With the release of Windows 8 comes a new version of everyone’s least favorite browser: Internet Explorer 10. A lot of people, including me, were rather quick to ignore this new browser and quickly install our favorite third-party equivalent, which usually is either Firefox or Google Chrome. This negative attitude towards anything that has to do with Internet Explorer has come from user concerns about security and a lack of configurability. To say the least, this has formed a prejudice that prevents people from trying out the latest version of the browser. That said, IE 10 has some promising features that could entice some people who have previously discontinued its use.
1. Screen Real Estate
Until recently, Google Chrome has been the most pristine browser in terms of screen “real estate.” This means that most of the screen is taken up by the websites you’re browsing rather than elements in the browser window. The only things that Chrome left behind were things you will actually use, such as the address bar, close/minimize/maximize buttons, plugin buttons, and tabs. They’re all laid out neatly in a space that’s only tens of pixels high.
While all this is elegant, nothing beats IE 10’s full-screen browser. Its real estate is immense, capturing the entire screen. Nothing really beats that.
2. The Right-Click
If there’s one thing that’s kind of unsettling about Modern interface apps, it would be the right-click menu you get when you click on empty space. I still can’t get used to that, but it’s an undeniably powerful feature for people who want to get things done quickly. Everything in the menu is large and visible, especially in IE 10.
Once you get used to it, you’ll be adding pages and changing between them rather quickly. “Ctrl+T” still opens new pages like it would with other browsers. While you’re typing on the address bar at the bottom, you’ll notice pages you’ve visited before popping up for you to access quickly. This is a new feature that caters to power users who visit a cluster of sites on a daily basis. There’s certainly a lot to like about the new address bar and interface on the right-click department. Its minimalist appearance makes everything appear more clearly, boosting productivity.
3. Turn Off Location Awareness
Have you seen how some websites can tell where you live? That’s because your browser sometimes sends location data to those sites, allowing them to see which country you’re coming from. YouTube does this, and so do a bunch of other websites that have nothing better to do than poke their noses in your browser’s header data. That’s why you see something like “This content isn’t available in your country” very often when browsing sites outside the USA. I’m not exactly sure if US users have problems like these as well. Regardless, I’m going to let you know how you can tell IE 10 to stop sending location data to websites.
First of all, bring up the “Charms” bar from the Start screen (Win+C). Click “Settings” then click “Internet Options.” Inside, you’ll see an option called “Ask for location.”
Click the slider to turn it off. You’re done!
Press Onward!
Let’s hear what you like/dislike about IE 10. Post a comment below to discuss!
Miguel has been a business growth and technology expert for more than a decade and has written software for even longer. From his little castle in Romania, he presents cold and analytical perspectives to things that affect the tech world.
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