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Show Stop and Refresh buttons before Address Bar in Internet Explorer 8

Nerd Grind — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:04:45 +0000

In most web browsers the Stop button and Refresh button both appear before the Address Bar. Here’s how to make both appear before the Address Bar in Internet Explorer 8.

Right-click on the Menu Bar -> go down to Customize -> then click Show Stop and Refresh Buttons before Address Bar.

That’s it.

Add Internet Explorer 8 Home Page Button

Nerd Grind — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:47:26 +0000

After upgrading to Internet Explorer 8 you might find the Home Page button, or icon, has disappeared. There is an easy way to bring it back.

On the Menu Bar click View -> Toolbars -> Command Bar. Once the Command Bar is checked you will see the Home Page button appear as part of the Command Bar.

You can also right-click on the Menu Bar then click on Command Bar to activate it.

The Home Page button appears on the Command Bar along with other buttons such as the Print button, which might come in handy as well.

Apple Gives $100,000 to Fight Anti-Gay Marriage Proposition in California

Nerd Grind — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:44:48 +0000

Apple, longtime supporter of gay rights, is donating $100,000 to a group opposing Proposition 8 in California. Proposition 8 s a ballot initiative that seeks to deny the rights of same-sex couples to marry. Apple has a long history of supporting same-sex couples.

"Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights—including the right to marry—should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8."

Google has also stepped up to oppose the proposition. It will be voted upon on November 4th. Click here for more information.

How to Uninstall Windows Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) in Vista

Nerd Grind — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:16:14 +0000

Fed up with Internet Explorer 8 which is unstable at best? IE8 Beta 1 may occasionally crashes or not responding when browsing websites, and users have to close the browser with request to send the error report to Microsoft. The bugs or crashes happen more frequently especially if users using third-party add-ons such as Google Toolbar. This is generally expected as this is the first beta of IE 8.

Beside, user interface of IE8 is generally similar to IE7, reducing the enticing for users who face problems when using IE8 to stay using it. If you decided to rollback and revert back to original IE7 or IE6, it’s possible to uninstall IE8 to do so.

IE8 can be uninstall by using Add or Remove Programs module in Windows XP, but in Windows Vista, Windows Internet Explorer 8 is not considered to be a ‘program’. Instead, IE8 is categorizing as an ‘update’. Thus, users will not be able to find Windows Internet Explorer 8 in “Programs and Features” of Windows Vista.

To uninstall Internet Explorer 8, go to Control Panel, and click on Uninstall Programs link or Programs and Features icon. Then on Tasks pane on the left, click on View installed updates link. Locate and select Windows Internet Explorer 8 in the list of installed updates, and then click on Uninstall button. Click on Yes when asked that are you sure want to uninstall the update.

Put a Shortcut on the Desktop

Nerd Grind — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:52:53 +0000

Sometimes you arrive on a web site that you absolutely want to come back to over-and-over again, but you don’t want to find it in a list of favorites. To get quick access to a web site you can put a shortcut on your desktop. When you are on the page you want to create a web shortcut to just right-click the page, and left-click Create Shortcut.

Now Internet Explorer will ask "Do you want to put a shortcut to this website on your desktop?" Click Yes.

There is a second way. Shrink your Internet Explorer window. Use the restore button in the upper right corner of Internet Explorer, then grab and edge and make the window smaller until you can see an empty space on the desktop.

Now go to the address bar and left click the "e" just like you see below. Hold the left mouse button down and drag the shortcut web address out to the desktop.

Now let go of the left mouse button, and you’ve got your shortcut. Right-click the shortcut and rename it if you need to. To access the web site again simply double click the shortcut, and the site loads.

Shortcut Keys to Search Page in Internet Explorer and Firefox

Nerd Grind — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:09:41 +0000

When it’s possible to save a few clicks, and a little time, I also make a not of it. Instead of clicking Edit –> Find in (or on) this page. You can simply use the shortcut keys Ctrl+F. This will work in both Internet Explorer…

and Mozilla Firefox.

