New Version IE

After talking to various people about the new version of IE, some folks hate it and want to go back, and others love it. For myself I actually prefer the new version, but it did take me a while before I warmed to it. Some people like the idea of the new version (ie phishing, etc) and better security, but are not comfortable with the setup of the top of the page (the menus, etc).

When I found a neat workaround for the setup of IE7 to look like IE6, I was intrigued. It is a very easy method of having all the IE7 upgrades (phishing, etc), yet continue to use the IE6 menu lists, etc.

Using an XP system you need to 'Show Desktop Icons' and then right click in the middle of the screen and click on 'New" and then 'Shortcut'. You then type in 'c:\windows\ie7\iexplore.exe 'in the dialogue box, click on the 'Next' button and for a name type in something that makes sense to you the user (ie IE6, old IE, etc) and then click on 'Finish'. After a second or so you should get a new icon on your desktop that is familiar to you as the Internet Explorer.

Now for those that do not show their desktop icons, you only needed to drag the icon to your Quick Launch and place a copy there. For those that always show their icons, then you can place the icon anywhere on your desktop you like.

If you double click on the newly created icon, your Internet Explorer will open up with all of your 'Favourites', etc exactly as you had. The only thing is you now have the IE6 menu bars etc that you formerly had. If you check under 'Help', 'About Internet Explorer' you will see that you are indeed using Version 7 IE.

This work around works great with one caveat. If you click on a url link in a program, then the newer version of IE7 will open up. However, everytime you click on the new icon you created, you will open up the old version of IE6. You can keep both icons on your desktop (or Quick Launch) as well. The newer version of IE has the 'gold' coloured banner going around the blue 'e'.

To me it is the best of both worlds, you get the updated IE7 and it's benefits, but you have the menu bars that you have been familiar with for so long.