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Microsoft Posts Advisory About New Internet Explorer Vulnerability

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 13:26:49 +0000

A new security vulnerability has been posted by Microsoft that could allow an attacker to execute code remotely on the affected computer system. Affected are Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8 on pretty much every client and server operating system since – and including – Windows XP. Microsoft explains that “the vulnerability exists due to the creation of uninitialized memory during a CSS function within Internet Explorer” and that it is “possible under certain conditions for the memory to be leveraged by an attacker using a specially crafted Web page to gain remote code execution”.

Mitigating factors help in limiting the impact of the vulnerability on target systems. Microsoft mentions protected mode, a feature of Internet Explorer on Windows Vista and later Windows operating system. Protected Mode gives the attacker limited rights on the affected system.

The other mitigating factors are:

By default, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 runs in a restricted mode that is known as Enhanced Security Configuration. This mode sets the security level for the Internet zone to High. This is a mitigating factor for Web sites that you have not added to the Internet Explorer Trusted sites zone. See also Managing Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration.
By default, all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows Mail open HTML e-mail messages in the Restricted sites zone, which disables script and ActiveX controls, reducing the risk of an attacker being able to use this vulnerability to execute malicious code. If a user clicks a link in an e-mail message, the user could still be vulnerable to exploitation of this vulnerability through the Web-based attack scenario.
An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less affected than users who operate with administrative user rights.
In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a Web site that contains a Web page that is used to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker’s Web site.

No patch is currently available to resolve the issue. Users should keep an eye on the Security Advisory. A Technet article reveals additional details about the vulnerability.

New Internet Explorer Vulnerability Confirmed

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:17:28 +0000

Microsoft have confirmed a new Internet Explorer security vulnerability which is affecting only pre-Windows Vista operating systems like Windows XP meaning that users running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2000 and Server 2008 R2 are not affected by the issue.

The vulnerability is not exploited currently according to Microsoft’s information and it is not likely that it will as a user on the target system needs to be convinced to press the F1 key in response to a pop up dialog box on a specifically prepared website.

The issue in question involves the use of VBScript and Windows Help files in Internet Explorer. Windows Help files are included in a long list of what we refer to as “unsafe file types”. These are file types that are designed to invoke automatic actions during normal use of the files. While they can be very valuable productivity tools, they can also be used by attackers to try and compromise a system. To help customers better understand unsafe file types, we have published a white paper on the topic which you can find by clicking this link.

There is currently no fix for affected operating systems but Microsoft confirmed that they continue investigating the issue. It is likely that a patch for the vulnerability will be provided shortly. As of now all users need to remember is to not press F1 when they are accessing websites.

Internet Explorer HTML5 Video Tag Support

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:32:40 +0000

Internet Explorer 8 does not support the new HTML5 tags video or canvas and neither do previous versions of the Microsoft web browser. It is likely that Internet Explorer 9 will be released with full or at least partial support for those tags.

Christian Adam has released an experimental add-on for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that adds support for the video tag to the web browser.

The project is still highly experimental but it could become an option for Internet Explorer users who would like to (or have to) work with HTML5 video.

The screencast above explains how support for the HTML5 video tag can be added to Internet Explorer. The developer provides a setup on his website that needs to be executed. This file adds the support.

A demonstration video is linked from the blog post as well which can be used to test the support of the HTML5 video tag. It did not work for us in our Internet Explorer 8 browser.

It is likely that the developer will continue improve the Internet Explorer extension so that it becomes more stable and reliable.

Visit IE video tag – Take Two on Christan Adam’s weblog to access the original announcement and downloads.

Internet Explorer Emergency Patch Download [Security]

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:25:07 +0000

Microsoft has uploaded the emergency patch for their Internet Explorer web browser to various Microsoft properties. This patch fixes a vulnerability that has been exploited in recent time and is currently considered a severe security risk that some countries recommended switching from Internet Explorer to other web browsers to protect the computer systems from attacks.

The vulnerability has also been used in an attack earlier this month on several popular US companies that included Google and Adobe. The patch does not seem to have been made available via Windows Update yet. This is likely to happen in the next couple of hours.

