Earlier this year I waffled on about a Windows Update utility for Firefox, called WindizUpdate. I was pretty impressed at the time and used the utility for a few months, but I was left wanting due to a lag between Microsoft releasing updates and finding that they were available for WindizUpdate. Now I’ve found something I like even more.

IE Tab is an extension for Firefox which embeds Internet Explorer in a Firefox tab. Unlike the IE View extension which simply opens selected pages in a separate Internet Explorer window, IE Tab displays selected pages using the IE engine but contained wholly within a Firefox tab.

So, why might this be useful? I currently use Internet Explorer exclusively for two reasons:

1. To run Microsoft Update / Windows Update, which won’t otherwise work in any other browser.
2. To check web pages as I develop them, to ensure that my pages look consistent between browsers.

Now with IE Tab I can do both of these things from within Firefox, simply by right-clicking and selecting “View Page in IE Tab”. And to mark the happy occasion of first running Microsoft Update within Firefox I snapped this celebratory picture for you:

Yes, I realise that using IE Tab really means that I’m using IE. But if nothing else I’m enjoying the convenience of doing it all from within a Firefox window.

Stealing a little thunder from Microsoft’s IE7 release is Mozilla’s update: Firefox 2.0. This version had been in beta for a while, but now available as a full version release.

The user interface has improved (improved tabs, spell check, session restore, search suggestions, live bookmarks, and so on), security has been up-ed further, and and the number of extensions has grown to over 1,000. This update really does see a great browser become even better.

I particularly like the anti-spyware measures described on the Firefox site “Firefox will not allow a Web site to download, install, or run programs on your computer without your explicit agreement. Period. You will be notified whenever downloading or installing software, and Firefox will always tell you what’s happening so that you can stay in control of your computer.”

Of course unlike IE7, Firefox 2.0 is avaliable for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

CNet has published an extensive review which says it all far better than I could have. I was interested to see the critical comparisons to the new IE7; only a week old but apparently miles behind the Firefox offering. User reviews are also interesting.

Of course there’s only one way to be sure, and that’s to Get Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 and compare for yourself!

Wandering around ZoomBlast this morning, a new video aggregation site I guess you might say. Came across this funny little homemade ad for Firefox web browser.

I use Internet Explorer for two purposes only: testing new web pages I’ve written, and running Windows Update to patch all of the security vulnerabilities detected in Microsoft products each month. Beyond that I use Firefox for everything. Frankly if I could ditch Internet Explorer altogether I would.

Today I stumbled upon something I didn’t know about, a browser plug-in called WindizUpdate. According to the site this plug-in allows users of Mozilla Firefox 0.9.3+, Netscape 4.0+, Mozilla Firebird 0.7+, Opera 5+, and K-Meleon 0.9+ (whatever that is) to enjoy the benefits of Windows Update without needing to use Internet Explorer.

Forgive me if the rest of the world already knew about WindizUpdate, but I’m really excited about the prospect of trying it out. The only downside is that my PCs are currently up-to-date, so I’ll have to wait another month or so to try it…….

Firefox released a new version 1.5.0.1 overnight apparently and the update sniffer in Firefox asks you to update. The site is absolutetly silent on the update, no announcement, nothing tells you the latest version … just nothing.

More significantly, if you choose to upgrade immediately, your extensions may not work. They now have a hook in extensions that limit them by version of Firefox and when you exceed the current version, your extensions become invalidated. Some developers countered by adding a future release as the limit so that they will not stop working based on the hook. Of course they may not work if in fact they are incompatible. I think a better system needs to be developed otherwise an update means giving up interim functionality.

You get this message on completion of the upgrade: “This page confirms that you’re running the latest version of Firefox, with the latest updates for stability and security. It won’t be displayed again.” So which is it, stability or security. Given that they appear to have rushed this out the door, one must suspect a security issue was discovered. I appreciate regular updates. And maybe it was just to create buzz now that Internet Explorer 7, Beta 2 preview was publicly released this week?

I expect more from Mozilla, tell me you have an update out and give a brief overview of enhancements … in this case likely just bug fixes.

Note: ahh, this makes more sense … this is really a beta release according to this very helpful article. Now one would think it might tell us that …

This is a nice feature. This Firefox extension called View Rendered Source Chart will graphically show you sections of defined code in a web page. Really an advanced form of syntax highlighting or intellegent indenting might be a way to think of this extension. See the screenshots on the extension page or over here where the history of the extension is laid out in great detail to demonstrate how well maintained the extension is.

This is a great tutorial on how to build a Firefox Extension. I am tempted to try one myself!