Internet Explorer 8 Final Version Released

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Microsoft has finally launched the final version of the new Internet Explorer 8. It’s available for download now – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx.

Personally I doubt it will be anything good to look forward to. Microsoft are making some claims that it is faster and easier to use than Google Chrome, but I really doubt it’s true. There’s nothing faster than Chrome (especially in start time) in my opinion.

In any matter, I’ll go and download it as it’ll probably be forced onto my computer with Windows Update in a few weeks time. Might as well get it over and done with :-).

New Google Chrome Beta – get it while it’s hot!

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Google has now announced a new Google Chrome beta which has been named version 2.0.169.1. You can get it from http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/chrome/beta/index.html.

And I’ve downloaded it, installed it, and am writing this post in it now.

There’s still no RSS support, but I’m sure it is coming. They also haven’t fixed my download issue next, but I might get in touch with Google to see if I can get them to fix this bug.

However, there is a nice new feature is that you can now place Google Chrome windows beside and above each other in a Windows 7 style way.

windowclippings_93075a1074b44c43a7d51968f3478e6d

New Google Chrome

It means you can organise Chrome windows all over the place, so it could come in handy.

There are a number of new feautures, but try it for yourself to see what you think.

Removing visualizations in Windows Media Player 11

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Ok, so I was bored with the visualizations in Windows Media Player 11 and I decided to get some new ones from Microsoft. However, now I’m bored of those and don’t want them anymore, I went ahead into the Windows Media Player settings, into the Plugins tab, and what? The remove button on the Visulizations tab is greyed out. Why?

Anyhow, we all know that you can always get something done in Windows with a bit of determination, so I did a quick Google search, and found someone with exactly the same problem. After a short period of searching around on the internet, I have a solution.

So, the first thing you need to do is determine the location of the visualizations. This should be at:

C:/Program Files/Windows Media Player/Visualizations/ (replacing C with your hard drive letter)

However, in some cases they can be found at:

C:/Program Files/Windows Media Player/Visualisations/ (replacing C with your hard drive letter)

Once you’ve found them, you need to use regsvr in Command Prompt to remove any registry keys associated with the visualization. You may need to run Command Prompt as an administrator (right click Command Prompt in start menu > accessories, and click Run as Adminstrator). Before doing this, make sure Windows Media Player is closed and that the wmplayer.exe program is not running in Task Manager.

Once it’s closed, you need to open Command Prompt (run “cmd” without quotes) and type the following. 

CD C:/Program Files/Windows Media Player/Visualizations/

Again replacing the C with your drive letter. If that doesn’t work (a directory is not found) try:

CD C:/Program Files/Windows Media Player/Visualisations/

Here is a screenshot of what you should have in command prompt so far:

administrator__c__windows_system32_cmdexe_1be953d0d5304a31b8da15e8ef10fa4e

Once you are in the correct directory, type “DIR” without quotes to get a directory listing.

administrator__c__windows_system32_cmdexe_2dbb0c29047547fca44c7657b71ea177Now, knowing which visualization dll you want to remove you need to unregister it. For the purposes of this demo, I’m going to call the visualization I want to remove “visualization.dll” but you’ll need to use the .dll you want to remove. 

So, type into the Command Prompt you have open:

regsvr32 -u “C:/Program Files/Windows Media Player/Visualizations/visualization.dll

or if that doesn’t work

regsvr32 -u “C:/Program Files/Windows Media Player/Visualisations/visualization.dll

replacing the visualization.dll with the .dll of the file you want to remove.

You’re probably thinking wow this ain’t half complicated. Well it seems like that at first, but after a while you get the hang of it.

Anyway, moving on. Once the .dll is unregistered, you just need to open the location of the .dll in Windows Explorer, and then delete the .dll. Once that is done, that should be it. 

Open up Windows Media Player, and check in the Visualizations list to see whether the visualization has gone. It shouldn’t be on the list.

You’ll need to do this for every visualization you want to remove. At first it may seem like this may take forever, but seriously, once you’ve done one it’ll become very easy and quick.

How many browser toolbars do you have?

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Being the sad person I am, I always think every time I look at someones computer is how many toolbars do you have in your internet browser?

Personally, I’m not a fan of web toolbars. I’ve never seemed to understand why you need them? Every one I see on the internet is either some way to get ads to you or just an almost pointless shortcut in my opinion.

Admittedly, there are a few toolbars that are sort of handy. But the ones that just drive me mad are ones like the “smiley” ones that allow you to install “smilies” into IM software such as Windows Live Messenger. All they do is fill up your computer with spyware rubbish that is utterly pointless and just ends up wasting my time.

I’m very proud to say that in all 3 webbrowsers I have installed on my laptop (Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome) you won’t find a single toolbar installed. Not one (others than the built in ones, obviously).

Are you a toolbar addict (is there such a thing)? Do you feel the need for toolbars? Why do you use them?

Two things I really want sorted in Chrome

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I love Chrome, it’s a fantastic browser that’s super-quick and very reliable. However, there are two things I really want Google to fix.

1. RSS: Why doesn’t Google Chrome support RSS? It seems a little dim, but can prove really annoying after a little while. Firefox shows an icon when an RSS feed is available on a website (see below) and even has a built in feed subscriber (see below), but Chrome has neither. Google need to sort this in my opinion. 

windowclippings_1c6f2f5f2b6442b6afb74ed86e013abd1Above: Firefox

ChromeAbove: Chrome

2. Downloads: I have a real issue with Chrome when you download something. When I download a file, I often ask it to download and then get into the habit of closing the web browser and forgetting something was downloading. In Firefox, this is no problem as a ‘Downloads’ window appears when you download a file and if you close the browser window by mistake, the file continues to download. However, in Chrome downloads run more internally and it doesn’t have a separate window for downloads. So if you close the browser, Chrome cancels the download! No problem if the file is 1MB or something as small as that, but if you’re in the middle of a 100MB file this is a pain. Even Internet Explorer (dare I say it) handles downloads better than Chrome. 

Those are my two rants with Chrome. Google, fix the RSS and the downloads. The problems aren’t big enough to put me off (Chrome is still my default browser) but they do get really annoying after a while. If Google would fix this in a later version, it would definately be to my benefit, and to many others.