Trying out Internet Explorer 4.0

James Andrews

Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer 4.0 platform preview for Windows 95. Internet Explorer 4.0 is the newest release of Microsoft’s award winning Internet browser. The browser, which is one of the new features of the upcoming Windows 98, will contain lots of features to make everyday computing a lot easier. The following is a review of the Platform preview, which is currently only available for Windows 95.

One of the things that you will notice about the new Internet Explorer is the way you download the program. First you will download a small setup file. After you run the file a program will connect you to the web site and let you choose the features that you want in the program. Then, after you choose the features that you want and you start downloading, the wait begins. On some installations the size of the file will be around 20 megabytes, so it might take a while to download.

If you choose to have the shell integration installed the first thing that you will be greeted by is a desktop that has a little movie going on in the corner of the screen this is part of an example of the active desktop feature that allows you to place web content right on your desktop. Then you will notice that your start menu has changed and contains a couple of new things. The most useful of these features is the address bar that looks like the one that is found in both Netscape and Internet Explorer 3.01. In this bar you can type web addresses, local drive content, and with the "mailto:" prefix you can start the right program to explore these areas or to email someone.