explorer

Microsoft's IE9 suffers vicious parody treatment

If you've been watching the occasional sporting event lately, you might have seen -- and even enjoyed -- the IE9 ad that seems to have been around for a little while.

You must know the one: willfully dynamic, pulsatingly powerful, it reveals all the wonderful reviews that this fine browser has enjoyed.

And yet you'd guess that someone would come along and, as they say in England, take the piss.

So here is a version of the IE9 ad, complete with the original music -- Alex Clare's "Too Close" -- that suggests the browser might cause a furrowed brow. … Read more

Expect frustration from Faster Downloader

There are so many easy ways to download streaming media these days that we find absolutely no reason to bother with a program that's the least bit complicated. For that reason, we recommend that users who want to download video and music from streaming sites (where that's permitted, of course) look for something other than Faster Downloader to do it with. This unintuitive program left us scratching our head and wondering why the creators had so needlessly complicated what should be a simple process.

Faster Downloader boasts that it's "fully integrated" with Firefox and Internet … Read more

How to disable Java in IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari

Last week's notice by researchers at Security Explorations of an unpatched hole in the Java runtime environment may have left you wondering whether to disable Java until Oracle releases a patch. CNET's Topher Kessler noted in his report on the Java flaw that no malware exploiting the vulnerability has yet been documented.

Which leads to the question, "Do I need Java?"

The best way to find out is to disable Java in your browser and re-enable it only if you encounter a site that prompts you to download Java before it will open. Then you can … Read more

Add tabs to Windows Explorer with QTTabBar

A little Internet Explorer shell named Netcaptor introduced tabbed browsing, and major players like Opera and Mozilla Firefox (and then Google Chrome) made the feature a default tool for surfing the Web. Even though Microsoft eventually added tabbed browsing to its own browser with Internet Explorer 7, the idea of tabs never really translated to Windows Explorer ... until QTTabBar.

QTTabBar is an extension that brings tab functionality to the Windows Explorer file browser. Began as a project by a Japanese developer known as Quizo, QTTabBar (which also goes by QT TabBar) added tabs to Window Explorer during the many years … Read more

IE keeps firm grip on half of the browser market

Microsoft's Internet Explorer still grabs more than half of all traffic among browsers, at least as viewed by Web tracker Net Applications.

Leading the desktop browser market for September, IE took home a share of 53.6 percent. That left Firefox in second place with 20 percent and Chrome in third with almost 19 percent.

Trailing the top five were Apple's Safari with 5.2 percent and Opera with just 1.6 percent.

IE's lead has dipped over the past few years. A high of 79 percent in November 2007 fell to a low of 51.8 … Read more

Protect yourself with SpywareBlaster

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that's especially true when it comes to spyware; wouldn't you rather protect your system than spend hours trying to rid it of malicious visitors? SpywareBlaster is a simple program that provides protection from ActiveX-based software and unwanted cookies for both Firefox and Internet Explorer users.

SpywareBlaster has a simple interface that will be easy for even novices to navigate. The main screen shows the protection status for Internet Explorer, restricted Web sites, and Firefox. By default, protection is disabled for each of these, but you can easily … Read more

Microsoft promises fix for IE security flaw in next few days

Microsoft said today it will issue a fix soon for a security flaw that affects users of Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9.

Uncovered this past weekend, the security hole could compromise the PCs of IE users who surf to a malicious Web site. The flaw is being actively exploited to deliver a back-door trojan known as "Poison Ivy."

The software giant said in a security advisory this afternoon that a solution to the flaw would be released in the next few days.

"While we have only seen a few attempts to exploit the issue, impacting an … Read more

EU proceeds with Microsoft probe on browser choice -- report

Bloomberg is reporting European Union antitrust regulators are moving ahead with their investigation of Microsoft's failure to fulfill its obligation to provide users with Web-browser choice.

Bloomberg cited in a September 18 report "two people familiar with the matter" claiming that the EU is preparing a formal complaint.

If true, the news isn't surprising given the European Commission acknowledged back in July 2012 that it had received complaints that Microsoft wasn't providing users with broswer choice. At that point, the EU opened a probe into Microsoft's behavior.

Microsoft admitted quickly it had failed to … Read more

Microsoft offers advice to deal with IE security bug

Users of Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9 are grappling with another security flaw without a fix, but Microsoft has a few suggestions to help shore up protection.

Uncovered this past weekend, the security hole could compromise the PCs of IE users who surf to a malicious Web site. Microsoft said it's already aware of attacks that have tried to take advantage of this weakness.

Since no fix is yet available, it's up to users of IE to protect themselves. A new Microsoft Security Advisory offers several recommendations.

To start, the usual advice always applies. Make sure you'… Read more