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It takes some time for Internet Explorer 8 to open new tabs on my computer system even if the tab is a blank tab in the beginning. Observant users will notice the “Connecting” message in the tab when this is happening. This is really frustrating and one of the main reasons why Internet Explorer 8 is only used sporadically. Internet Explorer 8 does however provide information in its interface that make it possible to find out why the tabs are loading that slowly. These information can be looked at in the Tools > Manage Add-ons menu in Internet Explorer.

Microsoft not only lists the installed toolbars, plugins and add-ons but also their loading time. This loading time is added on top of the normal tab loading time in Internet Explorer. It is now easy with the tools at hand to analyze the toolbars and plugins that increase the tab and window loading time in Internet Explorer the most and find ways to deal with the situation.

A right-click on any toolbar or plugin in the add-on’s menu provides the option to disable it right away. Internet Explorer 8 will automatically search for related add-ons giving the user the choice to disable them as well. The loading time of some plugins and toolbars is not displayed in the manager. Disabling these can also have a positive effect on the tab and window loading times in Internet Explorer.

You are presented with several choices if you open a new tab in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer users have the option to open recently opened websites, start an inPrivate session (that’s the equivalent to Private Browsing in Firefox) or to use an accelerator. The Firefox web browser on the other hand displays a blank page unless an add-on is installed that changes this.

One add-on that has been recently uploaded to the Mozilla website is New Tab Page. New Tab Page mimics the way Internet Explorer displays blank tabs. It offers three options in its current stage of development:

* Display selected bookmarks
* A Google search form
* The option to start a Private Browsing session

The user can select the websites that are displayed as bookmarks in every new tab page which is different from Internet Explorer 8 which displays tabs that had been recently open in the web browser. The Google search form makes it easy to perform a Google search right away although that functionality might be covered already either by the Firefox address bar or a search form in one of the toolbars in the Internet browser.

The option to start a private browsing session is welcome although it is again possible to start one by simply using the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl Shift P] as well. The add-on is currently in experimental stage which could mean that the developer has the intention to add new features to it. It would for example be nice to be able to select the elements that are displayed on that page. Some elements that could be made available are a list of recent downloads or pages that have been closed recently.

We all have heard the news that the European Union made the “suggestion” that Microsoft should bundle additional web browsers with their upcoming operating system Windows 7 to make up for failings in the past and to embrace competition. Many users felt that this move was entirely unnecessary as users who wanted a new web browser were able to get one minutes after finishing the installation of the Windows operating system. The success of the Firefox web browser in European countries demonstrated as well that it was possible to compete with Internet Explorer without having to be supplied with an operating system.

While the intention might have been good the whole suggestion was clearly aiming for troubles. Some questions that came up where about the web browsers that should be supplied with the operating system. Who would pick the ones that would be supplied, who would make the decision to not supply a web browser and why.

It seems though that the suggestion has backfired as Microsoft announced that they will not ship Windows 7 with a version of Internet Explorer in the European Union which in turn means that the operating system will ship without web browser at all. Veteran Internet users might be reminded of times back then when web browsers were supplied on floppy disks or CDs and this is apparently going to happen in 2009 again. History repeats itself so to say, at least in the EU.

The browser-less versions, dubbed Windows 7 “E”, will be distributed in all members of the European Economic Area as well as Croatia and Switzerland. In addition, Microsoft will strip the browser from the Europe-only “N” versions of Windows 7, which also removes the Windows Media Player from the operating system and is the result of another move by Europe’s antitrust authorities.

“Microsoft will not offer for distribution in the European territory the Windows 7 product versions that contain IE, which are intended for distribution in the rest of the world,” Microsoft said in the memo. “This will apply to both OEM and Retail versions of Windows 7 products.”

“To ensure that Microsoft is in compliance with European law, Microsoft will be releasing a separate version of Windows 7 for distribution in Europe that will not include Windows Internet Explorer,” the software maker said in the memo. “Microsoft will offer IE8 separately and free of charge and will make it easy and convenient for PC manufacturers to preinstall IE 8 on Windows 7 machines in Europe if they so choose. PC manufacturers may choose to install an alternative browser instead of IE 8, and has always been the case, they may install multiple browsers if they wish.”

Microsoft has released the security bulletin summary for June 2009 which details this month’s software and system updates. A total of ten security bulletins have been released this month which patch vulnerabilities in a variety of Microsoft products including various Microsoft Windows operating systems, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office.

The easiest way to download and install the patches is by pointing the Internet Explorer web browser to Microsoft Update which will automatically detect and install the available patches for the computer system. Other possibilities include downloading the security patches from Microsoft Download Center from where they are available as well.

Six vulnerabilities have been rated as critical, three as important and one as moderate. Critical security vulnerabilities can usually be exploited for remote code execution meaning it is essential to fix these vulnerabilities quickly. You can follow the links below for additional information about each vulnerability.

