Tag Archives: Windows 10 Technical Preview

Analyze-It, Browser Extension, CEH, Google-Music-Search, Google-Open-Storage-Search, Google-Translate-It, Internet Explorer, Look-It-Up, Plurk-It, Share-It, Visual Basic, Wikipedia-Search, Windows

Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version 3

Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version 3

Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version 3

This is an application that allows you to pick and choose which of the many context menu add-ons you would like enabled in your browser. Internet Explorer does not support nested context menus so this I wrote this application to make it easy to enable and disable different menu items you may want to use (instead of separate scripts). The context menu items are broke up into 8 groups: Share-it, Analyze-it, Analyze-it-Scritch, Analyze-it-Viewdns, Plurk-it, Google-it, Look-it-up, and IE-Utility. The IE-Utility menu items are usually located in the Tools menu in the menubar on top which isn’t shown by default (just hit the Alt key and it will pop open temporarily).

There are also a couple of registry tweaks that I included in this application. One that adjusts the size of the thumbnails (on hover) of open applications on the taskbar. And another to give you more New Tab entries. There is also a reset button for the New Tab items you removed and want back. The New Tab functionality is generated automatically based on your browsing (you don’t get actual Speed Dial functionality – Internet Explorer chooses everything you see)

There are a few changes in this new version that should be mentioned. The user interface has changed, the code was ported to be compiled, and there is now a version check that will help keep the application current.

In this version the user interface has been changed to be more convenient. I traded the scripted multi-screen interface for a more basic checkbox based dialog written using WinForms. Its just easier to use having everything in front of you on one dialog while making choices.

The code was ported from jscript/hta to nice modern Visual Basic 14. This should improve application start up time as well as use less memory while running. This compiled version of the application will perform better overall.

The scripting run time has a large overhead and is not maintained by Microsoft as other technologies are. For instance, when scripting a hypertext application the jscript has to target Internet Explorer 4/5 by default. By changing properties on the hta you can target IE8. I would have considered keeping the application scripted if Microsoft ported the hypertext application system to use the Edge or Internet Explorer 11 runtime.

Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version Check

Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version Check

There is now a version check enabled in the application. This application uses many external tools and features that are completely out of my control. As such, I’ve founds the application needs to be updated more often than other projects I’ve coded. In an effort to keep the application current I enabled a version check that checks weekly in the background that will somewhat automate the process of upgrading. By pressing the “Install new version” button the application will download the updated application in the background (no browser needed) to the Temp folder and start the installer.

The installer has also been tweaked to automatically start the old version uninstaller application (if it detects one) instead of the “do or die” message box that used to pop up. As there is a dependency on .NET 4.5, the installer will detect and start the web installer for the .NET framework as needed (this should only happen in Windows 7 without .NET 4.5).

Why write and maintain this application if Edge is the newest thing? Because desktop users will still prefer Internet Explorer 11 over Edge. Because I can’t see Microsoft having the only browser not running plug-ins. Because its still included in the operating system.

Where is it? Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 is located inside the Windows Accessories folder on the Windows 10 Start Menu. Or you could just click on the symbol in the upper left corner of my application.

 

Download Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version 3

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This is My Take on Windows 10 Technical Preview

New Start Menu

I had the opportunity to try out the Windows 10 Technical Preview recently and I was happy to see that the Start menu has returned with a facelift of sorts. The Start menu on Windows 8, as we all know, was changed to suit a touch interface. This was really great for their premiere surface tablet line up – but for desktop users without touch functionality this left a lot to be desired.
Personally, I do far too much on my system to even be able to rely on a touch interface at this point. The keyboard and mouse will not be going away any time soon in my life. Its shameful that Microsoft made the assumption that everyone would prefer that type of, non-selectable I might add, interface. Why shameful? I learned user interface design from Microsoft and MSDN while I was learning Visual Basic 6 eons ago – they have a tremendous investment in it that was ignored in Windows 8 (unless you’re a tablet user that is).

Application Menu Scrolls – Live Tiles Never Disappear

Enough of my ranting; Microsoft is fixing the Start menu problem now. Albeit, you’ll have to pay for a new version. There are other, less spectacular improvements on the way as well.
Windows users will have the opportunity to set up multiple desktops and switch between them. Granted, most Linux users have had this feature enabled on their desktops since the dark ages – now Windows has it.

Multiple Desktops Now

Window snapping has also been improved with selectable stacking (or tiling) with more than two windows. In the preview version I was using there was gaps between the snapped windows that made it less desireable. I have to assume that this will be remedied by the release date however.
I would have really liked to put Windows 10 through a couple of months of hard usage but my Nvidea drivers refuse to install as the version number is unrecognized by the driver installer. So I shouldn’t say I had the full “user experience” when I tested it. (Everyone knows – no video drivers = poor computing experience). Still, overall, it ran as well as Windows 8 on my box.
Windows 10 is still a work in progress. In my opinion it has a long way to go before they should actually call it a new version. It’s still Windows 8 with a facelift that suits desktop users in other words.
The technical preview is requesting that you (the tester) submit your views and opinions as you use it. That’s probably the most important improvement – the user opinion factor. So if you have an extra box laying around that you use for testing – try it. Put your two cents in and try to make the OS a bit better in the end.

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