6 Things to Learn in Navigating with Internet Explorer 11 App
Previously, we’ve discussed the steps in accessing the modern app version of Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) and learned how to make its tile in the Start Screen access the app instead of the desktop version by setting it as the default browser. However, that’s not everything yet. There are still a lot of things to learn about Windows 8.1’s built-in browser and that’s what we will be discussing this time. In this tutorial, we will be going through some steps in navigating through the web with the IE 11 app and master some tricks that will let you use this awesome browsing tool like a boss so be sure to prepare your machine and follow the steps that I will be demonstrating below.
1. Open the App
The very first step that you need to do is of course to access the app. If you haven’t set IE 11 as your default browser then you first need to do so. To learn how it is done, you can follow the steps I have shown here. Once it gets set as the default browser, you can click on the its tile that is pinned on the Start Screen and the IE 11 app version will open in full screen.
NOTE:
If Internet Explorer is not set as your default browser, clicking its tile on the Start Screen will only access the desktop version and never the modern app version no matter how many times you click on the tile. To be able to access the modern app version from the Start Screen tile, you will first need to set Internet Explorer as you default browser and after doing so, you can click again on its tile pinned on the Start Screen which will now be able to open the app version of the browser.
2. Enter the Website Name into the Web Address Box
If you have set Google as your home page then the Internet Explorer app will automatically open the Google search site after it opens. To get to another website, simply click inside the web address box and start typing the name of the website that you want to visit then hit the “Enter” on your computer’s keyboard or click/tap on the “Go” button located at the right of the web address input box.
3. Open Multiple Tabs
When browsing from one site to another, you don’t need to replace the one that is already open on the main screen. It can just stay opened and all you need is another tab where you can open another website. To do this simply click on the “Tabs” button at the bottom of the screen which is seated beside the “Refresh” button at the right of the web address input box.
After clicking or tapping on the “Tabs” button, the bar at the bottom will expand and show the open tabs. At the top-right portion of this bar, you will see a button that bears the “+” symbol in it. This is the button that you need to click in order to open another tab. Once you click on it, the web address box will be cleared and the main screen will all be white. Just enter the website inside the address box and click or tap on the “Go” button in order to load the website which you just entered into the address box.
4. Open a New InPrivate Tab
If you want your browsing activity to leave to trace. You can do it in Internet Explorer’s app version by opening an InPrivate tab. This is Windows 8.1’s version of the “Incognito” tab in Google. When you open websites using the InPrivate tab, your activity will not be recorded in the browser’s history and the usernames and passwords that you will enter will never be saved. This a good way of staying protected especially when you are checking your financial accounts through the online portal that your bank supports and when you are doing some purchase in ebay and other online shops. To open a new InPrivate tab, simply expand the bar at the bottom by clicking or tapping on the “Tabs” button and once the bar expands to show the open tabs, you will need to click on the “Tab tools” button located beside the “New tab” button at the top-right corner of the bar.
After clicking on the “Tab tools” button, a small box will appear containing two options. From these options simply click on the one that says “New InPrivate tab” and a new InPrivate browsing session will open right away.
5. Setting a Website as Favorite
There are a lot of websites out there that can easily become your favorite and if you want to have a section within the Internet Explorer app for all your favorite websites then you can easily click or tap on a button that will let you add it to the Favorites section. To accomplish this, all you need to do is first open the website and make sure that it loads completely. After it loads, simply click on the button at the bottom right-hand portion of the screen which bears a star icon just beside the “Tabs” button and the bar at the bottom will expand. Once it expands, you will see the sites which you marked as Favorite and even more button options. One of these buttons has a star icon with a “+” symbol overlaid on it. You will need to click on it so you can finally add the site to the Favorites section.
6. The Tab Tools Button
To the right of Favorites is another button for the “Tab tools” bearing even more options which you can use in doing certain tasks. Try clicking on it and you will be able to access the “Get app for this site”, “Find on page”, “View in the desktop” and “View downloads” options inside a small box.
The “Get app for this site” option will bring you to the section where you can download the Windows 8.1 app for the website you have visited or any other product offered by a website. Next, the “Find on page” option will let you search for a specific content or word on a website you opened. If you click on it, a bar will appear at the bottom of the screen which looks like the screenshot below. Just enter the word that you are trying to find within a webpage inside the “Find” box at the left and it will automatically be highlighted on the screen.
Next, we come to the “View in the desktop” option which allows you to open a website you visited with the Internet Explorer app in the browser’s desktop version. This is very useful especially if you want to view some aspects of a website better and work together with other programs on the desktop screen. Lastly, the “View downloads” option will let you access the list of downloaded stuff that you had since the beginning of time. Downloads can also take a chunk of space from your computer’s storage so clearing it once in a while is an effective way of freeing up some disk space.
As you can see, the modern app version of Internet Explorer 11 works the same as its desktop version. It allows you to do the similar tasks and the difference is just the way in how you access the options that are available. Take some time to view your favorite websites with IE 11’s app version and you’ll get acquainted with a brand new way in accessing websites and getting to some browsing options faster and better!