Windows users are encouraged to download the patch from the appropriate support pages to close the vulnerability in their computer system.

Internet Explorer 8 (Windows XP 64-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows Vista 32-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 64-bit
Internet Explorer 7 (Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista 32-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit
Cumulative Security Updates for Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

Users with Internet Explorer 6, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 can find the whole list of patches at Bink.nu. Internet Explorer 6 and IE 7 users should also consider updating their web browser to Internet Explorer 8 if possible.

Internet Explorer Tweaker

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:06:55 +0000

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 is an excellent web browser and a step in the right direction. Many experts believe that Microsoft will be able to close the gap that currently exists between Internet Explorer 8 and the other web browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera with the release of Internet Explorer 9.

Internet Explorer Tweaker is a portable software program to configure and tweak the Internet Explorer. The program displays a sidebar menu upon startup that contains links to different sections like browsing options, restrictions, security and repair. Most of the menus make use of checkboxes to change Internet Explorer settings.

Browsing Options: Options to turn of various features like smooth scrolling, clear type, animations, automatic image resizing or sounds.

Clean Junk Files: Delete files that are automatically stored by Internet Explorer including temporary Internet files, cookies, auto complete data or passwords.

Tweak IE: Divided into tabs that tweak Internet Explorer’s toolbars, browser menus and advanced settings. Tweaks range from disabling tab grouping and enforcing full screen mode to turning off Accelerators, restricting proxy changes and hiding toolbars or control panel options in the web browser.

Restrictions: Restrict or disable various options in Internet Explorer like the Internet Connection Wizard, tabbed browsing, reset web settings or restricting users from enabling or disabling add-ons.

Security: Configure security settings like InPrivate filtering or InPrivate browsing, phishing filters or managing smartscreen filters.

Repair: Comes with several Internet Explorer repair options including re-registering dlls and oxcs files, fixing the Internet Explorer run once problem or switching from multi-process tabs to single process tabs.

IE Tweaker is an interesting program for Internet Explorer uses who would like to tweak, secure or repair their web browser. The portable nature of the program makes it ideal for inclusion for a repair tools collection. IT Tweaker is compatible with Internet Explorer 8 (probably other versions as well) and requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5. The Internet Explorer software can be downloaded from the developer’s (messy) website.

Microsoft Showcases Early Internet Explorer 9 Build

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:05:09 +0000

Most Internet users agree that Microsoft made good progress with Internet Explorer 8 compared to previous releases of the web browser. Internet Explorer 8 introduced some interesting new features, increased the performance of the web browser by a lot compared to previous versions and introduced some new security concepts that made the web browsing experience more secure. It still did not come close performance wise to web browsers like Google Chrome but the difference was not that big anymore.

Microsoft has now confirmed that they started working on Internet Explorer 9 and it seems that they have big plans for this browser. Three demo videos have been released by Channel 9 that show some of the Internet Explorer 9 developers showcasing some of the improvements that they already build into the web browser. The Sunspider Javascript benchmark comparison looks very interesting as the new Internet Explorer 9 JavaScript engine closes the gap to Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 to about 100 ms.

Standards and Interoperability

JavaScript performance:

Surfing On The GPU

The most interesting changes that have been announced so far:

New Javascript engine
GPU enhanced page rendering
Better interoperability and web standards support

It is interesting that Microsoft is giving the public a chance to view the progress that they are making. They already changed their strategy during the Windows 7 development phase where they created blogs, videos and other means of showcasing the development progress and features to the public.

Improve Internet Eplorer 8 Speed

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:40:47 +0000

It takes some time for Internet Explorer 8 to open new tabs on my computer system even if the tab is a blank tab in the beginning. Observant users will notice the “Connecting” message in the tab when this is happening. This is really frustrating and one of the main reasons why Internet Explorer 8 is only used sporadically. Internet Explorer 8 does however provide information in its interface that make it possible to find out why the tabs are loading that slowly. These information can be looked at in the Tools > Manage Add-ons menu in Internet Explorer.

