Hello everyone!á I'm really excited about this version of Internet Surfer! á Why?á Well, the much-anticipated CD support feature has finally been built and implemented into this version.á What is this CD support feature you may ask? á Good question--uh, I don't know--just kidding... :-)á Ok, what it is?
CD support allows Internet Surfer to be configured to be a startup app on a CD with the autorun.inf file pointing to InternetSurfer.exe.á Not much of a big deal, right? á Well, not exactly.á Internet Surfer can be set up with a unique home page along with unique links to materials also located on the CD--this would make Internet Surfer perfect for tutorial or training CDs distributed to students.á It would also make it perfect for those people wanting to setup picture albumns to be sent off to far off places.
So, how does it work since there are no settings in Internet Surfer to indicate toggling of the CD support feature?á Well, if you look into the install folder where Internet Surfer is located you will notice a new file called InternetSurfer.ini.á If you open up the file in Notepad you will notice a setting called CDSupport=0--this indicates IS has CD support turned off.á If you change this setting to CDSupport=1 then IS will configure itself to read all its parameters from the INI file.á You can then configure IS as you would have it set up on the CD.á Once the configuration stage is set then you can copy InternetSurfer.exe and InternetSurfer.ini to the CD. á That's it!á When Internet Sufer is then run from the CD it will read the settings from the INI file.
Does this mean that Internet Surfer can finally be transportable with all the settings on say a floppy disk?á Yup.á You can copy Internet Surfer and the INI file to a floppy disk and use it that way too!
Oh, something you will notice when using the CD support thing...some options are disabled in Internet Surfer...no big deal, things like Address history, Logging, Save position are not really needed because these settings will never be saved on a CD from session to session.
One other thing...the toolbar has been changed to fit the old-style Favorites button. Some people wanted that functionality back so--I put it back.
Later, gators!
March 11, 2001
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How much is too much? I ask this because I believe too much is never enough. Thus is this version of Internet Surfer. I began adding things and as soon as I added one thing another thing would crop up to enhance the surfing experience. Pretty soon I had added more than what I expected but not enough to consitute "too much".
Anyway...now I'm rambling! ;-)
This version of Internet Surfer sports the new tabbed look many of you have requested. Of course you can enable and disable it at will by pressing F7 and you can drag and drop links onto the tabs themselves which would make it ideal for MDI surfing. The overall MDI interface remains the same--just enhanced to take advantage of the tabbing. Another interface change is the MS menu look and feel. For those unfamiliar with what I mean...you can now have icons next to the drop-down menu items which, I might say, would make for a nice gift for sore eyes. Initially the option is off and will be active the next time the program starts.
After having oh so many requests regarding Favorites being made accessible through the menu I decided to do just that. You now have access to Favorites through the menu. Yeah, I know, too a while, huh? So, the old-style is now more and rendered (dare I say it) obsolete. Included with the Favorites update is complete support to the "Organize Favorites" interface. As an added bonus to the "IE support" option--IE's Internet Options have now been included on the menu.
Last but now least window spawning has been drastically improved from previous versions. Included in the functionality is Internet Surfer's ability to intercept and kill popups with certain words contained in the address. The new advanced window spawning word filter will sift away offending popups effortlessly all the while letting "good" popups through. Additionally, the window spawning feature is now available through the toolbar--making it readily accessible and host a nicely done visual cue (if I do say so myself).
There is alot more than what I mentioned. Play with it and tell me what you think.
Happy surfing y'all!
January 22, 2001
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As always, big thanks to all the supporters of this product!á It's been quite an interesting month for me.áá First off, my niece came and stayed with us all the way from the East Coast.á It was great!á I went rock-climbing for the very first time in my life so that was sort of a thrill.á Then the flu ravaged my household leaving most of us still fighting the sniffles.á However, in all this, I did manage to update Internet Surfer with a few requests that have been outstanding since my last update.á So...ya better appreciate it!á I'm kidding, I'm kidding...á :-)
Here is what's new in this version.á Internet Surfer is now able to associate itself with all internet files that are registered as URL types.á This means when you click on an internet shortcut it now opens in Internet Surfer which truly make Internet Surfer the default browser.á I added a search button to the toolbar and removed the "Close All" button.á The "Close All" functionality now pops out with a confirmation asking if you truly want to close off all the windows in the browser.
There are some other minor changes which I'm sure you'll pick up as you use the software but the big change in this release is IS's ability to retain the windows sizes when it spawns windows.á This has been a major problem in the past since when a window spawned it would open the window up as a smaller window in the browser.á It's been changed to open maximized windows if maximized and normal windows when normal (not maximized).
Other than that I really hope youá have fun with this update as I know I had when writing it.
December 22, 2000
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A big thank-you goes out to all the users who have contributed to Internet Surfer with suggestions and ideas in making it what it is today...a light, streamlined browser to fit just about anyone's needs.
Ok, so what features are new with this version?á Well, there are a few cosmetic changes such as the splash screen and the About box.á The splash screen is now it's own process so that it doesn't need to wait for a user response.á The About box is now coded in HTML which would allow me to insert some pretty neat features in the near future.á The status bar timer spacing has been increased to allow larger fonts to be viewed without cutting.
