Your Internet browser’s setting for home page is your very first view into the Internet the moment the browser is opened.  It only makes sense that you set it to a page that you use most often so that you can save time in your Internet surfing activity.  This page is called your home page.

What if you have more than one page you wished you could open everytime you ran your browser?  Well, with Internet Explorer (IE) 8 (or IE 7 for that matter), you can open more than one.  As a matter of fact, you can open up to 8 home pages when you launch IE 8.

Home Page Icon

Home Page Icon

 The Home Page icon is illustrated on the left.  When you click the icon IE 8 will take you to your home pages.  If you only have one, you can add 7 more by clicking the down arrow immediately to the right of the Home Page icon.

When you click on that down arrow, you can choose from the list of your up to 8

Remove Home Page

Remove Home Page

 home pages or you can manage your home pages.  Specifically, you can

  • Add or Change Home Page
  • or Remove (a home page or all)

If you are setting your home pages for the first time, the quickest way to do it is to open IE 8, set each tab to browse to the appropriate page, then click the Tools item from the command bar, then select Internet Options from the drop down menu that shows. 

In the Internet Options window, make sure you are in the General tab.  From there, simply click the Use Current button, and that will set your home pages.  Click the OK button of the Internet Options window and you are done.

Internet Options dialog box

Internet Options dialog box

Most people don’t know these about Internet Explorer 8’s Home Page function.  You are now one of the few who does; make sure to pass this information on.

About Internet Explorer 8

About Internet Explorer 8

It didn’t seem like long ago since Internet Explorer (IE) 7 was released (19 Oct 2006) , and right behind it was the release of FireFox 2 (24 Oct 2006).  Then in March 2008 Microsoft released Internet Explorer (IE) 8,  which was followed by FireFox 3 on 17 Jun 2008; then Google followed suit with their own Google Chrome on 03 Sep 2008.

As you can see the battle for your Internet browsing interface is fierce, and even though Microsoft has the market dominance with respect to Internet browsers, its share is slowly being eaten away by FireFox and now Chrome.

The release of IE 8 was a major milestone in that it was apparent Microsoft was responding to user needs and competition pressure.  Microsoft claims that IE 8 is web compliant and allows you to view web sites with ease.  It is also supposed to be faster and more secure.

This article will not attempt to prove Microsoft’s claims, but will provide users with a good overview of the key features available in IE 8 that most people don’t realize exist or don’t bother to use to their advantage.

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