Comments on: Lo and behold, the Internet Explorer 8 toolbar.

By: bb

bb — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:17:53 +0000

As a current IE 8 user, do I have to back- grade to IE6 in order to be able to configure a one-line ToolBar.
Since the format, spacing, sizing, and inclusions are a matter of personal taste and usage, the next big up-grade of most browsers should include the option of designing a browser’s toolbar to conform to the user’s preferences.
Think that well ever happen?

By: MikeB

MikeB — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:40:50 +0000

They really should’ve recycled their own MsoCommandBar. It treated menus and buttons as the same thing and let you move them between all the various bars, change captions, icons, keyboard accelerators, etc.

Instead, I had to hunt to figure out how to put the menu back where it BELONGS, turn off all text labels and wipe the Links folder to get a useable UI.

Web slices are useless [for quick access] if you have to dig for them. Web slices go in the Links folder. Favorites/Links bar appears to be designed to consume real-estate and does a great job of it by forcing you to have both turned on with extra buttons (show favorites, add to favorites). All slices have the same icon unless you want to go through and change them all AND trust IE not to screw up the icons. So to be able to tell quickly which slice you want, you have to donate tons of screen space to it or only have a couple and memorize them by location. I have one. And the bar takes up three buttons. And I have the mobile ones on the right side. And MS tore the bar in half to put one of them on the left.

The only reason I upgraded from IE6 to IE8 is because web sites are dropping IE6 support. At the same time, MS has finally convinced me to test-drive FireFox and Chrome.

By: GL

GL — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:58:33 +0000

I’m not a novice. Where’s the checkbox that says “TURN OFF ALL THE NOVICE UI BS NOW” where’s the checkbox that says “ALLOW USER TO MOVE TOOLBAR ITEMS TO WHERE THEY WANT THEM” – hardcoded micro$oft screen real-estate wasting bs I will NOT being using IEx.

By: deb

deb — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:17:48 +0000

i tried to get rid of explorer 8 and go back to 7..when all was said and done i was still stuck with 8 but lost my entire information bar..how do i get that back??

By: bry

bry — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:39:05 +0000

My question is this:

WHY CAN WE NOT HAVE ALL THE TOOL BARS ON THE SAME LINE????

Laptops now a days have wide screens, most desktop monitors are the same, so why all the blank space on a toolbar line and why can we not just throw them all on one line like we could in IE6? I will never upgrade to any new IE until they allow this. Do they not listen to the people. I see blog after blog with people asking for this. Microsoft needs to understand that we go to websites TO VIEW THE WEBSITE, NOT TOOLBARS!!! Especially now that netbooks are popular, you know those cheap little laptops that have the 1024×600 screens??? All you seee is toolbars with IE7 and IE8 on those things.

Microsoft, you need to wake up. Google Chrome allows all on one line, why not you?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:53:07 +0000

Please, please tell me how I can get rid of the useless third row on the top of the screen in IE8. The first row is fwd/back buttons and the address bar, the second row contains the pull down menus. The third row is totally redundant, there’s an orange or yellow star on the far left and a couple boxes to the right of it. Why would I buy a nice size LCD monitor and then turn right around and throw the extra screen space away by cluttering my screen up with this crap? I despise taking up more screen space than is needed, and I haven’t been able to get rid of it yet. If it can’t be removed, someone suggest another internet explorer alternative, I will quit using this autocratic mess until Microsoft provides something usable.

By: Texas Uncensored

Texas Uncensored — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:16:03 +0000

I want the slim one line tool bar of IE6 back. This is crap, crap, crap. I didn’t want mozilla, or IE7 because of the clutter. Chrome is a waste. IE8 is even worse.

Microsoft forgot, KISS. IE6 wasn’t broke- no need to fix. The only reason I installed this junk was because You Tube doesn’t support IE6 anymore, or won’t for much longer. I am not a happy camper.

I have done registry tweaks until my fingers are numb. I still can’t get rid of the tool bars I don’t want cluttering up my viewing space. What kind of ignorance would cause Microsoft to make an aggravation out of every single browser opening ?

I want a one line tool bar. I want my links button back. I want my Back & forward buttons on the right of the address bar, and the links on the right of that , with my home page and refresh to the right of that. I don’t need some little star for favorites. What a waste of space. I have a favorites link in the menu. Why the clutter of duplication. I don’t get it. What fool designed this?
Basically , I want Microsoft to get out of my way.
Give me the tools to fix it the way i want it. If they want it all cluttered, they can keep it cluttered on their desktop.
But not on my desktop. I like it neat. I want my window space back.

By: Cassidy

Cassidy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:51:53 +0000

I really hate internet explorer 8!
I accidently hid the menu bar that had my File, Edit, Veiw, Etc. on it and now there is no way to change any of my toolbars! I tried right clicking in the white space and nothing happened. As to right before i dowloaded IE8 my right click worked fine!
Is there anyway to go back to IE7?? If so please tell me because I would LOVE too!

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:51:24 +0000

I really hate the new explorer….the previous one was so much more interesting….the set up now is a complete mess with boxes everywhere….the toolbars are placed so randomly and it looks straight out of the 80’s. What happened to the nice icons and the simpleness shown before. TOO MANY BUTTONS NOW!! Please fix it…its ugly.

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:53:45 +0000

@Jeff, forward and back buttons are like this in IE7 too, as well as Windows Explorer in Vista and above.

To bring the menu bar back just tap the “alt” key. simple. You could also right-click any whitespace around the tabs to get a menu of what toolbars to select. Yahoo stuff was something extra you downloaded and isn’t part of IE8.