So, all this cosmetic stuff...what about features?á One of the big changes is Internet Surfer's ability to set itself as the default browser.á It can be configured to not become default and to not ask the user about it anymore.á Or it could be configured to be the default browser so that everytime a HTM file is double clicked Internet Surfer opens up.á A few other things have been added such as "Add to Favorites" from the IE menu, Cut, copy and paste accelerators added for the address bar and Channels support in Favorites.á But, I think the feature that I really like the most now is the "Send To" feature...not to be confused with sending a page via e-mail (although that is something I'm thinking about).á The "Send To" feauture allows Internet Surfer to be added to the "Send To" menu and virtually allow almost any file type to be openned up.á This is useful if you have other browsers you like having and would like to have Internet Surfer as an option to send files to...at least that is what is the intention (I'm sure someone out there will figure out another use for it).
Well, that's about it.á The key is to play with the software since it's always fun to discover new things IS can do for you.
Have fun and happy surfing!
November 17, 2000
----------------
Well, another month has gone by and another update seemed to be in order--and this update is probably one of the most eagerly anticipated updates to date (now that's a lot of "dates" in one sentence)!
The biggie...Favorites...yes, you asked for it, you got it! It took a long while to figure out the methodology behind this implementation and I believe this will not disappoint. There now exists a setting called "IE support". When enabled, this setting effectively enables Favorites, History, Cookies and more. You can navigate to a favorite site, drag and drop from the Explorer window and even arrange Favorites. That's not all! If you liked having the Links Manager, it hasn't been totally eliminated--just press Alt+L to bring up the window and start surfing that way.
I've taken the time to add a few extras as well. There are buttons now on the Paths page that will enable the user (you) to set a blank page as the home page or my home page as the starting point to your surfing pleasure.
Finally, there are a number of file types that are now presented in the drop-down list for opening files...check it out and tell me what you think. By the way, Internet Surfer can open just about any file now so have at it!
Again, thanks goes to all the users out there for their support, it is always appreciated!
October 12, 2000
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First off, many thanks go out to all the users who have been an inspiration to me in updating Internet Surfer--keep the mail coming! Also, thanks goes to the various users who have been so kind to provide feedback on the initial releases of the program noting improvements and defeciencies--thank you!
So what's new with this version? A lot, but not so much that it would constitute a full upgrade number...that's why I'm calling it 2 1/2...well, 2.5 for us metric users. The biggest improvement is Internet Surfer's ability to spawn new windows. This is the top if not the number 1 user request since the birth of this program. What it does is capture calls from pages requesting a new page to be spawned overtop of the main page. This is mainly used for banner ads and links that open up new browser instances. You'll find that this new feature can either be configured to spawn or not to spawn.
Address bar history support is now available. It will remember which sites you've recently navigated to and it can easily be reset by the click of the mouse. A new "Paths" page has been added to Options. Additionally, on the Paths page there is now support for log file path configuration. Another big improvement is the "ActiveBorder" functionality that's been added to reflect the ever-growing need to distiguish which view is current. The ActiveBorder feature will allow a highlight to surround the current active view. This means that if a window is split into 2 views--the active view will be highlighted with a border. It's highly configurable including colors and a 3D option which will give an embedded look to the border.
You can now export your links for easy transport! The Links Manager has been changed to allow for importing and exporting of the links in the Manager. A reset button has been provided to wipe out sites from the Manager to be later restored with the import feature. This comes in handy when you want to use Internet Surfer on someone else's machine and you want to view your links. By the way, the Links Manager now remembers it's size and positions itself in the center of the application every time it opens.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot...there is now an "Offline" feature, and a "close all views" feature just in case you want to close everything very quickly but leave Internet Surfer open. I've also fixed two bugs that crept into the last release having to do with MultiView Loading...when a view was not opened and you click on Add in MultiView Loading the program aborted because it did not have an active view to get the valid URL...and after setting Multi-View Loading to enabled a new window would redirect to a Multi-View Loading site rather than the homepage.
To wrap up...noooooo, I didn't add Explorer's Favorites or History yet...I planned it for this release but I never got the chance to put it in, hopefully next release!
Go ye now and surf! ;)
September 1, 2000
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Thank you for downloading Internet Surfer! This has been my pet project for quite a while now, and it has really taken off since I first had the notion of a MDI browser. This version of Internet Surfer is the version that I've always pictured it being! Other than Favorites or History, it has everything I wanted it to have but never had a chance to implement. It has also a few things that some of you have requested and a few things that I thought were good ideas.
One of the major improvements is Internet Surfer's ability to have multiple views startup all at the same time. This is great if every morning before starting your day you always go to the same sites. Not only is it highly configurable but also optional. Another improvement is the ability to minimize to the tray. The tray is the part of your desktop near the clock. Once minimized it only appears as an icon. If you want to maximize it, just click it! What's more? I built a security feature around this functionality so that if you do not want to allow people from maximizing it, it will prompt for a password.
I finally had the chance to also enable the saving features of the browser. You can save a page and all it's dependencies. That means when you save a page all of the pictures get saved too!
