InPrivate Browsing. This trace-free feature lets you browse the Web on a PC without leaving evidence of your surfing activities. It’s primarily useful for checking email or password-protected Web sites in a public setting (such as a coffeehouse or library) or if you’re purchasing a gift for a loved one who uses the same PC. InPrivate Browsing doesn’t track browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, usernames, or passwords. There are two ways to open InPrivate Browsing: Click the New Tab button next to your first open tab and then click Browse With InPrivate or click the Safety menu and select InPrivate Browsing, which opens a new private window.

InPrivate Filtering. To add an extra layer of security to your browsing activity, you can control third-party Web sites that include content that’s able to track which sites you’re visiting. Each time you start a new browsing session (open a new IE browser window), you can activate this feature by clicking the Safety menu and selecting InPrivate Filtering. Click InPrivate Filtering Settings in the same menu to choose whether you would like IE to block content providers from receiving your information or decide which providers you want to allow access.

Enhanced delete browsing history. Although browsing history deletion is not a brand-new feature to IE, the augmented version lets you save cookies and temporary Internet files so you won’t lose the data for your preferred Web sites. When you click Tools and choose Delete Browsing History, you’ll notice the addition of individual checkboxes that let you determine what type of data you would like to delete, such as form data and InPrivate Filtering data.

SmartScreen filter. IE’s phishing and malware protection, SmartScreen, utilizes a set of preventive technologies to detect malicious sites and downloads. Click-jacking prevention and automatic crash recovery, explained in detail below, are incorporated into SmartScreen technology. SmartScreen identifies and removes only the malware or phishing content on a site without altering the site itself. Any downloads that are reported unsafe are also blocked by the SmartScreen filter. Click the Safety menu, select SmartScreen Filter, and click Check This Website to receive a report about the site.

Click-jacking prevention. This is a relatively new method of online deception, whereby an attacker tricks you into clicking malicious content that’s disguised as a normal Web site. When you click these “dummy buttons,” you could actually be unknowingly changing PC or browser settings or looking at ads supported by cybercriminals.

Automatic crash recovery. The tab isolation feature will segregate any tab that crashes due to an illegitimate Web site or add-on. Your IE8 browser won’t be affected, so you can easily continue exploring the Web. Tabs that suddenly crash or close will automatically reopen and preserve the sites you were visiting.

Browsing privacy. In addition to these settings, you can adjust your browsing privacy in Internet Options. Click Tools, select Internet Options, and then choose the Privacy tab. In the Settings category, you can select a protection level ranging from Accept All Cookies (Internet text files) to Block All Cookies. You can choose to activate the Pop-Up Blocker by selecting the Turn On Pop-Up Blocker box.

Clear Temporary Files

Your browser’s temporary Internet files, often referred to as the cache, are a record of your ’Net surfing history stored in a folder on your PC. This data includes images, sounds, Web pages, saved passwords, and cookies (personal text files that store “what, where, and when” information regarding your browsing activity). For the most part, temporary Internet files help Web pages load faster because some of the stored information is readily accessible; however, cache can fill up critical space on your hard drive, so you must clear out these files periodically.

To do this in IE8, you’ll start by clicking the Tools menu and selecting Internet Options. Locate the Browsing History section on the General tab. Next, Click the Delete button, which will open the Delete Browsing History window. When you decide which information you would like to clear, check the box next to each category. Specifically, you can delete data in the following categories: Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, History, Form Data, Passwords, and InPrivate Filtering Data. (Be sure to select the Preserve Favorites Website Data box to save cookies and other files for sites in your Favorites list.) To only delete Temporary Internet Files, select the associated box and click Delete. Click OK in Internet Options to exit.

You also have the option to restrict or free space for temporary Internet files. Under Browsing History, click the Settings button. In Disk Space To Use, Microsoft recommends allotting between 50 and 250MB for temporary Internet files. If you prefer to limit this space, select 50MB or a lower number. Or, choose a higher amount to save more temporary files. Click OK when finished.

Install & Manage Add-Ons

The steps to accumulating and managing IE add-ons involves minimal effort. Microsoft offers an official Add-Ons Gallery and search engine at www.ieaddons.com for browsing add-ons designed specifically for IE8. The Add-Ons Gallery divides selections by interest-based categories, such as Blogging, Email, News, Shopping, Travel, and Weather. Click one category in the left side of the home page to get started.

Thanks to some advanced additions to IE8, there are more add-on options than just toolbars. You can now use two new tools called Accelerators and Web Slices. Accelerators reduce the time it takes to perform normal browsing tasks such as blogging, translating, mapping, and typing search terms via Wikipedia, Google, and Windows Live. To use this convenient feature, highlight text on any Web page and click the Accelerator button (a blue arrow in a box) to open the default list mentioned above. To add more Accelerators to this list, click Accelerators under Internet Explorer 8 Only at the bottom of the Add-Ons Gallery home site. You will install the Accelerator by clicking Add To Internet Explorer. IE8 will ask you Do You Want To Add This Accelerator?; click Add to finish.

Instead of constantly opening and refreshing frequently visited sites to check email, weather, auction items, and social networking updates, Web Slices highlights a green icon to alert you of newly available information—it will only appear if a new Web Slice is on the page. To add sites to Web Slices, click the icon and select the site listed (which should be the page you’re currently viewing). There’s a small selection of Web Slices in the IE Add-Ons Gallery. You’ll install these the same way you add Accelerators; once a Web Slice is installed, you should be able to view it on the Command Bar.

For example, on the main page of the Add-Ons Gallery, click the Finance category to peruse add-ons that will keep you up-to-date on the latest stock quotes. You’ll also find currency converters and finance news add-ons. When you’ve decided which add-on would be useful to you, you can click the Add To Internet Explorer button. Some add-ons are designed by third parties or another site, which means you can link to the original site to install the add-on if you like.

To view and manage add-on settings, click the Tools menu and select Manage Add-Ons. By default, your add-ons should be enabled. If you want to disable some of your add-ons, click the name of the add-on under its developer title, and its details will appear in the bottom pane of the Manage Add-Ons window. Click the Disable button to stop the functionality of that particular add-on.

Download Files

Most of the popular Internet browsers—Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome—feature a download manager that lets you view the downloading process and gives the option to pause or resume downloads already underway. Although IE8 lacks this extra, downloading files via IE8 isn’t complicated.

After you click Download File, a File Download dialog box will open asking if you want to open or save the file. Depending on what action you prefer to take, select Open to immediately download and view the file. To store the file on your PC’s hard drive, click Save. IE will open the Save As dialog box; here you will choose a location for the file, such as My Documents or the Desktop. Click the File Name field to edit the name according to your liking and then click Save.

It’s Up To You

You can know your browser like the back of your hand when you customize it just the way you like it. Searching, sharing, and networking doesn't have to require much experience when IE8 is so easy to personalize and use.

by Joanna Safford