End User Features
InPrivate
InPrivate Browsing
There are times when you might not want to leave any traces of your web browsing actions on the computer you're using, such as when checking e-mail on a friend's computer or shopping for a gift on a family PC. InPrivate Browsing in Windows Internet Explorer 8 helps protect data and privacy by preventing the browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames/passwords from being stored or retained locally by the browser, leaving virtually no evidence of the user's browsing or search history.
You can start InPrivate Browsing in Internet Explorer 8 from the new Safety menu (see Figure 1), by selecting Start InPrivate Browsing from a New Tab page, or at a command prompt. A new Internet Explorer 8 window will open with an InPrivate indicator displayed to the left of the Address bar (see Figure 2). You end an InPrivate session by simply closing the browser window. If you want to always have your browsing history deleted, see "Delete browsing history on exit," which is discussed under Delete Browsing History.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
During an InPrivate Browsing session, files that you save to your hard disk and websites you add to your Favorites are preserved. Also, it is important to note that InPrivate Browsing does not limit data from being collected by a router, Internet Service Provider (ISP), wireless Internet hotspot operators, or any spyware you might have unknowingly installed on your computer. You can disable InPrivate Browsing by using Parental Controls in Windows Vista, or Windows Live Family Safety on Windows XP. Network administrators can disable InPrivate Browsing through Group Policy.
For added privacy control, Internet Explorer 8 also disables toolbars and extensions by default when InPrivate Browsing sessions are started. This setting can be turned off under the Privacy tab on the Internet Options property sheet, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3.
InPrivate Filtering
Most people understand that the websites they visit can track their activities, and that by using this data, sites can provide valuable content. For example, a shopping site may be able to recommend items to you based on your search history at that website. However, users might not be fully aware of the degree to which their web browsing activities can be tracked by websites or content providers other than those they have consciously chosen to visit. This is because most websites today are mosaics of content from several different sites. When users visit a "first-party" site, the webpage often includes content from other "third-party" sites, which, depending on the user’s browser settings, may also be retrieved and displayed by the browser—sometimes with little or no indication.
This behavior is typical of the web today and enables tremendous benefits, including a business model that funds content on the web and the ability to personalize content for each user. It also enables operators of smaller websites to deliver more content, and, in the case of serving advertisements, it can provide revenue streams that enable websites to avoid charging for access.
At the same time, bringing together information in this way has important privacy implications because every piece of content that a browser requests from a website can disclose information. This information, such as your operating system, screen resolution, and IP address (which can be used to determine general location, such as city) can be sent to that content provider—even in cases where you have blocked all cookies. Taken one site at a time, the disclosed information might seem trivial. However, when you visit multiple first-party sites that use content from the same third party, that third party can potentially aggregate the data it collects to build a profile of you based on your web surfing activity—again, frequently without notifying you.
There are security risks inherent to this model as well, in that visiting one website exposes you to potentially malicious content not just from the first-party site, but also from every third-party site or content provider that is referenced. You visit one site and see content on it that seems trustworthy—after all, it's on a site you trust—but actually comes from a different source. Third-party web servers increasingly are being compromised with malicious content without the knowledge of the primary website operator. Links served by such compromised sites can direct users to other, more malicious sites, potentially putting your safety and privacy at risk.
InPrivate Filtering in Internet Explorer 8 helps alleviate these issues by providing you with greater choice and control over which third-parties can potentially track and aggregate your web browsing activities. It works by observing the websites you visit and building a table of the unique third-party content or object requests that are observed for each unique domain. When InPrivate Filtering is active, third-party content is blocked based on the default threshold of ten unique observances of these requests. (Repeated visits to the same first-party domain do not increment this count.)
For example, if Internet Explorer observes that ten or more unique first-party domains that you visit over time load the same resource from "contoso.com" (such as an image, 1×1 tracking pixel, style sheet, or JavaScript), InPrivate Filtering will block all requests for that resource across all websites you visit while the feature is enabled.
InPrivate Filtering: Status Indicator
An indicator in the status bar at the bottom of the Internet Explorer 8 window (see Figure 4) shows the status of InPrivate Filtering.
Figure 4.
