Browsing with Windows Vista: How to Configure IE7 in Windows Vista

Windows Vista is a great operating system, but it's the new programs that are included with that make it so exciting and powerful. One major improvement in Windows Vista is Internet Explorer IE7.

IE7 has been greatly improved regarding security and in conjunction with the security built into Windows Vista, spyware and other types of virus will hopefully become a distant memory. There is however one very irritating problem with IE7 and that is the new default layout. My major complaint is that the menu bar (Fig 1.) is missing.

Fig. 1 (see attached images for figure 1-5)

Icons are wonderful and Windows Vista has used more of them wisely, but certain things are better when they have text to describe them. Thankfully to display the Menu Bar all you have to do is click on the image (Fig. 2) located on the top right of IE7 that looks like this:

Fig. 2 (see attached images for figure 1-5)

Next select the Menu Bar. Once the Menu Bar is back in place, IE7 is very similar to the other browsers on the market and is easy to use.

One very important function in IE7 is the Favorites. With Favorites you can save an address of an Internet site so later you can return to that site easily. To save a site click on the Add to Favorites icon located on the left side of the browser screen as shown in (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 (see attached images for figure 1-5)

The right icon adds an address to the Favorites window and the left one brings up the Favorites window as shown in (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 (see attached images for figure 1-5)

Here is an example of using favorites. To quickly go to Google.com type http://www.google.com into the Address window located on the very top of the browser.

1) Click the right icon in (Fig. 3)

2) Select Add to Favorites

3) Click Add

Now when you click the left icon (Fig. 3) you will see that Google is now in your Favorites as shown in (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5 (see attached images for figure 1-5)

Note: the first four folders in your favorites can be safely deleted if you find no use for those websites.

Thanks fully Windows Vista will support 3^rd party browsers so you are not limited to using IE7. There are a number of other very good web browsers that are free and worth investigating. There is no danger running multiple browsers in Windows Vista so you can safely install one or more of theses and give them a try.

One of my favorite browsers is Firefox which is made by Mozilla. Thankfully it works just fine in Windows Vista. One of the most important features of Firefox which is not available in IE7 is a spell check program; it flags misspelled words as you type them. To try Firefox you can install it by going to this website:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

I hope some of these tips will make browsing the internet with Windows Vista more enjoyable.