So I installed the latest Windows updates and after some consideration I decided to go ahead and switch to IE7. Can’t be worse then IE6 I figure.
Now I’ve only been in it a day and so far I gotta say it seems like a decent but somewhat clunky knockoff of Firefox. For one, I hate the default layout – address bar at the top, no menu bar, stupid favorite icons, etc. Here’s one tip I found to get rid of the lame command bar entirely:
1. regedit
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerCommandBar
3. Create a new DWORD called Enabled with Value 0
4. close regedit and oben IE7 –> Commandbar is hidden!
Next I got rid of the search bar (another registry hack) and moved the menu bar above the address bar – the place we’re all more accustomed to. I wish there was a way to move the refresh and stop buttons next to back and forward.
Thumbs up to tabbed browsing (finally), quick tabs view (gimmick), much faster start up, and abilty to save ‘session’ or group of tabs for easy start up next time. Thumbs down on the reasons for tweaks above, the wierd “X” to stop loading instead of a stop sign, and the tabs themselves which seem clunky than the Mozilla equivalent.
Another note from a web development standpoint: IE7 now shows the location bar (in a non edit mode) for all pop up windows. This means (a) URL parameters are no longer ‘hidden’, (b) popup windows are not as clean anymore, and (c) the size of those popup windows may be off now. All this definitely points a developer to use a popup div or iframe as opposed to actual windows now.