Enabling InPrivate Filtering
InPrivate Filtering is off by default and must be enabled on a per-session basis. You can enable InPrivate Filtering by doing one of the following:
Select InPrivate Filtering from the Safety menu.
Open the InPrivate Filtering Settings window by choosing InPrivate Filtering Settings on the Safety menu or clicking the InPrivate Filtering status icon in the Internet Explorer 8 status bar (see Figure 5).
Press CTRL+Shift+F
Figure 5.
The first time you enable InPrivate Filtering, you are prompted to select automatic or manual blocking (see Figure 6). This setting is then used for future InPrivate Filtering sessions. When InPrivate Filtering is active, the same settings apply to additional web browser instances that are started—including InPrivate Browsing sessions—until the last web browser window is closed, when InPrivate Filtering turns off.
Figure 6.
InPrivate Filtering Settings
You can review or modify InPrivate Filtering settings by either selecting InPrivate Filtering Settings on the Safety menu or clicking the InPrivate Filtering indicator in the status bar and selecting InPrivate Filtering Settings.
On the InPrivate Filtering Settings property sheet (see Figure 7), you can choose to automatically block content from third-party sites, manually allow or block content, or turn InPrivate Filtering off. You can also adjust the "threshold" for InPrivate Filtering from its default of 10 to any number between 3 and 30. (To change the threshold, adjust the number, select Refresh to see which items in the displayed list exceed that threshold, and then click OK to apply the new threshold.)
Figure 7.
Using the Internet Explorer 8 Manage Add-ons window (see Figure 8), you can review the third-party content you have manually blocked or allowed. In addition, you can import and export lists you or others create.
Figure 8.
Additional Information on Third-party Content
Within the InPrivate Filtering Settings window, you can access additional information for listed third-party content providers by highlighting an entry in the list and clicking the "More information from this website" link. This capability is important to both you and third-party content providers, because it gives content providers the opportunity to communicate to the user who they are, how collected data is used, and the value the user receives by allowing content to be retrieved.
When you click the "More information from this website" link, Internet Explorer 8 opens a new window and navigates to a "3rdParty.html" page at the same location as the third-party content. For example, as shown in Figure 5, if the item "bit.gif" is located at http://contoso-logistics.com/bit.gif, the link to more information will point to http://contoso-logistics.com/3rdParty.html.
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Delete Browsing History
Introduced in Internet Explorer 7, the Delete Browsing History feature enables a single-click deletion of the data saved by Internet Explorer. Deleting records of web browsing activity has never been easier!
Not all records, however, need to be deleted. For frequently visited websites, the information stored in cookies is especially useful. While many websites offer the so-called "Remember me" option, others (for example, financial websites) will store a cookie on every computer from which a user has accessed them; one use of this would be to eliminate the requirement for challenge questions (for example, "What was your high school mascot?").
Internet Explorer 8 addresses this issue by giving users the option to preserve the cookies and temporary Internet files from the websites in the Favorites list:
Thus, to stay registered with a specific website, simply add the website's URL to your favorites, making sure that Preserve Favorites website data is selected; Internet Explorer will preserve all cookies and cache files for that website.
If you want to automatically erase the browsing history every time the browser closes, select the Delete browsing history on exit check box on the General tab of Internet Options.
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Search
The search functionality in Internet Explorer 8 builds upon the work started in Internet Explorer 7, which saw the introduction of a search box that supports the addition of search providers through OpenSearch description files. The search box in Internet Explorer 8 has been enhanced further, adding features that will help users initiate a better search query and easily switch to a secondary search provider.
The main search enhancement is an improved search box, which will help users execute better queries. The Internet Explorer 8 search box includes AutoComplete, search suggestions, and results from local history. AutoComplete results, which were available in Internet Explorer 7, show users queries that they had previously typed in the search box. Search suggestions enable the user's currently selected search provider to suggest different search queries as the user types in the search box. (These are discussed in detail in the following section.) Finally, history results show users the titles of pages from their browsing history that are related to what they are typing in the search box.
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Search Suggestions
Search suggestions enable search providers to suggest different queries while a user types in the search box. Search suggestions, as they are currently implemented in toolbar add-ons and other browsers, consist mainly of text suggestions for related terms that users might want to find; in some cases, specific links are also suggested.
