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General discussion

Restoring Menu Bar (File/Edit/View, etc.) in IE9 Beta

Sep 21, 2010 4:10AM PDT

I?m putting the IE9 beta through its paces, and one thing that I found somewhat annoying is that there?s no easy way to get the File/Edit/View menu bar back. Sure, you can use Alt-V to bring it up, but that?s cumbersome.

I found a site that outlines how to do it. It?s a registry hack: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/111483-internet-explorer-9-turn-menu-bar-always.html Note that you have to be logged in as administrator, and then either log off/on after applying the hack, or reboot. I found rebooting worked well.


So then the File menu comes back, but it?s not located at the top of the browser ?similar to the way IE7/8 showed this menu bar by default. Turns out the old IE7/8 registry hack for that still works, too:


http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/place-ie7-menu-bar-back-on-top/


Close IE and restart it after applying this fix. Afterward, all is well with the menu bar. It?s now visible, and it?s at the top of the browser.


One last note about IE9: I?m finding a lot (not all, of course) of websites are somewhat broken in IE9, and if I had to guess, it?s because IE9 is pretty strict about standards now, where other browsers might be more forgiving. To ?fix? this, I went into the ?Tools? menu, and clicked on ?Compatibility View? settings, and chose the option to ?Display All Websites in Compatibility View?. I know some will say "what's the point, then?" about running in Compatibility View for every site, but for this moment, it's just easier. If this is IE being strict about coding, then so be it. Sites should code according to standards.

Discussion is locked

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Nice work.
Sep 21, 2010 5:47AM PDT

What are your first impressions other than the points you have noted?

Mark

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I like it...
Sep 21, 2010 6:08AM PDT

I generally like IE9, but I'd still like to see it tweaked more for speed. And, since it's a beta, a few sites will still cause the occasional crash.

It will be interesting to see how the final product shapes up. But it looks good, and brings MS back into the competition --which is good for everyone.

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Update...
Sep 28, 2010 9:47PM PDT
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Menu Bar
Mar 6, 2011 11:48PM PST

You could just use "Alt V" to display the menu then select the checkbox under View / Toolbars / Menu bar.

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I mentioned that in my post
Mar 7, 2011 2:20AM PST

That was one of the first things I mentioned in my post.