Microsoft is feeling charitable? They recently announced that anyone can have IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine through an offer that allows you to download a free Virtual PC image of Windows XP with IE6. Microsoft Virtual PC is free virtualization software that allows you to run multiple Operating Systems (Windows, Linux or Unix) while in Windows XP. This looks to be a great option for cross-browser testing!
Inline Search for Internet Explorer is an add-on for IE that mimics Firefox’s inline search. If you use IE (but of course if you read this blog you must be using Firfox) this is a great add-on as it makes finding text on a page much easier.
In light of my premature linking to Firefox 2.0 Alpha (sorry ’bout that) here is a link to the Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Community Refresh (note link goes directly to Microsoft site). This community refresh version was released on March 20th at the MIX 06 Conference.
If you’re a web developer who still insists on developing and testing your sites in IE (just kidding) then you have to check out the IE Developer Toolbar Beta 2. The toolbar offers much of the functionality of the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox so should become another valuable tool in your toolbox.
Firefox! That’s right, the Microsoft team has decided to use Firefox’s RSS Icon in Internet Explorer 7! I think this is good for RSS in general, and congratulations to Microsoft for doing the “good” thing. A unified icon will go far for furthering the adoption and use of RSS.
The IEBlog is reporting that a pre-release build of IE7 for Windows XP will publicly be available during the first calendar quarter of 2006. It will be nice to see some of the changes that have been reported.
ietab is a vary neat Firefox Extension that allows you to switch between the IE and Firefox rendering engines right within the Firefox browser. Here is how it works. Once installed, when you browse to a page in Firefox, you will notice a small Firefox icon in the status bar. Click on that icon and the page get’s rendered with IE’s rendering engine and the logo changes to the IE logo. I use this all the time now when I’m developing – it’s a real timesaver!
Link via Instant Badger
