What s New in Internet Explorer 6?

What's New in Internet Explorer 6?

If you have used Internet Explorer 5, IE6 will be very familiar to you. Some of its new features are behind-the-scenes, not readily apparent but designed to make IE run more smoothly. Others are enhancements that you will see:

• The Integrated Web searching tool formerly called the Search Assistant has been spiffed up and is now called the Search Companion. You'll notice some changes in the interface, but it works essentially the same way. (See "Effectively Searching the Web," later in this chapter.)

• The Media button on the Explorer Bar is new. Click on it to bring up the Radio Guide and your music and video folders in a side-pane. The media player control buttons are also included in the pane for ease of use.

• A new pop-up menu for images makes it simpler to save or email them. (For more about this tool, see "Dealing with Multimedia Browsing and Downloading," later in this chapter.

• Playback support for Flash and Shockwave files is built into IE6.

TIP

The Department of Justice Consent Decree has brought about some changes in the way that middleware applications are handled. As of SP1, you can configure your computer to show only Microsoft middleware applications (Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, and so on), to show only non-Microsoft middleware applications (Netscape Navigator, Eudora, and so forth), or to show some combination of both. See Chapter 24, "Configuration via Control Panel Applets," for more information on how to make these changes to your Windows XP computer.