Windows Apps for Internet Explorer Add-ons & Plugins Review

Internet Explorer (IE) add-ons are small software programs that let users customize their Internet Explorer browser experience for their favorite Web sites and services. Add-ons include Accelerators, Search Providers, Toolbars, and Web Slices. IE plug-ins--such as those that let users play Flash video or read PDF files--generally have a narrower focus than add-ons.

Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer (64-bit)

Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer is an add-on for your Internet Explorer that blocks advertisements and annoying banners coming on Web pages. It blocks video ads on YouTube, Facebook ads, flashy banners, pop-ups, and pop-unders. With Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer, you can easily disable all tracking, and browse the web truly anonymously. Adblock Plus can be configured to block domains known to spread malware, protecting your computer against viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spies- and adware.

Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer

Adblock Plus is used by millions of users worldwide. It is a community-driven open source project, and hundreds of volunteers are contributing to the success of Adblock Plus to make sure that all annoying ads are automatically blocked. Please note: When installing Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer, your browser shows a warning that Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer has access to your browsing history and data. This is a standard message, we never collect any information whatsoever. Recently, the Adblock Plus community introduced the Acceptable Ads initiative. By allowing some small and static ads, you support websites that rely on advertising but choose to do it in a non-intrusive way. This feature can be disabled at any time.

Key features of this Windows app for Internet Explorer add-ons:

Enjoy surfing the web without obtrusive ads cluttering your screen.

Adblock Plus for Internet Explorer blocks: Banners; YouTube video ads; Facebook advertisements; All other obtrusive ads.

MCEBrowser

MCEBrowser is a plugin for Microsoft Windows Media Center which allows you surf the Internet using a Media Center remote control. Some of the features include: Browse to home page or favorites, scroll around within Web pages, highlight and select links within Web pages to navigate, enter text in web forms, zoom in and out for 10-foot style surfing, and be compatible with Media Center Extender devices.

ieSpell

IESpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell-checks text-input boxes on a Web page. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of Web-based text entry (Web mail, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your Web application already includes spell-checking functionality, this utility is faster than a server-side solution. Plus, you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications instead of having to maintain separate ones on each application.

ieSpell is in the Internet Explorer Add-ons & Plug-ins category of the Browsers section.

Spelling checkers keep those of us who never won a spelling bee from looking like high-school dropouts. IESpell's spelling checker for Microsoft Internet Explorer provides a safety net for interactive message boards and Web-based e-mail.

We found it unobtrusive, convenient, accurate, and fast. When you want to check your spelling, activate the program from the Tools menu, the toolbar button, or the right-click menu. The intuitive interface resembles that of any other spelling checker, with options for adding words to its dictionary and for ignoring URLs and e-mail addresses. It also provides a direct link to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, giving you the opportunity to expand your vocabulary as you work.

Though we wish IESpell could have fixed punctuation errors and checked our spelling as we typed, we were happy it detected all our misspelled words and offered spelling suggestions. This is a great free tool for the orthographically challenged.

Magic Bookmarks

Allows the user to save his favorite sites in a very organized way and allows to open multiple sites from the same category in one click only. Another important value is that each user got its own bookmarks organized in its personal file under its user, and the switching of the user is done by two mouse clicks. Also, Magic Bookmarks keeps the favorites organized without any bind to any browser (at any time you can open the bookmarks in Firefox and a second after you can open them in Internet Explorer), it simply keeps all the data to itself, and allows to open the desired sites with Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera.

Key features of this Windows app for Internet Explorers:

• Multi user support (each user can have its own completely personal bookmarks).
• Very powerful tray icon mode (full control over the bookmarks).
• FireFox, Internet Explorer, and Opera support.
• Possible to import your bookmarks from FireFox, Internet Explorer, and Opera.
• Perfect for portable purpose (USB flash disk).

This program offers a new way to store and launch multiple bookmarks, but organizing imported favorites is a totally manual process.

Magic Bookmarks' tiny, tabbed interface could use a bit more user instruction. The main window lists four sample Web sites with check boxes. Settings are minimal and include selecting IE 6, IE 7, Firefox, or Opera, and it supports multiple users with different favorites lists. We were pleased to find out that the program speedily opened single and multiple Web sites with a couple of clicks. We weren't exactly delighted with some of the other functions, however. The Edit Bookmark tab features two sections to manage categories and URLs, but you'll have to re-enter the URL in the new category then delete it from the old one. There is an option to import bookmarks from your browser programs, but they're all added to the General Favorites folder and require manual placement also.

