Internet Explorer 10: Platform Preview 2 now available

• June 29, 2011
• James Skemp

Released earlier today, Internet Explorer 10: Platform Preview 2 is now available for download. Just the other day at work I had fired up IE10PP1 to see if a new version was available, so I'll just go ahead and assume Microsoft was zeroing in on my brainwaves with this. I definitely like the direction they've gone with these platform previews, so I hope to see that continue. And that's about all I have to say about that.

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Current, major, browsers

• November 23, 2008
• James Skemp

Do users know that they're not using the current version of their browser? While many browsers will check for updated versions (Firefox, for example), some do not. Anywho, I've decided, looking at the numbers, that I would start adding a check on my sites to alert users if there browser is out of date, and tell them where they can get an updated version. Note that I refer to the desktop version of these browsers, and mention only the major browsers.

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Browser environments for testing

• November 20, 2008
• James Skemp

In a previous post I mentioned using virtual machines for testing. Here's the three virtual machines that I feel cover the most options for browser testing (on Windows):  Current versions Looking at the top 10 browsers for this site, using data from Google Analytics, we have; Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Mozilla, Opera, Playstation 3, Konqueror, SeaMonkey, and Camino. Of those, Internet Explorer and Firefox, obviously, account for the largest amount of traffic, at about 86% of all visits.

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Internet Explorer Virtual PC images - hidden, but back

• September 4, 2008
• James Skemp

When Microsoft released IE 7 they also offered an image / virtual hard drive that could be used to test Internet Explorer 7, without installing it on your machine. Good idea. While they're buried, Microsoft has released a number of other images, which expire in January '09. Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image Come on Microsoft, release some that don't expire, but that have some other limited functionality. For example, they can only be used for x hours before the machine must be rebooted.

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Test your machine in previous versions of Internet Explorer (for Windows)

• March 15, 2008
• James Skemp

In the past I believe I discussed Browsershots as a great way to see what your site will look like in various browsers. However, I was looking for a quicker way to see a particular page in IE 6. After a bit of searching, I found IE NetRenderer. It only does Internet Explorer, but it does it extremely quick.

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Cisco Cache Cleaner and IE 7 on Windows XP Home

• February 17, 2008
• James Skemp

If you have the pleasure of running Cisco's Cache Cleaner on your home computer, you may run into an issue with your settings being set to something other than you'd prefer. While it may appear that Cache Cleaner clears out your data, it in fact only appears to turn auto-complete off. In Internet Explorer 7, go to Tools > Internet Options > Content > AutoComplete > Settings and turn the settings you want back on.

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Firebug: Don't enable for every site

• February 8, 2008
• James Skemp

After a deal of searching, I've finally discovered why my Firefox browser was crashing so often. So often, in fact, that I have Internet Explorer 7 a chance (and it showed how much of a fight it can now put up). The short story: don't enable Firebug for all sites. Gmail has recently been warning about this, stating that slow-downs are likely. One config setting, javascript.options.strict, when set to true, can also cause issues with Google AdSense.

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Browser support for different versions of JavaScript

• January 19, 2007
• James Skemp

After a number of Google searches, I've been unable to find a listing of what browsers support what versions of JavaScript. The few sites I did find were AnyBrowser.com and Mozilla.org. Unfortunately, the information they provide is pretty focused. In this article I'll be going over this information, and trying to dig up more.

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Three reasons Microsoft Firefox is a hoax

• November 14, 2006
• James Skemp

Three reasons Microsoft Firefox is a hoax, in order of when I spotted them. 1) "it's better now ... like seriously ..." 2) Site Ground banner in the bottom left corner. 3) Create a better video, eh? Microsoft doesn't need to reuse the same video they used elsewhere. 4) Free email address?  How 90s/early 00s ... The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/14/ms_firefox/ Microsoft(R) Firefox | We've Made it Better

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It's time to grow up - Why IE 7 means we all win

• October 25, 2006
• James Skemp

Earlier today I ran across an article titled "IE7 vs. FireFox: Why Microsoft Lost the Battle," which stated at the end that "All in all, IE evolution is not impressive at all. It will still have one advantage though: after installing/reinstalling XP or Vista, IE7 will be the first and only browser used to download Opera, BonEcho or FireFox…" Unfortunately, this article, as well as the numerous other articles that state that Microsoft's IE 7 is 'too little, too late,' are way off base, which is quite the good thing.

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