Microsoft gets its groove back | Bangkok Post: tech

SLOANRANGER

The new Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser is out, and this time the ageing giant got it right. IE9 is like the bionic man _ better, stronger, faster and for the moment not only a real competitor, but better in some ways than any of the serious competitors.

Installing the new Internet Explorer is simple and reasonably fast, but you must reboot the computer to finish the task.

Microsoft's goal, of course, is to hook the boring IT Department on the idea that it is better to stick with Microsoft than to flit around from browser to browser. If the firm that Sir William of Gates built can convince companies to "play it safe" and stick with the Microsoft browser, then Microsoft will prosper.

This depends on a few things of course _ whether the company is using Windows for one. But all things considered, if I were a boring IT chief, I would definitely sign off on IE9 for another couple of years.

In one way, Microsoft has it easy with the new browser. IE8 and IE7 were barely useable compared with the really excellent opposition. Firefox, Opera, even Safari out-browsed Internet Explorer in many important ways (including the vital safety column), and then came the fabulous Google Chrome.

To get a $6 million-man browser, Microsoft had to drop all support for XP users. And let's be truthful about this, too. Microsoft "stole" some of the good stuff it put on IE9. Just like Opera, Mozilla, Apple and Google did.

So, with the platitudes and mandatory Microsoft-bashing out of the way, this new IE9 browser is a terrific piece of software. It has innovations that really surprised me.

A full-on, "do not track me" mode called InPrivate, which you can use right from the start of your internet session, surprised me. This is the equivalent of a hunk who says, "No thanks, I'm not much of a dancer." It's as if the restaurant owner came running over to say, "Don't order the crab, it's not worth the price."

Microsoft will lose money with do-not-stalk-me. Advertisers are lined up to pay to learn your likes and habits, and it is a major decision by the world's only court-designated abusive monopoly to give up that kind of money.

A simple, one-page program, TweakIE9 can help you set up the new Microsoft browser as you wish.

Two things under the hood. First, IE9 is right today the most secure browser. That will change, up and down, because making browsers safe is a very demanding, evolving task.

Second, IE9 is fast. No, strike that, it is f-a-s-t. And if you have a CPU with two or more cores, it is f-a-s-t-e-r. For the last year or so, Firefox and Google (especially) have been bragging about their speed in rendering pages. Microsoft IE9 is faster _ and it is quicker at start-up to boot.

One nice steal from Google: The address bar is also a search bar; no reason to go to the search engine's page. By default, of course, IE9 uses Bing, but it is changed very easily in a drop-down list of search engines right there in front of you.

Overall, the interface is very back to basics, minimalist even. The tabs are beside the address bar, providing more screen real estate. For the same reason, the icons to, say, your bookmarked links are up in the right corner. You can also pin website links to the Windows 7 taskbar.

Even before the final release of Internet Explorer's Version 9, a generous bright spark had an extremely useful, extremely simple customising program out for it.

TweakIE9 by the Sweden-based Fisnik Hasani is a one-screen program that has pretty well every useful tweak and custom change you might need to make the most of the new Microsoft browser.

TweakIE9 won't even run unless you have the browser installed and ready to go. But once it starts up, you can quickly look it over and probably make up your mind on most of what you want to do.

You'll probably realise quickly that pretty well everything is a toggle switch and illustrated by an icon of a corkboard-type pin. If the pin is blue and slanted, the feature is on; if greyed-out, it is off.

The tweaks cover IE9's appearance, security, how it starts up and how it handles downloads. Make it start in full screen, for example, or for your own security start the browser in the terrific new "InPrivate" mode to prevent companies, hackers and your boss from stalking you while you are conducting intensive and important research.

Then you click "Tweak now" to fix your changes into the browser _ or you don't. You can also "Restore IE9".

The one change I think everyone wants to make and generally should make is to change the home page. Microsoft gives you a blank Bing.com search page.

TweakIE9 has a neat feature to "Make a custom homepage" but you can also designate any place on the web or any HTML file on your computer as well.

And yes, you can use TweakIE9 for this, since you're using it for other stuff anyhow. But it's easy to change or add a homepage from within IE, any version.

The easiest method of all is to navigate to the web page. Click on "Tools" (the gear icon in IE9) and then "Internet Options". In the home page section, click on "Use current" and that's your home page from now on.

You can find TweakIE9 and a nice booklet at www.itknowledge24.com.

Take a look at the IE9 home page at windows.microsoft.com/ie9.

Email wandasloan@gmail.com.