Microsoft not only lists the installed toolbars, plugins and add-ons but also their loading time. This loading time is added on top of the normal tab loading time in Internet Explorer. It is now easy with the tools at hand to analyze the toolbars and plugins that increase the tab and window loading time in Internet Explorer the most and find ways to deal with the situation.

A right-click on any toolbar or plugin in the add-on’s menu provides the option to disable it right away. Internet Explorer 8 will automatically search for related add-ons giving the user the choice to disable them as well. The loading time of some plugins and toolbars is not displayed in the manager. Disabling these can also have a positive effect on the tab and window loading times in Internet Explorer.

Order Internet Explorer 8 On CD

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:30:26 +0000

One of the few problems that European customers might experience after buying Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 7 is the lack of a Internet browser. The European version of Windows 7 ships without Microsoft’s Internet Explorer which in turn means that European customers need to find a way to install a web browser without Internet. This also causes a few follow-up problems like having to do a clean install of the operating system as an update from Windows Vista is not possible with the European version of Windows 7.

There are a few options that European customers have to get a web browser. They can download one from another computer system, start the computer from a Live CD and move a web browser to a removable device, buy a computer magazine that comes with a web browser or order Internet Explorer right from Microsoft.

Amazon customers can add Internet Explorer 8 to their shopping cart for about 4 Euro. It is also possible to buy Internet Explorer directly from Microsoft for roughly the same price. Customers who want to order Internet Explorer directly from Microsoft can visit the website that is offering information about Windows 7 in Europe and options to either download or order Internet Explorer 8.

Internet Explorer 8 Command Line Arguments

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:00:18 +0000

Internet Explorer 8 is not a bad browser. No really. It is definitely better than Internet Explorer 7 or the dreaded Internet Explorer 6. Microsoft has added several interesting features to the web browser that can compete with the features offered by popular third party browsers like Opera, Google Chrome or Firefox. It is probably still the most used web browser in business and enterprise environments.

Microsoft has introduced a few new features in Internet Explorer 8 including the inPrivate privacy feature but also architectural changes that made Internet Explorer 8 a multi-process browser. Microsoft has created a handful of command line arguments for Internet Explorer 8 that can be useful under certain circumstances.

Probably the most interesting is the ability to start Internet Explorer 8 directly in InPrivate mode by using the -private argument. This can be combined with the url argument that will open a specified url directly in Internet Explorer 8. The argument to open a specific url is simply that url, for example http://www.ghacks.net/. You can add the two parameters to any Internet Explorer 8 shortcut so that you start the web browser immediately in inPrivate mode and the specified url.

A right-click and the selection of Properties should open the Internet Explorer Properties window which contains a Target form in the Shortcut tab.

Simply append -private http://www.ghacks.net/ at the end of the line. The full line should look like the following afterwards:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -private http://www.ghacks.net/

There are two additional command line arguments available for Internet Explorer 8 that might come in handy. The -k argument starts Internet Explorer 8 in Kiosk mode which has been designed primarily for presentations. It will start the web browser without toolbars and status bar.

The final parameter is -extoff which will start Internet Explorer 8 without extensions which is useful for troubleshooting purposes.

Which leads to the closing question: Does anyone know how to always launch Internet Explorer in InPrivate mode. The shortcut works fine if Internet Explorer 8 is started from the icon but it does not help if the user clicks on a link in another program like Microsoft Outlook.

Increase Internet Security With WOT For Internet Explorer

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:53:37 +0000

If you compare the add-ons that are available for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer with those available for the Firefox web browser you will soon discover that there are not many Internet Explorer add-ons that one would consider “must-have”. It is not really clear why Firefox add-on developer are more productive. Could be that it is easier to produce add-ons for the Internet browser or that the community is more dedicated.

WOT, which stands for Web Of Trust, is an add-on for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that increases the Internet security of the web browser. The main purpose of the add-on is to scan and rank all links in popular search engines and other websites to give the user an indication of the dangers of each listed website.

Each link on supported websites will be ranked with a single colored icon which can be expanded into a detailed view when hovering with the mouse over it. Websites are ranked from very poor to excellent in the four categories trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety.

The Internet Explorer add-on will display a popup if the user clicks on a link with a poor rating which works as a second warning. It is then up to the user to ignore the warning and visit the website, skip the website or check some user reviews on the Web of Trust website first.

