Meanwhile, IE9 perhaps is the first version of Internet explorer that support supports HTML5, bringing it up to the level of Chrome and Safari as well as certain newer versions of Firefox. According to Microsoft, IE9 brings to the table expanded support for HTML5, but also hardware-accelerated graphics and text, and a new, evolved JavaScript engine, designed to boost the overall performance of the browser. Obviously, Microsoft has improved all aspects of Internet Explorer 9 since the browser was first introduced at PDC 2009. In this context, hardware acceleration is applied to both HTML5 and SVG.

So, Users should read the release notes for known issues and other information about the release. Microsoft plans to update the preview releases every eight weeks. This is mainly offered to get feedback from web developers. A beta will follow later on.

Developer Tools

The Platform Preview includes built-in Developer Tools. These tools help developers debug and understand the interaction between their sites and the browser. To open the Developer Tools, click the Debug menu and click Developer Tools, or press F12.

The status bar indicates when the page generates script errors. You can use the Developer Tools to get more information about and debug script errors.

For more information on the Developer Tools, go to the Internet Explorer Developer Center.

Document modes

You can force the Platform Preview into different document modes. To do this, click the Debug menu and select one of the Document Modes. You can also press Alt plus the numbers 5, 7, 8, or 9 to select IE5, IE7, IE8, and IE9 document modes respectively (for example, Alt + 7 for IE7). You can press Alt + 0 at any time to reset the document mode to the page default. The current document mode is shown for the currently viewed page at the left of the status bar. Information on Document Modes is available on MSDN, as well as on our blog.

Common Keyboard Shortcuts

Below is a list of available keyboard shortcuts for use in the Internet Explorer Platform Preview:

Ctrl + O: Open a webpage
F5: Refresh
F10: Home
F12: Developer Toolbar
Alt + 5: Force IE5 rendering mode
Alt + 7: Force IE7 rendering mode
Alt + 8: Force IE8 rendering mode
Alt + 9: Force IE9 rendering mode
Alt + 0: Reset Document Mode to the page default
Ctrl +/-: zoom in and out
Alt + ?: Help
Ctrl + S: Save Webpage As…
Alt + /: About

You can download the Internet Explorer 9 preview as below link

Download Internet Explorer 9 From IE TestDrive Website

Internet Explorer 9 Preview Download is a post from: TechieQuest

According to the IE Blog, the Javascript rendering is faster than the its predecessor Internet Explorer 8, IE8 rendering engine performance is poor compared to the other browsers like Firefox, Chrome and Safari. But the early build of IE9 is faster than IE8 and close to other browsers performance tested with Webkit SunSpider test. The chart below shows the relative performance of different browsers on the same machine running the SunSpider test.

IE9 will support Acid3, DirectX Direct2D and other standards, including CSS3 and HTML5. This should improve the appearance of fonts and performance of text animation without requiring changes to the sites themselves.

The most interesting feature they are working on in IE9 is the graphics acceleration, IE9 can use the graphics card for the rendering graphics and text using DirectX technology installed on windows systems. Graphics hardware acceleration means that rich, graphically intensive sites can render faster while using less CPU.

You can read more from the IE team on this topic here.

An Early Look at Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is a post from: TechieQuest

