Windows 8.1

Microsoft has yet a new product on its way to release cycle to keep its dedicated fans cheerful.the new version of the windows 8 being called Windows Blue has the look and feel of windows 8 obviously ,along with certain tweaks.Windows 8.1 will be launched at the Microsoft Build developer conference in San Francisco on June 26 and the final version will be available as a free downloadable Windows 8 update.

Based on the industry sources the following features can be considered as a major change.
1. Lock screen slideshow- This can turn your PC or tablet into a picture frame by making your Lock screen a slide show of your pictures – either locally on the device or photos from Microsoft Sky-drive.
2. More backgrounds- more colors and backgrounds for the Start screen – including some with motion along with desktop background.
3. Enhanced apps-MS has tweaked certain features of the app segment by providing performance and GUI based upgrade.
4. More snap views- Re size the apps and multitask to the hearts content.
5. Save direct to Skydive, plus offline files
6. Different tile sizes
7. A new Internet Explorer

Having said that would have to wait and see if”Windows Blue ” leaves up to the expectations of the ever developing OS track line.With the recent market adaptation of the Windows 8 environment it should not be a hard nut to crack.

Related articles

• Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39 Bucks [+ get $70 in free app offers] (epicagear.com)
• Acer unveils the first ever 8-inch Windows 8 tablet with Atom processor (sparkx10.wordpress.com)

Use Internet Explorer In Google Chrome With IE Tab

 

Internet Explorer users and IE-only websites still exist, so even Chrome fans have to use IE occasionally. Why bother launching Internet Explorer when you can run it in a browser tab? IE Tab is ideal for web developers and anyone needing an IE-only website.

IE Tab for Chrome was developed by the same people who created IE Tab for Firefox. It can emulate a variety of IE versions and automatically launch IE-only websites in IE mode, so you don’t even have to think about it. User Agent Switcher for Chrome is another option for IE-only websites, but it just makes Chrome pretend it’s Internet Explorer – IE Tab doesn’t pretend, it is IE.

Uses

The IE Tab extension embeds the Internet Explorer Web Browser Control included with Windows. If you’re using Mac OS X, Linux, or even Chrome OS, it won’t work. Remember to keep Internet Explorer updated – IE Tab is only as secure as the version of IE on your system.

IE Tab has a variety of uses:

• Web Development – View web pages in IE 7, IE 8, or IE 9 mode.
• IE-Only Websites – Load IE-only websites within Google Chrome.
• Outlook Web Access & Sharepoint – Use features that only work in IE.
• ActiveX Controls – Run ActiveX Controls, an IE-only technology

Getting Started

After you install IE Tab, you’ll get an IE Tab icon on your toolbar and an IE Tab submenu in your right-click menu. Click the button to load the current page in an embedded IE window.

 

IE Tab doesn’t integrate perfectly with Chrome – each IE tab frame has its own address bar. To bookmark a page, click the bookmark icon on the IE Tab toolbar. IE Tab will create a bookmark and save it to the “IE Tab” folder on your bookmarks toolbar. When clicked, the bookmark will load the current page in an IE Tab.

You can tell it’s using Internet Explorer because it isn’t rendering MakeUseOf properly. (To be fair, the drop-down menu works properly when IE Tab is set to IE 9 mode, but it uses IE 7 compatibility mode by default.)

Advanced Options

Open the options page by right-clicking the IE Tab icon on your browser’s toolbar and selecting Options. The options page is divided into four panes.

The IE Options button is a quick way to open the system-wide Internet Options dialog – IE Tab uses Internet Explorer’s system-wide settings.

The Auto URLs feature allows you to automatically open defined URLs in IE mode. You can define rules using wildcards or regular expressions – or just enter an exact path to a specific web page. When you navigate to any of the pages that match these rules, IE Tab will take over.

The Auto URL Exceptions box can narrow down overly broad Auto URL rules. If there’s a good page that would match one of your Auto URLs rules, you can whitelist it here.

IE Tab emulates IE 7 by default, but you can emulate different IE 8 or IE 9 modes if you have a newer version of Internet Explorer installed. You must restart Google Chrome after changing this setting.

Windows Explorer in Chrome

I’m not sure why you’d want to do this, but you can embed Windows Explorer in Chrome with IE Tab. Just type a local file system address, such as C:\, into IE Tab’s address bar.

The embedded Windows Explorer works just like the Windows Explorer windows on your system. This feature takes advantage of the close relationship between Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer.

 

Do you still have to use an IE-only website – maybe an internal web app on your intranet? Or have you fully escaped IE’s clutches? Leave a comment and let us know.

Related articles

• Do you use Google Chrome? (betanews.com)
• 5 Best Google Chrome add-ons (theapptimes.com)