|
|
Internet Explorer 5.5
Last updated: 7/13/00
  Search. After
poking around the "new" search capabilities, I found that the Search
function had not really changed; however, I'll digress and take this opportunity
(since I went to the trouble to grab some screen shots) to point-out a feature
which some people may have overlooked. Actually, the search displays
are pages on Microsoft's site, so they should be the same on IE 5.0, etc. If
one clicks more in the abbreviated main search menu an expanded list of search
resources is presented as shown to the right. Look up a word is in
the list and includes an online encyclopedia, dictionary, and thesaurus,
which are very handy.
The Find a Web page defaults to MSN's search
engine, but can be customized for other search engines. Goggle, is
still not included as one of the search engine choices, but if you choose
Yahoo!, you will get Google, as Yahoo! recently switched to Google for its
web search engine.
Esoteric gut enhancements. Most
of the significant changes in IE 5.5 won't be noticed at first because
they involve new capabilities for developers/programmers. These include Dynamic
HTML functions such as transparent frames, which allow one frame to show
through another, faster frame rendering (our Discussion
Forum, which is the only part of the Digest in frames, seems faster),
and many fancy features found in desktop applications, such as drop-down
menus and pop-up objects (menus, etc.) which can be displayed outside of
the browser window. Once these features are incorporated into web sites
they will be quite apparent (if you have the right web borwser). You
can read more about these changes on Microsoft's
site.
 Download
to install later. For those who want to download the entire IE
5.5 suite or full download for specific versions of Windows, run Setup
as previously mentioned, choose "Install Minimal, or customize your
components," click Advanced, and check Download only (I forgot to
before capturing the screen). Note "Full" at the end of
the line. From there you can select a Full down load for Windows
95/98, NT, 2000, and even Windows Me. Goodbye Windows 3.x, Windows
for Workgroups, and NT 3.51 unless it's in the Internet Explorer Administration
Kit (EIAK) like it was for the IE 5.01 EIAK The files for the download
will be put in C:\>Windows Update Setup Files unless you specify otherwise. The
full download for Win 95/98 is about 30 MBytes.
Bottom Line. Is this version
of IE worth downloading and installing? Yes, if you have a broadband
Internet connection. Maybe, if you are using a dial-up, have good connection,
and are patient/retired. Should one switch from Netscape? I think
so.
Larry
|
|