Windows 7 Shortcut Description

Win + UP :- Arrow Maximize the current window
Win + Down Arrow :- Restore down or minimize current windows
Win + Left Arrow :- Dock the current window to the left half of the screen
Win + Right Arrrow :- Dock the current window to the right half of the screen
Win + [number] :- Activate and run the program pinned on Windows 7 Taskbar, running program won’t be affected
Win + Home :- Minimize all but the current window
Win + Space :- Makes all windows transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win + Pause/Break :- Open System Properties
Win + Tab :- Flip Aero 3D [press Tab to cycle between Windows]
Win + B :- Move focus to notification tray (the right-most portion of the taskbar)
Win + D :- Show/Hide desktop
Win + E :- Windows Explorer is launched
Win + F :- Search
Win + G :- Bring all gadgets on top and foreground
Win + L :- Lock Computer
Win + M :- Minimize all windows
Win + P :- Open the projection menu (generally used for laptops connected to projectors)
Win + R :- Run Command is launched.
Win + S :- OneNote Screen Clipping Tool
Win + T :- Show preview thumbnail of running applications in Windows Taskbar one by one without mouse over
Win + X :- Mobility Center
Win + # :- Quicklaunch
Win + = :- Magnifier
Win + [+/-] :- Enables the magnifier and zooms in/out
Win + Shift + Up Arrow :- Maximize vertical size
Win + Shift + Down Arrow :- Restore vertical size
Win + Shift + Left Arrow :- Jump to left monitor
Win + Shift + Right Arrow :- Jump to right monitor
Win + Shift + M :- Undo all window minimization
Win + Shift + T :- Cycles backwards
Win + Ctrl + F :- Opens the Active Directory Find Computers dialog
Ctrl + Right Arrow :- Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word
Ctrl + Left Arrow :- Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word
Ctrl + Up Arrow :- Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph
Ctrl + Down Arrow :- Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph
Ctrl + Win + Tab :- Persistent flip 3D
Ctrl + Shift :- with an arrow key Select a block of text
Ctrl with any arrow key + Spacebar :- Select multiple individual items in a window or on the desktop
Ctrl + Shift + Esc :- Open Task Manager directly
Ctrl + Shift + N :- Create new folder

I will update this list as an when I get more keyboard shortcuts for windows 7.

Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts You Must Know is a post from: TechieQuest

Since MSE virus definitions are updated almost daily, the manual route was quite tiresome. To solve this situation, Addictive Tips has created a small application called MSE Update Utility which can be used to update Microsoft Security Essentials even if Windows Update is disabled.

MSE Update Utility has 4 update intervals – Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Startup. It is recommend to choose either Daily or let it remain the default (Startup).

Updating the virus definitions during startup is the best way to keep the system secure. It will automatically update the definitions and notify you when they are complete.

By default it is checked to run on startup, you can always uncheck this option later. MSE Update Utility is not for everyone, but if you fall in any one of the category below then it will come surely handy:

• Users in corporate office environment where the network administrators have disabled the Windows Update.
• Those having difficulty updating MSE using Windows Update due to some problem.
• When Windows Update is disabled by a virus.

You can download the MSE Update Utility from AddictiveTips.com. Requires .net framework 3.x to be installed in your computer to run.

Free Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) Update Utility is a post from: TechieQuest

If your computer doesn’t meet the requirements, here is an alternative to Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 called VMLite XP Mode. VMLite XP Mode is similar to Microsoft XP Mode but doesn’t require hardware virtualization. It allows you to run Windows XP at the same time from your desktop running on a different host operating system.

VMLite XP Mode creates a virtual Windows XP environment in Windows 7 so that you can run your older applications. Through seamless integration, you can install such applications and invoke them directly from Windows 7 Startup Menu.

VMLite XP Mode Features

• Provides similar functions as Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode from Microsoft
• No requirement for hardware-assisted virtualization, namely, it runs without VT-x or AMD-v
• Provides seamless integration with host desktop to run applications from Windows XP virtual machine
• Host files can be accessed from within the XP Mode virtual machine easily
• Support 3rd party virtual machine images
• Runs on any PC with Windows XP and above as host operating system
• Highly performed, XP Mode boots in 15 seconds

To install VMLite XP Mode, it needs VMLite Workstation and a licensed copy of Windows XP in virtualized image file format. A licensed copy of virtualized Windows XP image file can be the one provided by Microsoft, or prepared by VMLite Workstation or 3rd party vendor such as VMWare from licensed Windows XP in factory CD/DVD.

Download VMLite XP Mode

VMLite XP Mode Alternative to Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 is a post from: TechieQuest

With Windows Access Panel, you can easily access programs you use everyday to the program you probably never knew existed, and change settings of nearly everything on your Windows from one window. It is a useful tool for the novice.

