Monday, August 3, 2015

Windows 10 - IE Work around

I tried out Windows 10 at the Microsoft store a few days ago and really loved it so I installed it first chance I got time over the weekend.  I do really like the interface fixes.  I've mostly liked Windows 8 and have gotten used to the split interfaces for metro (now tablet) applications and desktop.  I've gotten used to the various touch screen gestures on my Surface Pro 3 and absolutely love my surface. Probably one of the best machines I have ever owned, but that's not saying much because usually I buy two year old machines for cheap, max out the ram and put in an SSD and limp along for a few more years.  The surface was a gift, one of the best ever, but not something I would have bought for myself.

Anyway, after the Windows 10 install everything was working well except there is one site I use a lot that requires IE and an Active X control.  The windows 10 browser is called Edge (even though the icon, a big "e" looks exactly like IE) and it will not run the plugin.  I've been trying to get the plugin to work to no avail.  I though IE had been uninstalled, but just went to try and install it and sure enough it's still there.  The site I need still works in IE so all is well again and I'm really liking the new interface.

The biggest improvement I've seen in Windows 10 is a much closer integration between the (metro) tablet interface and the desktop interface.  They mostly just look like they are one interface (more desktop than metro) and it works much more smoothly.   Well worth the upgrade and a huge improvement.

If you are looking for IE on windows 10, just search for "Internet Explorer" and it's the top hit.  Sometimes the top of the menu looked like a "header" item to me and I was ignoring it.  The top part that looks like a header is actually the closest item you are looking for.