Using the Internet Explorer 11 App

Windows 8.1 comes with two copies of the Internet Explorer web browser, an easy to use app and the desktop version you’ve probably used in earlier versions of Windows.

The address bar, where you type the addresses of the websites you want to visit, is at the bottom of the screen along with controls for Back (to the left of the address bar) to take you back a page and Refresh (to the right of the address bar) to reload the page. You can display these at any time by opening the App Bar.

Internet Explorer allows you to open multiple websites and switch between them using tabs. You can manage your tabs in Internet Explorer by opening the App Bar and you will see thumbnail images of your open tabs at the bottom of the screen. 

You can also use touch gestures in Internet Explorer to move backward to previously loaded pages (swipe left to right) or to automatically move pages back and forth on a website (swipe right to left). This enables you to move through the pages of a website without needing to know what the next link is to click.

Note : There are many different options available in the Outlook app, and they can be accessed by opening the Settings charm and then clicking either Accounts and then clicking on your email account, or by clicking Options in the top right of your screen. These additional options include being able to download all of your email (the standard setting is just email from the last two weeks) and adding a signature to your email.

If you want to zoom in on part of a web page, or perhaps you are finding some text difficult to read or links too small to click or touch, the zoom feature can help. You can make a two-finger pinch zoom gesture on the screen to zoom in and out of any part of a web page in both the app and desktop versions of Internet Explorer. If you use a keyboard and mouse, you will need to use the desktop version of Internet Explorer to employ the zoom, and the zoom controls can be found in the bottom right corner of the window. 

To open a new browser tab in Internet Explorer, click/touch or tap the + button to the right of the tabs when the App Bar is open and the tabs are showing.

Note : Windows 8 synchronizes your tabs between all your Windows 8.1 PCs. This means you can continue working on one PC with browser tabs you had open on another PC. To access your tabs from other PCs, click the Tabs link on the left of the App bar (next to your tabs) and the names of your other PCs will appear. Click a PC’s name to see its open tabs.

So how do you get the best out of using Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 8.1? Here’s a guide to how you can quickly perform the most common tasks from the App Bar. 

• Click in the address bar, type a web address, and display your frequently visited websites. 

• Click the Favorites button to display thumbnails of your saved Internet Favorites, a drop-down list (on the left) of your other Windows 8.1 PCs you can view tabs from and, on the right, Add to Favorites and Pin to Start buttons for the currently displayed web page. 

• Click the Tabs button to display thumbnails for all your open tabs and, on the right, a button for opening a new tab and another button for opening an In Private tab and re-opening the most recently closed tab. 

• Click the wrench button to display controls for finding text on the currently displayed web page, opening the web page in the desktop version of Internet Explorer, and viewing and files you have downloaded from the Internet.

When you click/touch the address bar, Internet Explorer will show you the websites you have visited recently and also any Favorites that you have pinned. These pinned favorites are automatically displayed on the Start screen. 

You can also save Internet Favorites by clicking the Favorites button on the App Bar and then clicking the Add to Favorites button. If you want to load one of these favorites later, open the App Bar and then click the Favorites button to display them.

Note : You can open the App Bar with your mouse in Internet Explorer by right-clicking in any blank space on a web page.

Saving Your Favorite Websites to the Start Screen 

To save a favorite website to the Start screen or to create a quick link to it on the Start screen, which is called pinning, open the App Bar in Internet Explorer and click/touch the Favorites button in the bottom right of the screen, then click either the Add to Favorites button or the Pin button. A pop-up panel will display details of the current website and will ask you to confirm that you want to save the current web page to your Favorites. If you pin websites to the Start screen you can later unpin them the same way you remove apps.