In Internet Explorer 8, the notion of a search suggestion has been expanded. A search suggestion can be a query string, a link, or a visual suggestion that includes an image. The search provider can include an image with text or use an image by itself. Visual suggestions can be used in two common scenarios. In one example a particular visual suggestion is highlighted by displaying a thumbnail image. The example below illustrates this for a search on "bill gates".
In the other scenario, users are provided with some bit of information similar to an instant answer offered in many search providers' results pages. The example below illustrates a visual suggestion of current weather conditions.
Internet Explorer supports two suggestion formats: Extensible Markup Language (XML) and JavaScript Object Notification (JSON). XML can be used for any suggestion type, visual or text. JSON can only be used for text suggestions. Using suggestions is a way to enhance your users’ search experience in Internet Explorer 8. However, they are not required, and search providers that do not support suggestions will continue to work as before from the Internet Explorer search box.
For more information, see Faster and Easier: Instant Search.
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User Preference Protection
You might see the following dialog box when using Internet Explorer 8:
This dialog box is triggered when a program on your computer attempts to change the Internet Explorer default search provider.
The default search provider preference is the search engine Internet Explorer uses when you type a search query into the search box in the upper right corner of the main Internet Explorer window:
Internet Explorer also uses the default search preference when you type a question into the Address bar.
Programs and add-ons can change the user's chosen default search provider with their installer programs. If it is not clear to the user what is happening—or if the user simply isn't paying attention—the default search provider can end up changing from what the user wanted. Other applications may install a "search setting protector"—a small program that monitors the user's default search preference, switching it back to a particular search engine automatically if the user or any other program changes the setting. In addition, many users have multiple search toolbar add-ons installed.
In Internet Explorer 7 and earlier, all of this can create a situation where installers, search setting protectors, and toolbars are all fighting over the user's search setting. If either the user or a program ever changes the setting, the user might see a variety of confusing warnings from these add-ons about the change.
In Internet Explorer 8, any application that wants to change the search setting default (by setting a registry key) will cause this dialog to be displayed. The requested change is clearly explained, and the user is asked whether to approve the change; no program can change the user's search setting without the user's approval.
This change in Internet Explorer does not break any existing applications, toolbar installers, or search setting protector programs. They can still change the user's search setting by changing a registry key in the user's registry. However, when Internet Explorer starts up, the user will be informed of the change and must choose whether to allow it.
Internet Explorer 8 also has a new API for setting the search default. Any application can call this API, and request that the Internet Explorer Search Default be changed. A dialog box is shown (with the requesting application clearly identified) and the user can choose whether to allow the change.
If a search setting protector asks to change the default search provider, the user can clearly indicate his or her preference (and prevent the search setting protector from changing the user's preference in the future) by checking the Prevent programs from suggesting changes to my default search provider checkbox. The user can still use the Manage Search Providers option on the search box drop-down menu to change the default search provider at any time.
For more information, please see the developer details .
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Caret Browsing
Caret Browsing is a new accessibility feature that enables users to navigate a webpage with a moveable cursor on the screen by using the keyboard. Users can select and copy snippets of text as short as a single character by using only the keyboard. Other content types such as tables or images can also be selected and copied.
Pressing F7 turns Caret Browsing on or off. It can be enabled on a per-tab basis or for all tabs and windows. Moving the cursor within the text of a webpage is similar to moving the cursor within the text of a Microsoft Word document. Holding the SHIFT key down and pressing the arrow keys selects text.
Many users use the keyboard over the mouse because they find it to be faster for certain tasks. Users are now able to select a word, press the Application key (
) to open a contextual menu, select the Translate with Windows Live Accelerator, and see its meaning in Spanish without ever taking their hands off the keyboard.
For more information on accessibility features in Internet Explorer 8, see W3C's ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) Support, UI Automation Support and Zoom.
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Accelerators
Accelerators are a contextual feature used to quickly access a service from any webpage. To look up information about a snippet of text, users often copy and paste from one webpage to another; Accelerators bring the desired information directly to the user.