Windows Access Panel groups Windows built-in programs into 2 tabs: basic and advanced. The Basic tab links commonly used apps like the Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter, Registry Editor, Uninstall Programs, System Restore and Firewall, while the Advanced tab links less commonly used programs like Memory Diagnostics, DirectX Diagnostics, Remote Assistance, Synchronization Manager and Task Scheduler.

Windows Access Panel is compatible with Windows 7 & Windows Vista. It can be downloaded and used as a portable application. Place it in your Programs Files and Pin its shortcut to your Start menu and you are all set to a faster way of accessing  the “hidden” Windows system utilities.

Download Windows Access Panel

Windows Access Panel for Windows 7 & Vista – Instant Access to Windows Utilities is a post from: TechieQuest

There are ways to pin the “Show Desktop” icon in your taskbar, but required some skills. Show Desktop is free tool that provides you the easiest way to create the Show Desktop in the taskbar.

Just Download Show Desktop and double-click to install the program. Then drag the “Show desktop” icon to the taskbar, that’s all.

Restore Show Desktop Icon in Windows 7 is a post from: TechieQuest

With Paragon ExtBrowser, you can work with a Linux native file system using Windows. Just plug in your hard disk with ExtFS partitions to your PC via eSATA or USB-to-SATA and you can instantly modify files on Linux partition without installing special drivers.

Paragon ExtBrowser Key Features:

• Easy to install
• Fast and transparent access to Ext2FS/Ext3FS under Windows
• Special unmapped folder in My Computer (Explorer) to open ExtFS partitions, where you can read, write, modify, create, delete files and folders under Windows.
• Better stability with less risk to your system because there is no need to install a separate kernel mode driver
• Import/Export files and folders from/to ExtFS partitions. For example, if the hard drive is taken from NAS storage and you need to open a Linux partition and copy from it or place a new file there, ExtBrowser eliminates the need to install the hard drive or configure it for network access. Simply connect a hard drive via the eSATA connector or USB-to-SATA adapter to the PC and access your files
• Open documents and multimedia directly from ExtFS partitions. If you want to watch movies or open large documents contained on a Linux partition, simply connect the drive directly to the PC to get instant access

Download Paragon ExtBrowser here. It works with Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Paragon ExtBrowser – Enable Accessing Your Linux Partitions From Windows is a post from: TechieQuest

With this Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher, TechNet or MSDN subscribers don’t have to waste unnecessary bandwidth to download multiple ISO images for each editions of Windows 7 (Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Starter), it can be used to convert any 32-bit image into another 32-bit image and any 64-bit image into another 64-bit image. For example, if you downloaded the 32-bit Ultimate ISO disc image from MSDN and you also want a 32-bit Professional image, instead of spending another 2.3 GB of bandwidth, you can make a copy of your Ultimate image and then patch that into a Professional ISO disc image; the result should be exactly identical to what you would have gotten had you downloaded the ISO image separately.

How Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher works:

The ei.cfg Removal Utility is a small tool to remove ei.cfg from any Windows 7 ISO disc image, thereby converting the image into a “universal disc”, it will prompt you options on which version you want to install during installation. It removes the ei.cfg file without the need for unpacking and rebuilding the ISO. ei.cfg is a Windows Setup configuration file used to determine what edition and license will be used during installation, located at sources folder of the ISO. The content of the ei.cfg file looks like below:

[EditionID]
Ultimate
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

The Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher is a set of small binary patches that allows you to select your desire Windows 7 edition and it will then patch the ei.cfg file from the ones included in the zip to the Windows 7 ISO disc image, thereby converting the ISO disc image  to another edition.

Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher is to help you convert version of Windows 7 easily. If you are a technical person, you may try to edit the ei.cfg file to set which editions of Windows you want it to install by changing the word to “Ultimate”, “Professional” or any other version you would like to install.

Download Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher

Windows 7 ISO Image Edition Switcher – Easily Convert Windows 7 Edition is a post from: TechieQuest

This program is written in c# with firebird database as persister media (for history of used images). The downloaded images are saved on Images folder, inside of the running folder of this application.

Bing on Desktop requires NET framework 2.0 to work and is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.

Download Bing on Desktop

Bing on Desktop – Set Bing Background Images on Desktop is a post from: TechieQuest