Web of Trust should not obviously be the only means of Internet Security but it can be helpful especially for inexperienced users who might get into troubles when visiting unsafe websites. The Internet Explorer add-on is actually not exclusive to Internet Explorer as a version for Firefox is also available for download.

Safe Web Browsing: WOT and How to Use It

Many users are familiar with WOT (Web of Trust) featured for Firefox and Internet Explorer and it certainly has been mentioned in posts. To take full advantage of WOT; you need to know how to use it. This may seem simple to the advanced user, but it is unfamiliar territory to the user who is new to browsing safety. Some anti-malware suites take care of safe web browsing and many do not. If you want to be certain that a website is “safe”, WOT is a great way to do this. “Safe means that the site is clear of malware, spyware, adware, etc. It is hard to tell just by looking if a site is unsafe or safe. This will give you the ability to discern and make appropriate choices accordingly.

WOT in its completely functional format is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Safari and Opera versions are available yet they are admittedly incomplete at this time. It may be added to Google Chrome as well. For this demonstration, the focus is on Internet Explorer.
Start by downloading the WOT add-on for Internet Explorer.

You will then be requested to register to activate all features. This is where you will have to agree to the Terms of Service and License Agreement once again. This may seem odd, but it is the way Licensing Agreements go. Depending on your system and any programs running at the time, this could take a few minutes to complete. After you register, you may see that it is taking a long time to confirm. If this is the case, restart the browser and you will see that WOT has been installed on Internet Explorer. IE9 is used in this example.

You will see this circular icon in the upper right corner of the IE browser. This is WOT. When you go to a website, click on this to see the ratings. For example, here the user navigated to desktopnexus.com. This is a free site for desktop backgrounds. The ratings indicated that it is safe.

This confirms general user reports that this site is reliable and safe: free of malware and thus trustworthy. Now we can take a look at another random site and see its ratings. Please note that this is purely demonstrative and not intended to incriminate any site or confirm that it is a dangerous site. This is merely to show the functions of WOT in Internet Explorer.

The author will go as far as to state that this is a free music download site that is at the top of Google’s search. Immediately, this warning came up. Upon further examination with certain anti-malware software, several threats were identified. You can click the View rating details and comments button to see the ratings:

When you see this, navigate away from the site and find a more trusted site. WOT works without instigation. Generally, if you do not see a “WARNING” pop up, the site is safe. Click the circular WOT icon shown earlier to see the ratings of any given site to be sure. Enjoy safe browsing and avoid problems that could compromise the safety of your computer.

Internet Explorer 8 Language Packs

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:37:30 +0000

Microsoft has released Windows Internet Explorer 8 MUI Packs for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. They allow Windows XP and Windows 2003 users to add different interface languages to Internet Explorer 8. While it has been mainly designed for corporations who operate worldwide it can also be used in smaller networks to install and support different interface languages. Please note that this solution is not intended for home computer systems, home users are encouraged to download Internet Explorer from the official Microsoft website.

Support has been added for the following languages:

Internet Explorer 8 MUI pack applicable to Windows XP x86 and Windows Server 2003 x86 for the following languages –
* Arabic, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Hong Kong), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Croatian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovenian, Slovakian, Thai

Internet Explorer 8 MUI pack applicable to Windows Server 2003 x64 and Windows XP x64 PRO for the following languages –
* Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese (Brazil)

Downloads are available for..

Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP 64-bit
Windows Server 2003 32-bit
Windows Server 2003 64-bit

via IEBlog

4 Internet Explorer 8 Annoyances

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 10 May 2009 09:17:45 +0000

Internet Explorer 8 is most likely the best web browser that Microsoft has developed in a very long time. It beats its predecessors Internet Explorer 6 and 7 fair and square and comes closer to the other popular web browsers than ever before. While it still lacks behind in comparison against Internet browsers like Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome it closed the gap to these other web browsers and it is likely that the next Microsoft browser – that will most likely go under the name Internet Explorer 9 – will close it further.

