old Cookies, AutoComplete, and
Clear History sections of this privacy
statement.
To use the Delete Browsing
History feature:
1.
From the Internet Explorer
Safety menu, click Delete Browsing
History.
2.
In the Delete Browsing
History dialog box, select the items to
delete, and click Delete.
InPrivate Browsing
InPrivate Browsing can help
keep your browsing history private on shared
computers such as in the home, Internet
café or public kiosk. History data that is
accumulated while browsing the web in an
Internet Explorer InPrivate window, such as
temporary Internet files, web address
history, or cookies, will be removed when
you close the window. History in other
Internet Explorer Windows (not using
InPrivate), will not be affected.
The InPrivate Browsing
experience prevents local storage on your
computer of the following:
New cookies are not stored.
New history entries will not
be recorded.
New temporary Internet files
will be deleted after the Private Browsing
window is closed.
Form data is not stored.
Entered passwords are not
stored.
Addresses typed into the
address bar are not stored.
Queries entered into the
search box are not stored.
InPrivate Browsing is not
designed to obscure your identity to your
internet provider or web servers on the
Internet. It does not prevent data, such as
your IP address, from being sent to websites
you visit.
InPrivate Blocking
InPrivate Blocking helps
prevent the websites you go to from
automatically sharing details about your
visit with other (third party) websites.
When you visit a website you automatically
share certain information with that website
such as your IP address, browser type and
language, access times and referring website
addresses.
If the website contains content
served by a third party website (such as a
map, stock ticker or advertisement) some
information about you may be automatically
shared with the third party website. This
type of arrangement can have several
benefits. It lets you conveniently access
third party content. The presence of
advertising on a website you are visiting
may let the website provide access to
premium content at no charge. There can,
however, be an impact to your privacy as a
result because it is possible for the third
party websites to track you across multiple
websites.
When you use InPrivate
Blocking, some websites you visit may be
prevented from automatically sharing details
about your visit with third party websites
whose content is displayed. As a result,
some content may be automatically blocked
(such as weather information or
advertisements). You are able to manually
allow blocked content by adjusting the
InPrivate Blocking settings while in InPrivate Browsing mode.
When you browse normally (not
using InPrivate Browsing), Internet Explorer
keeps a record of the addresses of websites
you visit, along with the addresses of third
party websites that display content on those
sites. When you use browse the web using an
InPrivate Browsing window, Internet Explorer
uses this record to determine which third
party websites to block automatically. You
can delete this recorded data using the
Delete Browsing History feature, or you can
disable the storage of this data altogether.
P3P
Privacy Policies
Internet Explorer gives you
the ability to view a website's P3P
(Platform for Privacy Preferences standard)
privacy policy and compare it to the privacy
preferences you have set. Even if a website
does not have a P3P privacy policy, it may
have a written privacy statement that you
can view.
After reviewing a website's
P3P privacy policy, you can specify how you
want Internet Explorer to handle cookies
from that website. If you want Internet
Explorer to determine whether or not to
allow this website to save cookies on your
computer by comparing the privacy policy
with your privacy settings, select
Compare cookies' Privacy Policy to my
settings. If you want Internet Explorer
to always allow cookies from this website to
be saved on your computer, select Always
allow this site to use cookies. If you
want Internet Explorer to never allow
cookies from this website to be saved on
your computer, select Never allow this
site to use cookies.
Please note that although
Internet Explorer can display a website's
P3P privacy policy, Internet Explorer cannot
verify that the website complies with its
own privacy policy.
Pop-up Blocker
Internet Explorer's Pop-up
Blocker helps to block some unwanted pop-up
windows from appearing without blocking the
pop-up windows you deliberately launch.
Pop-up Blocker is turned on by default.
SmartScreen Filter
SmartScreen Filter is
designed to help warn you about unsafe
websites that are impersonating trusted
websites (phishing) or contain threats to
your computer. If you opt in to SmartScreen
Filter, it first checks the address of the
website you are visiting against a list of
high traffic website addresses stored on
your computer that are believed to be legitimate. Addresses that are not on
the local list will be sent to Microsoft and
checked against a frequently updated list of
websites that have been reported to
Microsoft as unsafe or suspicious.
When you use SmartScreen
Filter to check websites automatically or
manually, the address of the website you are
visiting will be sent to Microsoft, together
with some standard information from your
computer such as IP address, browser type,
and SmartScreen Filter version number. To
help protect your privacy, the information
sent to Microsoft is encrypted.
SmartScreen Filter can be
turned on and off from the Internet Explorer
Safety menu.
Suggested Sites
Suggested Sites is an online
experience designed to show you which
websites you visit most, and to provide you
with suggestions of other websites you might
be interested in visiting. When you turn on
Suggested Sites, your web browsing history
is sent to Microsoft, where it is saved and
compared to a frequently updated list of
websites that are similar to ones you visit
often. You can choose to pause or stop this
feature from sending your web browsing
history to Microsoft at any time.
You can
also delete individual entries from your
history at any time. Deleted entries will
not be used to provide you suggestions for
other websites. Any websites you
visit while InPrivate Browsing is active
will not be sent to Microsoft.
Suggested Sites can be turned on or off
directly from the browser using the Tools
dropdown menu.
Welcome Page
The first time you start
Internet Explorer after installing or
upgrading, Internet Explorer will launch a
webpage where you can select certain
settings. These settings include choosing
your default search provider, language
preferences, or opting into the Customer
Experience Improvement Program.
The webpage
uses a cookie or a web beacon (a tiny or
invisible image used to track webpage usage)
that lets Microsoft count the number of
successful Internet Explorer installations.
Web Slices
Web Slices let you
automatically subscribe to and receive
updates from web pages that change
frequently, and view the updates without
having to load the entire website. For
example, you can subscribe to a Seattle,
Washington weather Web Slice that updates
when the current temperature changes. When
you subscribe to a Web Slice, your IP
address will be sent to the website that
provides the Web Slice on a configurable
schedule.
A
much more complete description of IE 8 can
be downloaded from the article section of
this site or by clicking
HERE.
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