* MS09-018 – Vulnerabilities in Active Directory Could Allow Remote Code Execution (971055)
* MS09-019 – Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (969897)
* MS09-020 – Vulnerabilities in Internet Information Services (IIS) Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (970483)
* MS09-021 – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (969462)
* MS09-022 – Vulnerabilities in Windows Print Spooler Could Allow Remote Code Execution (961501)
* MS09-023 – Vulnerability in Windows Search Could Allow Information Disclosure (963093)
* MS09-024 – Vulnerability in Microsoft Works Converters Could Allow Remote Code Execution (957632)
* MS09-025 – Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (968537)
* MS09-026 – Vulnerability in RPC Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (970238)
* MS09-027 – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (969514)

Have you ever noticed that Microsoft Outlook uses the feeds from your IE7 or IE8 common feed list? If you don’t actually use Outlook as an RSS reader, there’s really no reason to have that feature enabled and wasting space in your mailbox.

If you have a ton of feeds, this could also theoretically speed up Outlook—at the very least it makes your system a little cleaner.

Note: If you aren’t using Internet Explorer or Outlook as a feed reader, you could simply delete all of the RSS feeds.

Disable Outlook Common Feed RSS Sync

To turn this off, go to Tools –> Options from the menu and click the Advanced Options button on the Other tab.

Outlook Options

Now you can uncheck the item “Sync RSS Feeds to the Common Feed List”.

Now that you’ve disabled the Sync feature, you can delete all of the feeds from under the RSS Feeds folder.

You’ll probably want to also empty your Deleted Items folder after removing the feeds.

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing has been released to the public earlier today. The reviews have been quite positive so far. Most modern web browsers can be customized by the user. This includes adding search engines to the search interface in the browser.

Users who would like to add the Bing search engine to Internet Explorer or Firefox can do that already. Firefox users can download a Bing Search add-on for their web browser which adds the search engine to the list of available search engines in the search form. There are quite a few Bing search add-ons available but only one that claims to have been developed by members of the Bing development team.

The add-on will display the terms of service which have to be accepted. The above window appears accepting the terms. Bing will then be added as a search engine under the name Live Search.

Internet Explorer users can also add Bing to the web browser by visiting this website. The user needs to perform a search on Bing for the word “TEST” and paste the url into the url form of the search engine creation page. The name can be selected by the user.

A click on the Install Search Provider button will display a confirmation window. If the user accepts the window Bing will be installed as a search engine in Internet Explorer.

Opera users can simply right-click the Bing search interface and select the Create Search option in the context menu to add Bing to the Internet browser.

Google Chrome users finally need to perform a search on Bing. A right-click on the address bar of the web browser will reveal the Edit Search Engines options. Bing should be visible right away in the menu.

The last step necessary is to make the Bing search engine a default search engine in the Google browser. This is done by selecting the Bing search engine in the menu and clicking on the Make Default button

There was not a way for Internet Explorer 7 users to log into two different Gmail (or Hotmail, Yahoo Mail…) accounts at the same time. Gmail can be replaced with any other cookie based web service that asks the user to login. The problem here is that the cookie storing the information about the login will be overwritten when the second login attempt is made. Internet Explorer 8 changes this behavior by introducing so called session cookies. A user wanting to log into an account a second time (or third, fourth..) could therefor start a new session in Internet Explorer 8 to do so. The new session would write a new cookie that would not interfere with the old cookies that have been written in other sessions.

A new Internet Explorer 8 session can be created from the Internet Explorer menu toolbar which might be hidden on your computer system. The fastest way to create a new session if the menu bar is not shown is to press the keyboard combination [Alt f] [i] [enter]. This will open a new Internet Explorer 8 window in a new session. Opening a new tab or window in contrast would share the cookies in Internet Explorer 8. It is furthermore possible to start a new session from the command line by launching iexplore.exe with the -nomerge parameter.

Internet Explorer 8 sessions are a very effective way of accessing multiple accounts at the same web service at once. Microsoft should think about placing that option more dominantly in Internet Explorer 8 as its current position will most likely not be noticed by many Internet Explorer users.

There is not any comparable option in the other Internet browsers yet. Firefox users can use the Gmail Account Manager to manage multiple Gmail accounts but there does not seem to be a feature available that would allow users to log into multiple accounts at all web services.

Last Pass is a password management add-on for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that can store login credentials to web services in a securely encrypted password vault. The password manager is compatible with most editions of Internet Explorer including the latest Internet Explorer 8 edition that has been released a while ago. The passwords are stored in encrypted form on the Last Pass servers which comes in handy for several reasons.

It is for example possible to access the passwords on other computer systems without having to carry them around on storage devices like USB sticks. And since Last Pass is not only compatible with Internet Explorer it comes also handy for users who work with web browsers like Firefox. It is basically possible to share passwords and other data between Internet Explorer and Firefox this way.

password management

The download of the password management software is cross-browser compatible. It can install the add-on in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox at the same time. New users can create an account during the installation while existing users need to supply their login credentials to end the installation.

Last Pass adds a button to the Internet Explorer toolbar that provides quick access to most of the features offered by the password management software. It is for example possible to open some of the recently opened websites, switch identities, edit the preferences or add secure notes.

Password Management is not the only feature offered by Last Pass. The program can store notes in the password vault and offers an option to create form profiles to fill out forms on websites more easily.

The add-on will automatically recognize username and password forms on websites and act accordingly. It can fill out the form automatically if the login credentials are already stored in its database. New passwords can be generated with the versatile password generator. Last Pass is definitely one of the best password management tools.