Add or Remove an RSS Feed in Vista

Nerd Grind — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:52:44 +0000

Windows Vista introduced RSS support which included the Common Feed List. This list of RSS feeds is built whenever a news feed is subscribed to with Internet Explorer. The list is shared with some Windows Sidebar gadgets, and Outlook 2007…

The Microsoft created Windows Sidebar gadget already has a list of Microsoft related RSS Feeds, but no clear way to add RSS Feeds.

When an RSS feed is added in Internet Explorer the Windows Sidebar gadget will show the new feed in the list. To add a feed use Internet Explorer to go to a web page that has the link for the RSS feed, and click the Feeds button to view the feeds on the page.

Once the news feed page loads you can click the link in the upper left corner to Subscribe to this feed. Now you’ll see the feed in the Windows Sidebar RSS gadget.

To remove an RSS news feed from the Common Feed List, which will also remove the feed from the Windows Sidebar RSS gadget, click the Favorites icon on the Internet Explorer tool bar or use the shortcut keys Alt+C.

Now click the Microsoft Feeds folder to expand it, and remove those plus any other feeds you want to remove. If you click on the feed it will allow you to view it. Once you add a feed you’ll want to change some of the settings, so right click the feed and choose properties.

The default update schedule is to check for new updates every 24 hours. Click settings and change the time to every 1 hour, which is the default for most other programs that handle RSS feeds. With the every hour setting you won’t be stuck reading yesterday’s news every day.

If you’re going to use a news reader choose something more robust like Outlook 2007, or Omega Pro which is free. Click here to download Omega. Click here to see how to setup Outlook 2007 for an RSS news feed.

Shortcut Keys to Complete URL

Nerd Grind — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:17:15 +0000

In Windows you can perform a lot of tasks with a mouse click, or a shortcut key combination. In Internet Explorer 7, and Mozilla Firefox, you can type in word like nerdgrind, and use shortcut keys to complete the url with a www and a .com. Here’s an example. I type in nerdgrind:

Now use the shortcut keys ctrl + enter, and voila, the url is now complete.

The is supposed to save time and keystrokes, but if you’ve already got autocomplete on, then the url will be completed as you type. If you’re typing and you see a list of urls that match what you’re looking for just use the arrow key to go down the list, and hit enter to choose it.

Here’s a few more shortcut key combinations to complete a url:

Ctrl + Enter – Auto-complete *.com address
Shift + Enter – Auto-complete *.net address
Ctrl + Shift + Enter – Auto-complete *.org address

If you add Alt to any of those key combinations, it will auto-complete and open the new address in a new tab as well. For example, Alt + Ctrl + Enter will auto-complete a .com address in a new tab.

Here are some IE 7 specific shortcut key tips:

Keyboard shortcuts

Open links in a new tab in the background
CTRL+click

Open links in a new tab in the foreground
CTRL+SHIFT+click

Open a new tab in the foreground
CTRL+T

Open a new tab from the Address bar
ALT+ENTER

Open a new tab from the search box
ALT+ENTER

Open Quick Tabs (thumbnail view)
CTRL+Q

Switch between tabs
CTRL+TAB/CTRL+SHIFT+TAB

Switch to a specific tab number
CTRL+n (n can be 1-8)

Switch to the last tab
CTRL+9

Close current tab
CTRL+W

Close all tabs
ALT+F4

Close other tabs
CTRL+ALT+F4

Mouse shortcuts

Open view of all open windows
Double-click the middle mouse button (mouse settings may vary)

Open a new tab
Left-click the empty space to the right of the last tab

Close a tab
Left-click the middle mouse button on the tab

Internet Explorer 7 Hangs Preparing to Copy

Nerd Grind — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 08:14:34 +0000

Since the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has been aware of a problem affecting downloads using their web browser. Internet Explorer in Windows Vista will hang after it downloads a file, and begins to copy that file to the folder location. The same problem does not exist if Run is chosen rather than Save Target As when downloading a file. I have been having this problem myself, and have had my computer come to an almost grinding halt for sometimes 15 minutes when the Preparing to Copy function hangs. Here’s the window I see:

Here’s how Microsoft describes the problem in their August 29, 2007 Article ID : 931770:

On a Windows Vista-based computer, when you try to copy files from a server on a network, the copy process may stop responding (hang), and you may receive a message that resembles the following:
Calculating Time Remaining
0 minutes remaining
This problem may occur only occasionally.