Not everything is fine and shiny though. There are a few annoyances that are especially noticed by users who work with other web browsers as well. Listed below are the top 4 Internet Explorer 8 annoyances from a user’s point of view:

1. Internet Explorer 8 toolbars

The Internet Explorer 8 take up lots of screen estate. It is possible to hide toolbars to decrease the space requirements. The annoying aspect here is that it is however not possible to combine toolbars. Users of the Firefox web browser for example can merge all toolbars into one while Internet Explorer 8 users sit there with lots of blank screen estate because of this. Hiding the toolbars might work for some Internet Explorer users but most would probably like one-click access to their favorites and access to the Internet Explorer 8 menu.

2. Webslices and Accelerators

The idea behind these two features that have been introduced in Internet Explorer 8 is to provide users with quicker access to information. The reality shows that barely any new add-ons are created for Internet Explorer 8. The add-ons gallery is everything but filled to the brim with add-ons and it seems that most are basic search add-ons that allow users to search a specific site in Internet Explorer 8. This is a feature that is not being used by many Internet Explorer 8 users. (check Internet Explorer 8 Add-ons for some good ones)

3. Creating shortcuts, dragging and dropping elements

If you want to create a page shortcut on the computer desktop you only need to right-click the page in Internet Explorer 8 and select Create Shortcut. The annoying thing is that Internet Explorer 8 will always display a confirmation dialog “Do you want to put a shortcut to this website on your desktop”. That’s practically the same annoyance that game developers like to use when exiting their games. You click on Exit Game and they display a confirmation dialog “do you really want to exit the game?”.

The same is true for dragging and dropping elements to the computer system. It is for example possible to drag images from the web browser to the computer desktop. Internet Explorer 8 will display a confirmation dialog as well asking the user to confirm the action.

This could easily be solved by a set of advanced configuration settings where experienced (or annoyed) users could disable those confirmation dialogs.

4. RSS Feeds

All popular web browsers display a RSS feed indicator in the address bar except for Internet Explorer 8. The web browser uses an icon in the command bar that gives access to RSS feeds which is not helpful if the user has set the command toolbar to hidden or does not pay attention to it. It also happens that some icons do not appear in the command toolbar but have to be accessed by clicking on the down arrow on the right of it which indicates that there are more items in the toolbar.

Feel free to add any annoyance that you have encountered while using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8.

Customize Google For Internet Explorer

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:56:04 +0000

Customize Google has been a very popular add-on for the Firefox web browser for some time now. It basically allows users to customize many aspects of their interaction with Google services like Google Search or Gmail. Options range from interface enhancements to security and privacy related settings like removing ads or tracking cookies.

Customize Google for Internet Explorer is a similar add-on for Microsoft’s web browser. The current set of options is not as vast as those in its Firefox counterpart though which can largely be attributed to the early build number of the add-on. The Internet Explorer add-on can be started from the Windows start menu after installation. It will display a configuration menu with options to start and stop the Customize Google add-on for Internet Explorer.

Google services and settings are divided into categories in a sidebar. The most popular Google services like web search, Google news or Google Mail are already included in the list. A click on any entry will display the configuration options for it in the right window.

Check boxes define if an option is enabled in Internet Explorer. Security conscious users may want to disable click tracking and Google cookies that can track user behavior while using any of the Google services.

The Internet Explorer add-on does not feel feature complete at his point in time when compared to the Firefox add-on of the same name. It does however provide the security and privacy options that many users seek which should be enough reason to give it a try.

Internet Explorer 8 Ad Blocking

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:52:38 +0000

Ad Blocking in the Internet Explorer 8 web browser is not as accessible as it is in other web browsers like Opera or Firefox with add-ons installed. Many Internet Explorer 8 users do not even know that an ad blocking feature exists in the web browser. It can be easily accessed by pressing the shortcut [Ctrl Shift F] which will open the InPrivate Filtering settings. It is however not as easy to use as it will only allow to block elements that are appearing on multiple websites. This can be either automatic or manual. There is however no obvious way of blocking an element on a single website right away.