Accelerators enable users to find information without leaving the current webpage. For example, to determine the location of a specific restaurant, a user can select the restaurant's address, click the Accelerator button that appears, and then point to a mapping Accelerator, such as Map with Live Maps. This generates an in-place view of a map of the restaurant's location. Clicking the map will open a full webpage in a new tab that includes additional information from the mapping service.
Accelerators can also be used to send information to a service. For example, to blog about a section of an article, a user can select the section and use a blog Accelerator, such as Blog with Windows Live Spaces. This will take the user to the blog site, with the selection available in the edit field.
Users can manage and install Accelerators from the Internet Explorer Gallery or through any website that offers Accelerators for download.
For more information, see Faster and Easier: Accelerators.
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Web Slices
Web Slices is a new feature that enables users to connect to a website by subscribing to content directly within a page on that site. Web Slices behave just like feeds; users can subscribe to get updates and notifications of changes.
Users discover Web Slices within a webpage and can subscribe to them by clicking on the Web Slice icon.
Once a user has subscribed to a Web Slice, it is added to the Favorites bar. The browser will automatically check for changes in the Web Slice and users are notified about updates. Users can preview these updates directly from the Favorites bar and click through to the website to get more information. Some Web Slices also allow users to interact with content from within the preview window.
For more information, see Faster and Easier: Web Slices.
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Suggested Sites
Suggested Sites is a new feature that helps users find new websites that are interesting and relevant to them. With the user's permission, Internet Explorer will suggest new websites based on sites you have visited in the past. You can see these suggestions by opening the Suggested Sites Web Slice from the Favorites bar...
...Or by visiting the Suggested Sites page by clicking See Suggested Sites in the Internet Explorer Favorites Center.
Suggested Sites respects privacy settings: it does not submit any information about local files or secure websites. It will not show suggestions for sites deleted from a user’s browsing history, and will not record visited sites when InPrivate Browsing is enabled.
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Favorites Bar
In Internet Explorer 7, the Links bar provided users with one-click access to their favorite sites. This bar has undergone a complete renovation for Internet Explorer 8. It is now called the Favorites bar, and it enables users to access not only their favorite web content such as links, feeds, and Web Slices, but also documents created in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
By using the new Add to Favorites Bar button (
),which is located on the Favorites bar itself, a user can easily add a link to the Favorites bar.
For more information, see Faster and Easier: Improved favorites and history management.
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Tab Grouping
The tab grouping feature of Internet Explorer 8 allows users to put related tabs—tabs that originate from the same webpage—into groups. Users can form tab groups in one of several ways, such as by opening a link from within a webpage in another tab, or by right-clicking a specific tab and clicking New Tab from the contextual menu that appears. If, for example, a user chooses to queue up several different search results, the related tabs will not only open next to the original search result page (as opposed to the end of the tab band) but will also be put all in one group, represented by a solid color. Different colors for different browsing tasks—for example, a research project, an online comparative shopping session, or a set of news articles opened from the same newspaper website—allow users to quickly identify the tabs.
For more information, see Faster and Easier: Enhanced Navigation
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Automatic Crash Recovery
The Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR) feature of Internet Explorer 8 helps prevent the loss of work in the unlikely event of browser failure. ACR takes advantage of the Loosely Coupled Internet Explorer (LCIE) feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities—including tab recovery—that minimize interruptions to a browsing session.
For more information, see More Secure, Private and Reliable and Automatic Crash Recovery.
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SmartScreen Filter
A "phishing" site imitates a legitimate site in order to steal the user's personal or financial information. In Internet Explorer 7, the Phishing Filter, which warns users that they are about to visit a known phishing site, was introduced. For Internet Explorer 8, the success of the Phishing Filter, which blocks over a million phishing attacks weekly, was built upon to develop the SmartScreen Filter. The SmartScreen Filter offers the following enhancements:
Improved user interface
Faster performance
New heuristics and enhanced telemetry
Anti-malware support for blocking unsafe downloads
Improved group policy support
For more information about the SmartScreen Filter, refer to the IE Team Blog post IE8 Security Part III: SmartScreen Filter or see More Secure, Private and Reliable.
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