That’s really downplaying the problem. This happens to me 100% of the time when I download a file using Internet Explorer. I’ve tried Firefox, and had zero problems downloading files, so it’s not a Vista problem it’s an Internet Explorer 7 problem. I prefer to use Internet Explorer because it renders web pages better, but if you want to try Firefox you can click here to download it.

I filled out a form to get a hotfix from Microsoft, downloaded and installed the hotfix, but it didn’t work. I found a ton of other discussions that said the fix hasn’t worked for anyone. The hotfix files available are named Windows6.0-KB931770-x86.msu and Windows6.0_KB931770_x64.msu, for 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Vista. After installing the hotfix I couldn’t uninstall it, so I had to use System Restore to get rid of it. I wouldn’t want to find out later the hotfix introduced bugs of its own. It amazes me that Microsoft has not fixed this problem that has existed since the release of Vista. My suspicion is they won’t fix the problem until the first service pack release. I’m not willing to wait that long, but I still want to use IE 7. Fortunately, there is a solution to work around the download hang. The solution is called Internet Download Manager.

Internet Download Manager (IDM) runs as its own program showing only a green arrow icon in the tray, and IDM installs a plugin for IE that works automatically each time you download a file. In the main program window you can go into Options and choose to include, or exclude different file types that will be downloaded using Internet Download Manager. This program will also integrate with just about any other web browser as well, and with features like auto-resume on downloads, Internet Download Manager does have advantages that web browsers do not. Without this work around, this hang bug could have caused as many hours of lost productivity as spam.

Click here to download Internet Download Manager, and start enjoying Windows Vista again. I no longer see the Preparing to Copy message, because IDM handles all of my downloads now.

After IDM is installed you’ll only see the window below, but you can access the program to make changes to the configuration.

The window you see below is the main program window for IDM. You can access this window by clicking on the windows button in the bottom left corner of your screen, then All Programs, and finally clicking Internet Download Manager.

I used IDM many years ago, and thought it was useless since IE could already do downloads on its own, but after experiencing the Preparing to Copy hang bug, and seeing that Microsoft won’t fix it anytime soon, I’ve come to appreciate a program helper like IDM again. If this bug affects you, don’t keep wasting your time looking to fix IE, just click here and download Internet Download Manager. Once Microsoft releases their first Windows Vista service pack, IE might get fixed. IDM has features however, that IE will never have, and it has a very low memory footprint, so you might just want to keep using IDM. Best of all IDM is free.

Always use ClearType for HTML or Not

Nerd Grind — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:50:56 +0000

If you are currently reading NerdGrind with an LCD monitor, then your computer is probably already configured to use Microsoft’s ClearType technology. If not then click here for configuration help. ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.

Internet Explorer 7, and some versions of 6, use a modified version called ClearType for HTML. The results are mixed. The Operating System already applies ClearType to programs you open, but using ClearType for HTML won’t make text any more sharp and clear, it can make some text fonts look darker, almost bold. For some this is preferred, but for most all text on some web sites might look bold. Turning this feature on may have no noticeable effect, but turning this feature off may make some web pages look better.

To turn ClearType for HTML on or off go to Tools –> Internet Options

Click on the Advanced tab, and locate the Always use ClearType for HTML under the Multimedia section in Internet Explorer 7.

Before the changes will take effect you’ll need to close all your browser windows, and restart Internet Explorer. Now if a page looks like it was written in all bold text, you can turn off ClearType for HTML, close your browser, and go back to that web site to see if your browser settings were the problem.

NerdGrind - How-to Computer Help - Tutorials - Tech and Gadget News » How to Internet Explorer

Show Stop and Refresh buttons before Address Bar in Internet Explorer 8

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Add Internet Explorer 8 Home Page Button

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Apple Gives $100,000 to Fight Anti-Gay Marriage Proposition in California

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How to Uninstall Windows Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) in Vista

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Put a Shortcut on the Desktop

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Shortcut Keys to Search Page in Internet Explorer and Firefox

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Add or Remove an RSS Feed in Vista

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Shortcut Keys to Complete URL

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Internet Explorer 7 Hangs Preparing to Copy

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Always use ClearType for HTML or Not

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