Diff-IE is a prototype add-on developed by Microsoft Research that adds capabilities to compare the current website with a previously visited version in Internet Explorer.

The Internet Explorer add-on comes as a standalone installer which will install the add-on into the web browser. The Diff-IE add-on itself is compatible with all 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 7 to the latest beta of Internet Explorer 9. It will however run fine on both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

IE users should take a look at the add-on’s settings first to configure it properly. It does work right away after enabling the add-on but there are some settings in the options that may need to be altered. Among them an option to ignore sites which is by default set to all https and about urls. It would have probably been better if Microsoft would have added an option to disable the add-on on all pages with a whitelist attached to use it on selected ones. Diff-IE as of now will track changes on every visited webpage that is not in the ignored sites list.

Other settings include the highlight color and change threshold above which differences are not shown, if page contents should be cached and a listing of currently cached webpages.

The add-on itself displays a toolbar in the browser that offers quick access to core features.

Here it is possible to add a site to the ignored site listing, compare the current page to a cached page snapshot, show or hide the differences or display a side-by-side comparison. This feature is however only available if the cache page contents as an image setting is enabled in the options.

IE-Diff is a handy tool for Internet Explorer, especially for users who like to track changes made to a website over time. It would probably be better if the devs would change the blacklist approach to whitelisting, as I’m not sure how the add-on handles lots of site visits per day. It is mainly a performance and storage concern.

Microsoft Research has created an online tool called the ESL Assistant which aims to correct errors that are typical for ESL (English as a Second Language) users. The tool is provided as a web form and as a plugin for Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft Research ESL Assistant has been developed in Silverlight which needs to be installed to access the website. The website itself uses a basic layout. The top form is used to copy English text into it. The online tool will then check the text for errors and display these with suggestions on how to fix them in the lower form. Errors are underlined in the first form and it is possible to use the controls to go forward or backward. It is also possible to click on an underlined word or phrase to go directly to its suggestions.

Not every suggestion offered by ESL Assistant is correct. A check on Microsoft’s Bing search engine displays a percentage ratio for all suggested terms which could be an indicator aiding in picking the right phrase. The final decision has to be made by the user.

The Microsoft Outlook add-in is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007. It will place a new button in the Outlook taskbar which will open the ESL Assistant website when it is clicked. The email message is automatically analyzed and corrections are displayed.

The ESL Assistant website contains the web form and the Microsoft Outlook add-in download.

The program is very easy to use. The user needs to pick at least two images of the same object which are then processed automatically by the image editor. An error message will pop up if the software program was unable to compute the new panoramic image. If the process is successful the new image will be shown in the program’s interface.

Several post processing options are available to manipulate the newly created image further. The user can choose one of five camera motions, crop functionality like automatically cropping the image and image projection.

The image can be exported in various formats including jpeg, tiff, Adobe Photoshop psd and the HD Photo Image format. Microsoft Image Composite Editor is a nice tool that can combine multiple images of the same object into one larger image of the object. This is great for objects that are to large to fit in one picture taken with the digital camera but also for detailed images that should be combined.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor was tested on a Windows XP Service Pack 3 test system. It should run fine on other Microsoft operating systems and comes as a 32-bit and 64-bit version.