A user of the DSL Reports forum has converted the Adblock Plus list of blocked advertisement into an XML format that can be imported into Internet Explorer 8. All that needs to be done is to download the xml file from the website and import it into Internet Explorer 8 so that all of the ads and ad providers on that list are blocked automatically in Internet Explorer 8. The file has a size of more than eight Kilobytes and can be imported into Internet Explorer the following way after downloading and unpacking it.

Open Internet Explorer 8. Access Tools > InPrivate Filtering Settings from the toolbar menu.

A click on the Advanced Settings link in the lower half will open a new window that can be used to import filters in xml format.

The xml list can be imported easily by clicking on the Import button and selecting the xml file from the local hard drive. A message should appear notifying the user that the list was successfully imported. The main window should be filled with blocking rules after clicking ok.

The ads will now be automatically blocked in Internet Explorer. The only problems with this approach are that there is no way of automatically updating the list in regular intervals. There is also no option to enable the list globally but disable it on selected websites.

Internet Explorer Proxy Switcher

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:51:31 +0000

Users of the Internet Explorer web browser do not have the same amount of add-ons at their disposal like Firefox users. Some developers try to change this with plugins or programs that they develop for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. One of those software programs is a proxy switcher for Internet Explorer. This is for example useful for users with company netbooks that have to regularly switch proxy servers depending on their location.

Quick Proxy Switcher is a lightweight 60 Kilobyte application for Internet Explorer that makes it easier to change proxy servers in the web browser. The portable application will display its main interface after execution which will display the currently configured proxy server in Internet Explorer or a blank if none is configured.

There are lines for adding and changing the default proxy server and one alternative proxy server in Internet Explorer which can be easily switched by clicking on the set button in the interface. Minimizing the application will add a system tray icon which provides a similar functionality by right-clicking it.

Users can activate the default or alternative proxy server from that menu right away. The program is best used if Internet Explorer is closed as this is usually needed to change settings in the web browser. It does however work fine with the most popular editions of Internet Explorer including Internet Explorer 8. Quick Proxy Switcher requires the Microsoft .net Framework.

Internet Explorer 8 Address Bar Buttons

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:19:47 +0000

Internet Explorer 8 has just been released by Microsoft. The eight version of the web browser is more stable, faster and efficient than previous installments of Internet Explorer. It does however change and move common address bar buttons. If you open Internet Explorer 8 you realize that the Stop and Refresh buttons are located on the right of the address bar while the forward and backward buttons are still located on the left.

Every other web browser in existence including Internet Explorer 7 and earlier have been displaying the main command buttons on the left side of the address bar. While usability tests might have shown that this is the best display for the buttons it will confuse many users who are used to the standard display of address bar buttons.

Microsoft has thankfully included an option to move the Stop and Refresh buttons from the right side of the address bar to Internet Explorer’s left. This is done by right-clicking free space on the Internet Explorer 8 toolbar,e.g. on the right side of Help, and selecting Customize from the menu.

This will immediately display a menu with the option to show the stop and refresh buttons before the address bar. The two buttons will be moved immediately to the left side of the Internet Explorer 8 address bar.

Internet Explorer 8 Address Bar Before:

Internet Explorer 8 Address Bar After:

There is however no obvious way to move other buttons in the Internet Explorer 8 address bar at this point.

Internet Explorer Add-on: Report a Webpage Problem

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:33:59 +0000

Microsoft released the final version of Internet Explorer 8 yesterday. This new version is regarded by many as a step in the right direction as it closes the gap, both speed and compatibility wise, to the other existing web browsers. There have been talks about webpage compatibility problems in Internet Explorer 8 before which can hurt a web browser’s reputation.

Report a Webpage Problem is an Internet Explorer 8 add-on that can currently be downloaded from Microsoft Download. The add-on will only be provided for a limited time as a download, most likely to sort out and analyze the biggest remaining compatibility issues. The Internet Explorer 8 add-on is a standalone executable for the Windows operating system that gets added to Internet Explorer 8 during installation.

The Internet Explorer 8 add-on adds a toolbar button to the command line of Internet Explorer 8 and will also provide the same link in the Tools menu. Users who want to report a webpage problem while using Internet Explorer 8 simply have to click on the link which will load a page at the official Microsoft website containing a form. A click will automatically generate a screenshot of the current page and store it in the temporary Internet files as ReportSiteIssueImage.bmp.