Something that nearly didn't make this release was the "Always On Top" feature. I didn't think it useful until I combined it with the Auto-Refresh feature. Now I have it running on my desktop constantly in view with the latest stock quotes!
The logging feature has dramatically been improved! It now logs all navigation to a site as well as load times and session times. There even is a handy timer option on the status bar for people who need to know just how long they spend on the internet (you'd be surprised)! I put that in for the folks who don't have unlimited internet access.
Last but not least a lot of small improvements here and there to make it a bit more pleasurable surfing the net!
Anyways, I hope you like it! Happy surfing!
Introduction
============
Have you ever been on a site that was so big you got lost? Have you ever wanted to clean up the taskbar of browser windows because you kept shift-clicking sites to not lose your place? Have you ever wanted to split a browser window so that you can see two different views of a site? Have you ever wanted to have a page to auto-refresh a certain amount of time?
Well, Internet Surfer was designed to do all the above things and more!
Requirements
============
- Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
- Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME, you, he, she or it (bad joke, nevermind)
Installation
============
Unzip all files to a newly-created folder and run the program from there
Keyboard Accelerators
=====================
Links Alt+L (still available in IE support mode)
Stop Alt+C
MultiView Loading Alt+M
Options Alt+O
AutoRefresh Alt+P
Split window Alt+S
Close all windows Alt+X
Favorites Alt+Z
New view F1
Go back F2
Go forward F3
Navigate F4
Refresh F5
Hide tool bar F6
Hide tabs F7
Hide status bar F8
Mail F9
Switch between views Ctrl+Tab
Wish List
=========
A few things, but I'm not telling!
Tricks
======
* You can easily switch between views by doing Ctrl+Tab
* To view links from one view to another view simply click hold drag and drop a link from one view to another
* To quickly enable/disable the MultiView Loading feature do Alt+M
* To quickly enable/disable the AutoRefresh feature do Alt+P
* When spliting views you can put a search engine on one view drag links over to the other view
* Get the latest stock quotes by combining Auto-Refresh with the Always On Top feature while at a stock site
* Quickly navigate to a site by pressing F4
* You can quickly navigate to a site while another site is loading by pressing F1 and F4 in quick succession
* Opening History items is easy, just click hold drag and drop a link from History to Internet Surfer
* To add a favorite site just right-click on the view and click on Add to Favorites
* You can still gain access to Links in IE support mode by pressing Alt+L
* Place Internet Surfer in the "Send To" menu and see how it can open up almost any document
History
=======
March 11, 2001
- Implemented tabbed windows
- F6 changed to view toolbar, F7 changed to view tabs
- Window Spawning now opens windows without references (ie. :1, :2...)
- Added a window spawning filter
- Alt-C is now the "Stop" button
- Added "Organize Favorites" interface
- Added true Favorites support off of the menu
- Added Internet Options support
- Added Print button to the toolbar
- Removed the non-functioning Save menu item
- Removed Arrange Icons menu item
- Added MS type menu icons
- Set green as the default color for the ActiveBorder
- Added address bar toggle from the View menu
- Removed address bar from the Option dialog
- Added window spawning toggle on the toolbar
- Alt+Z accelerator is now window spawning toggle
- Removed window spawning enabling/disabling from Options
- Added offline message
- Added default browser alert to the Options dialog
- Bug fixes
January 22, 2001
- URL type file support for default configuration
- Added a search fascility to the toolbar
- Removed the "Close All" button from the toolbar
- Revamped the Window menu to accomadate tiling of pages
- Added a confirmation box for "Close All" functionality
- Messages changed for AutoRefresh and MultiView
- Added search option to the Paths option page
- Ctrl-W added to close active view
- Changed the Window Spawning behavior to distinquish a maximize window or a normal window
- Most all HTML file types are now routed over to Internet Surfer as the default
- Added my home page as a menu item under Help
- Added a send mail to author menu item under Help
- Removed all Offline confirmation dialog boxes
December 22, 2000
- Added "Add to Favorites" in the IE menu
- Added Channels support in Favorites
- AutoRefresh default time changed to 2 minutes
- Modified the About box to be HTML compatible
- Splash screen comes up once every new version
- Timer status changed to accomodate larger font sizes
- Splash screen is now a bitmap
- Cut, copy and paste accelerators added for the address bar
- "Send To" now allowed to open up just about any file type
- Ability to set itself as the default browser for HTM file types
- Bug fixes
November 17, 2000
- Added IE's Favorites, History, Cookies support
- Added Arrange Favorites
- Added Alt+Z for Favorites
- Added exploring of special folders (Favorites, History, Cookies and Personal)
- Added buttons to set a blank or default page as the home page.
- Modified the accelerator key for MultiView loading from Alt+V to Alt+M
- Added Word, Excel, PDF and RTF file support...in fact IS opens almost anything now!
- Now able to accept drag-and-drop documents
- Bug fixes
October 12, 2000
- Added New Window spawning
- Added a configurable active view highlight
- Added Close All documents
- Added Offline mode
- Added address bar history
- Links Manager is now a dynamic dialog with auto save and restore of positions
- Separated Preferences and Paths into separate property pages
