explorer

Microsoft is back under the European Union antitrust spotlight after it was accused of failing to give its European customers a choice of Web browsers, following the terms of a 2009 settlement.

The European Commission said it had received complaints that Microsoft misled EU authorities over its "browser ballot" screen, which was first rolled out to Windows users in February 2010. The software giant may not have provided all customers with a screen where a choice of browser could be selected, the EU's antitrust chief said today.

The browser ballot was a mandatory update issued as part … Read more

Microsoft has announced what vulnerabilities it plans to patch on Tuesday.

According to the company, its Tuesday update will include fixes for nine issues. Three of those issues are "critical" vulnerabilities, meaning that they can allow code execution without any user interaction. The remaining vulnerabilities are labeled as "important."

Although all three of of the Critical vulnerabilities center on Windows, one of them also includes Internet Explorer 9. Interestingly, the flaw does not extend to previous versions of the browser, so it appears it's something new. Beyond that, the nine patches address flaws in everything … Read more

Internet Explorer has been facing growing competition from rival browsers, but it's still the leader with more than 50 percent of the market, according to Net Applications.

IE grabbed a 54 percent market share last month, down from 56.7 percent a year ago. Traveling further back in time reveals an ongoing decline from November 2007 when Microsoft held almost 80 percent of the desktop browser market.

In second place with a 20 percent share in June, Firefox has also seen its share gradually drop. Mozilla's browser scored a 23 percent share a year ago after hitting a … Read more

Instagram gets faster and brighter today as it rolls out its new 2.5 features for iOS.

Among the new items are a spruced up profile tab, different ways to search, commenting improvements, and visual and speed enhancements. There is also a noticeable Facebook feature that lets users share likes, or little hearts, to Facebook if they want.

Of these new features, the app does seem quite a bit faster with photos loading more quickly. The most noticeable change is the "Explore" tab, which was exchanged for the "Popular" tab and also has a new icon.… Read more

The Internet is ever-changing, and YouTube is no exception. With Google's switch to a more minimal homepage design, it comes as no surprise that YouTube will be following that path as well. The changes aren't too dramatic, but they seem to help streamline user interaction with each video page. So instead of waiting for the newest YouTube remodel, why not take a look at it now? Here's how to get started:

Note: The following instructions have only been tested for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer.

Step 1: Open your browser of choice and open any video … Read more

Android design has come a long way -- and evidently so has at least one file explorer app. Solid Explorer is a fully featured file management app with menu organization that makes sense paired with a classy user interface.

Generally when you open a file explorer you'll just see a directory listing, a few feature buttons, and maybe even a search box to look for specific files. Solid Explorer puts apps like these to shame with its arsenal of features.

Dual-panel browsing is the next step for Android file browsers and Solid Explorer knows it. Why would … Read more

The news sounded bad for Microsoft. Barely six days after the company announced an aggressive stance on blocking advertisers from tracking you in the coming Internet Explorer 10, a new standards draft from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) appeared to kill the plan.

Except the new standards for the Do Not Track (DNT) browser header did nothing of the sort.

Microsoft's Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch told CNET in a statement, "We are engaged with the W3C, as we are with many international standards bodies. While we respect the W3C's perspective, we believe that a standard … Read more

Microsoft faces a tough time trying to pull off its goal of setting IE10's Do Not Track feature as the default.

The Do Not Track, or DNT, feature in a browser is supposed to send a signal to third-party Web sites, telling them not to track your Internet activity. Most browsers include this as an option that the user can turn on or off.

Microsoft wants to turn the feature on by default in Internet Explorer 10, seeing it as a necessary step in giving users more control over how their online activities are tracked, shared, and used. But … Read more

Metalogic's Finance Explorer is a simple, free, open-source tool for managing your personal finances. It's compatible with Quicken, Microsoft Money, and other financial programs. It supports OFX, OFC, and QIF formats, so it can import and manage transaction data from most banks, a huge time-saver over entering everything manually. It can manage your checking, saving, credit, investment, loan, and cash accounts, in any number. It can download stock quotes from online sources, display monthly transactions or net worth, and help you set up a personal budget using an intuitive process. We sampled a fully portable version of Finance … Read more