The form itself is made up of a comment box that takes up to 1000 chars and a Issue Category selector that classifies the problem as one of the following:

Page does not render properly
Only works when emulating IE7
IE complains of a scripting Error
Performance is slow
IE crashes
Other

Additional data is send to Microsoft as stated in the Privacy Statement:

Along with the information described above, information about your computer (“standard computer information”) is sent Microsoft. Microsoft uses standard computer information to provide you Internet-enabled services, to help improve our products and services, and for statistical analysis. Standard computer information typically includes information such as your IP address, operating system version, browser version, and regional and language settings.

This Internet Explorer 8 add-on will definitely be helpful for users who are stuck with Internet Explorer and experience webpage problems.

Internet Explorer Privacy Manager

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:31:22 +0000

When I was working for one of the largest German financial companies we had some very strict rules at work like having to lock the computer whenever we went away from the computer desk. This was naturally forgotten sometimes and could result in some severe problems for the person who forgot to lock the desktop.

While Internet Explorer Privacy Manager would not have helped with that problem it does help in work environments where other users should not be able to access or see the websites that are opened. The software will install a Browser Helper Object in Internet Explorer that can be configured to either make the Internet Explorer web browser revert to the default home page or make the Internet Explorer browser to close after a certain time.

The time that it takes before the desired option will be applied can be configured in minutes by the user. The default time is set to five minutes and the default action is to go back to the default page of Internet Explorer.

The Internet Explorer Privacy Manager itself is a portable software program for the Windows operating system. It should work with most versions of Internet Explorer. The developers do not provide information about supported operating systems and Internet Explorer versions though.

The software can be downloaded directly from the developer’s homepage.

Internet Explorer Sessions

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:47:14 +0000

Working on multiple computers or on several days on one computer makes the use of sessions useful. The Internet Explorer Sessions extensions IE Sessions (via IESessions: save and retrieve your sessions on Internet Explorer ) adds that capability to Microsoft Internet Explorer. It is always up to the software developer what a session really consists of, in this case it means that all open urls and windows will be saved with the ability to open them again at a later time.

Not included are the browsing history or session cookies which is a bit unfortunate as it could mean to log into several of the websites again if they require that. The extension becomes available in the Tools menu of Internet Explorer after installation where the sessions can be stored or loaded.

The Internet Explorer sessions are stored in the program directory by default. The extension provides the option to store them at the Amazon S3 Service instead which costs $0.150 per GB but has the advantage that the sessions are available online and can therefor be loaded from any computer with Internet connection.

Another option would be to send the session per email or upload it manually to the Internet to access it from a second computer.

One interesting aspect of the session manager for Internet Explorer is the ability to manage the stored urls of each session. Single urls can be loaded in the browser. It is also possible to delete urls from the session.

IE Sessions supports Internet Explorer 6 or on Windows XP or Windows 2000. Windows Vista users should read the information posted on the website about Vista compatibility first before they install the extension.

Internet Explorer Repair

Martin Brinkmann — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:01:38 +0000

Unlike its name would suggest Repair IE is more an Internet Explorer tweaking program than one that can actually repair the Microsoft browser. The closest thing coming to repairing the browser is the ability to reset functions of Internet Explorer that might be the cause for problems with it.

Repair IE is a portable application for Windows operating systems that provides access to the five tabs Appearance, Browser Features, Network and Connections, Search Features and Security. Each tab contains so called items that enable or disable certain functions and features in Internet Explorer. The current value column gives information if the item is currently set to its default value or a custom value set by the user.

Most custom values are shown as Yes (True) or No (False) values with the occasional string for values that require path information. A double-click on an item changes the value of it. A Yes or No value would be inverted. If the inverted value is the default value the field would be cleared.

A path can be changed in a small popup window instead. A confirmation dialog is always shown before changing values.

Repair IE is an excellent Internet Explorer tweaking utility that can be used to change a lot of settings in Internet Explorer. The software developer designed the tool to fix malicious software leftovers after cleaning a computer system. An option to set everything to its default value would make the software program easier to handle.