Paul Thurrott - Windows 8 Secrets

Unfortunately, this is an important consideration, because when another browser or the desktop version of IE is configured as the default browser, Internet Explorer 10 for Metro won’t even be available. It will literally be hidden from you, and unavailable. Because of this possibility, we explain exactly how and why this happens, and how you can fix it, in the final section of this chapter. So if you’re not seeing what you should be seeing, jump ahead now. And no worries, it’s easily fixed, if not easily understood.

The first time you launch the Metro version of Internet Explorer may be a bit surprising, and while Figure 7-5 is probably inadequate for explaining why, here it goes.

Figure 7-5:It’s the touchable web: IE 10 for Metro.

Yes, this is why Google named its own browser Chrome.

What you may not be getting from that static screenshot is that Internet Explorer for Metro, like IE for Windows Phone, offers only a very minimal user interface, and one that is, in fact, hidden by default. So what you’re looking at there is a web page loaded in a browser that has no surrounding user interface, or what browser makers call chrome. That is, you’re seeing just the web page, and not the browser.

To hide the edge UIs, simply perform the same swipe—or keyboard shortcut, or right-click, again. These things almost always work like a toggle.

Like other Metro-style apps, Internet Explorer 10 does provide a so-called edge UI that is accessed by swiping toward the middle of the screen from the top or bottom edge. (Mouse users can right-click any blank area of the browser’s surface to trigger this interface, while keyboard users should learn the Winkey + Z shortcut.) When you access this edge UI, the browser will resemble Figure 7-6.

Figure 7-6:The IE Metro edge UI

There’s a lot going on here. In fact, one thing you may have noticed is that Internet Explorer 10 is fairly unique among Metro-style apps in that it not only offers a single app bar—that toolbar-like control at the bottom of the screen that in IE is called the navigation bar—but it also offers a second bar, called the tab switcher, at the top of the screen. Almost all Metro-style apps offer a single app bar. But very few go beyond that, as IE does.

The reason for this overloaded user interface is simple. Internet Explorer 10 is a fairly complex and certainly full-featured app, just like its desktop-based cousin. And it requires the additional space for commands that’s afforded by the extra chrome.

In some cases, only the navigation bar will appear, allowing you to type a URL into the address bar or perform other actions. If you don’t see the tab switcher as well, simply swipe down from the top of the screen (or perform any other input action that will display an edge UI).

The Internet Explorer navigation bar has several main user interface components, which are called out in Figure 7-7 and described next.

• Back:This button functions like a simplified version of the Back button commonly found in desktop web browsers. However, in keeping with the Metro design philosophies, it lacks advanced features, such as the ability to tap and hold to access a menu of past pages and the browser History.

Figure 7-7:The IE navigation bar

IE Metro supports other ways to go back to the previously loaded web page. We’ll examine these capabilities in the “Navigating the Web with IE 10 Metro” section.

• Site Icon:A noninteractive button that displays the site’s icon, if any.

• Address bar:This control works much like the address bar in the desktop version of Internet Explorer, but with some key differences. You can, of course, select the address bar to type any arbitrary URL, and then press Enter to start navigation. But IE Metro is unique because a full-screen view of Frequent and Pinned sites is displayed each time the address bar is selected. And as you type, these lists are filtered, on the fly. This feature is so cool, we discuss it more in the “Finding Favorites and Other Websites” section later in this chapter.

Sites with encrypted connections will include a lock badge in the address bar, just as with the desktop version of IE. This control also works as a progress indicator while sites are loading.

To search the web from the address bar, simply type your search query in the address bar. Internet Explorer will search the web using the configured search engine, which, by default, is Bing.

The address bar also lacks some features of the desktop IE’s address bar, including a menu-based auto-complete list and Compatibility View.

• Refresh/Stop:This button works just like its desktop cousin: Tap it to refresh (reload) the current page or, if the currently loading page is stuttering or not completing for some reason, tap it to stop it from loading.

You can still pin websites to the Windows 8 taskbar. But you will do this separately, from the desktop version of IE.

• Pin to Start:While old-school IE users probably cart around a folder full of Favorites—Internet Explorer’s version of the browser bookmarks feature—the cool kids started pinning their favorite sites to the Windows 7 taskbar with IE 9. And now in IE 10, you can pin your favorite sites to the Windows 8 Start screen too. This is how you do it, and because it’s such a great new feature with unique capabilities, we examine it in detail later in this chapter.

The Favorites Bar is no longer available in IE Metro, because of screen real estate reasons.

• Page Tools:This useful tool displays a pop-up menu when tapped. From here, you can utilize IE Metro’s Find on Page and View on the Desktop functionalities. The former helps you search the currently displayed web page for a specific search term. The latter, new to IE 10, loads the currently displayed web page in the desktop version of Internet Explorer. You will also occasionally see a Get app for this site option in the Page Tools menu; in such cases, the button itself will change a bit, adding a small gear graphic, indicating that a Windows 8 Metro-style app is also available.

Forward:Yep, this works much like the Forward button in the desktop version of IE. But as with Back, it lacks advanced features, like the ability to tap and hold to access a menu of past pages and the browser History.

Whereas desktop versions of Internet Explorer feature an always-visible row of browser tabs, IE Metro tries to do more with less, so it hides its new tab switcher and other UI chrome elements by default. But when enabled, the tab switcher, as shown in Figure 7-8, provides the UI elements described next.

Figure 7-8:The IE tab switcher

IE Metro only supports two tab thumbnail rows in the tab switcher. If both rows are full, and you open yet another tab, the oldest tab is removed.