| Lycos.com | Angelfire.com | WhoWhere.com | MailCity.com | Hotwired.com | HotBot.com | All Sites... |
|
|
|
April 25, 1997 I confess, I'm the jaded kind of computer user. I've been on the wrong end of a bad media hype one time too many to keep getting excited about the newest stuff that lands on my desk every week. But as much as I complain about endless browser beta offerings, there are several features about Microsoft's beta release of Internet Explorer 4.0 that are really worth a look. What's most fascinating, I think, is the way in which Microsoft has worked to integrate the entire browser into Windows. (This is easy when you own the space-time continuum, I guess.) As an installation option, if you're using Windows 95 or NT 4.0, you can choose the "Total Shell Integration," which not only gives you a new browser, it turns your whole computer into an information delivery system. So, your file manager actually becomes a Web browser — and you can browse local files or remote files (if you're connected to the Internet) with the same ease--by typing their address into the convenient space on the Windows task bar. And the file manager is smart enough to know a Word document from a Web page, and open each legibly. Special folders are created that can display Web pages right next to your files. (Suddenly your computer becomes a hyper-texted archive!) It gets better — you can drag Web pages, or parts of Web pages, onto your desktop, too. Want to keep up on the news? The weather? Sports scores? No problem. You can go a step further, if you're used to coding your own HTML (you are, aren't you?) and create a desktop jumpstation that links you directly to all of your favorite sites with one click. All this in less time than you'd normally spend firing up your Web browser — your operating system is a Web browser now, remember — and it's always on. (As another option, you can set things up so that your favorite sites will be downloaded to your hard drive for you, while you're away from your computer, for later reading.) Of course you're wondering how all of this stacks up against Netscape's new Communicator. I'd argue it's still too early to tell. But for the sheer elegance of the integration between the Web and your computer's local information, I'd pick Internet Explorer for now. (Though I'm sure we can count on each company to quickly figure out how to integrate the best of what the other is doing into their own products.) It is important to stress here, too, that beta really means beta in this particular case. You may want to wait until the final version is released before you do more than play around with it. We've encountered several complete bombs (which my Mac was very happy to hear about, I might add) and sources close to my desk say there's been some trouble with tables and some JavaScript, and a good portion of unwanted files left behind after an uninstall. But despite that, it was worth the look. Explorer 4.0 is the best example I've had yet of a system that attempts to integrate your computer with the Internet in a near-seamless way. Give it a looksee, but don't get too attached yet — the full version is not expected until mid-year. Doug Lawson does not believe that time is money, since an unsuccessful attempt to deposit several fortnights and a weekend in Vienna got him arrested in the state of Virginia. He consults for a couple of companies about a couple of things, and is working on a novel about cows.
Click here for download instructions.
|
|
||||
|
Get Tripod in:
United Kingdom -
Italy -
Germany -
France -
Spain -
Netherlands Korea - Peru - Americas - Mexico - Venezuela - Chile - Brasil |
||
|
All rights reserved. |
||