With no help file, we never figured out the purpose of the Save to File button, which didn't appear to do anything. Magic Bookmarks is free, but it needs a bit of tweaking to make it on our list of recommendations.

Veetle TV

Veetle is a venture-backed digital media company based in Silicon Valley. Started by a team of top-notch engineers who were former graduate students from Stanford University, Veetle provides the next-generation live broadcasting platform that can deliver extremely cost-effective streams at a massive scale with unprecedented quality. This unique platform, therefore, enables content owners, broadcasters and websites to reach millions of concurrent viewers with the highest fidelity content possible, at little or no additional cost.

Veetle TV is in the Internet Explorer Add-ons & Plug-ins category of the Browsers section.

Youtube Video Downloader

For all video addictive users. This is a tool that you don't have to miss. Who doesn't know the YouTube Website where you can find thousands of funny and weird clips? Now for all the fans of this site, a dream has come true. With YouTube Video Downloader you can download any video clip you want from this site. You just need a flash player which may replay the video files. The program has a search function integrated to find the desired clip. This can be then downloaded. Another method is to enter the URL of the desired movie and then get the file.

Mouse Gestures for Internet Explorer

A plug-in for Internet Explorer that adds Opera/Firefox style mouse gesture support. Mouse gestures allow the user to execute commonly performed tasks (open/close a window) by drawing a simple symbol on the screen. The latest version includes support for IE8, on both x86 and x64.

iMacros for Internet Explorer

iMacros relieves the repetition of checking on the same sites every day, remembering passwords and filling out Web forms. Web professionals can use the software for functional testing and regression Web testing of Web applications. It can be used to automate Web data extraction, for example, online stock quotes or Web store prices.

A macro is an automated series of computer actions that can save you a lot of time if you find yourself doing the same tasks over and over again. Unfortunately, macros aren't always easy to create, which means that a lot of people who could benefit from them never get the chance. iMacros for Internet Explorer changes this, making it easy even for novices to create and use macros.

This browser extension appears as a small icon on the IE toolbar, and clicking on it opens a sidebar to the left. Here there are tabs for playing, recording, and editing macros, and saved macros are displayed in a tree view above. iMacros comes with a variety of sample macros that demonstrate everything that the program is capable of. iMacros can be used to automatically navigate to specific Web sites, enter usernames and passwords, fill out forms, copy and paste content to and from the clipboard, and complete other actions. Creating a new macro is as simple as clicking the Record button on the extension's interface, performing the desired tasks, and then saving the macro with a descriptive name. The program comes with a comprehensive user guide that will get new users off to a quick start while also providing plenty of information about the program's advanced features. Overall, we think that iMacros is a great program for anyone who's interested in using macros, from beginners to experts. Its basics are easy to master, but it provides plenty of functionality for those who already know what they're doing.

GetBot

Pause and resume downloads, get a huge list of files, and get everything on a site with GetBot, the free, no spyware download manager for Windows. GetBot is relentless, recovering broken downloads from errors and from busy servers. GetBot accelerates downloads with any number of simultaneous connections, even within the same file. With GetBot, you can easily get all the pictures on a page, or every video in an entire site. GetBot can tell if a picture is a button, an image map, a video capture, or a thumbnail, making it easy to get the files you want while avoiding those you don't. Download movies, music, and Flash animations that play automatically on a page. Defeat right-click blocking and referrer addresses. Authenticate with user names and passwords or cookies. GetBot can redial the modem automatically.

A Web page is an assemblage of parts: images, text, JavaScript files, and so on. Like other "site spiders," GetBot provides a relatively easy way to download some or all of a Web site's files. But while we always like simplicity, GetBot's main window can be mystifying. Clicking the Help menu launches a Web page that provides a good discussion of the interface but doesn't actually explain how to use the program. Choosing New Site Window from the Open menu reveals GetBot's true value. Once you've entered a Web page address, GetBot quickly maps out the page and its components. From there you can easily choose to download, for example, all the images on the page. You can't filter file types, but you can sort files by type, name, and address. GetBot works best in conjunction with a browser, as you can't navigate Web site links very well through the interface. GetBot would also benefit from some scheduling tools, as its operations are entirely manual. Overall, GetBot isn't the most impressive site spider we've seen, but it's effective and straightforward enough for both Web designers and avid downloaders.