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How to make Bing as default search engine in IE, Firefox and use in Windows 7?

Mr.Byte — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:34:09 +0000

Bing is the new rebranded search engine from Microsoft which has lots of new improved features which is not available in Google search. The features such as video preview, small snippet information of the sites in the search page are really impressive.

Update: Many have been asking for how to uninstall Bing and keep Google as default search engine. Please see at the end of this post for how to uninstall Bing from Internet Explorer.

Here are links to make use of Bing search in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Windows 7

Internet Explorer

For Internet Explorer, download Bing search provider. It will add Bing as one of the search provider and if you want it as default search provider, check that option while installing.

Firefox

For Firefox, download Bing search provider. (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12205)

Windows 7

In Windows 7, you can add the Bing search which allows to search the web right from the Windows Explorer. It’ll also add the favorites link on the left sidebar.

Download Bing search provider for Windows 7 (Developed by Chakkaradeep)

Update: Many have been searching for how to uninstall Bing as default search engine in Internet Explorer. So here is how to uninstall

Go to Tools in Internet Explorer and Internet Options. Click the Programs tab and click Manage add-ons.

Click Search Providers on the Add-on types list on the left. Choose Google and click set as default and Close.

Now you can use Google as the default search in IE.

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LyteByte Icon Featured in Smashing Magazine

Mr.Byte — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:56:58 +0000

It came as quite a suprise when LyteByte’s Icon (Favicon) was featured in the Smashing Magazine today.

These are formed by the characters L and B. Small b is inside the L and they were turned upside down to form the number 97 but later I turned the angle to give an arrow look.

I was always inspired by blogs which have very unique Icons and hence it motivated me to design this favicon earlier this year. You can also see my earlier designs I thought of and have used.

You can also read how to create a simple favicon by yourself.

Thanks to Smashing Magazine for featuring LyteByte’s favicon.

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How to Uninstall IE8 Beta in Vista?

Mr.Byte — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 was just released today. So I tried to install the new IE 8 but it said that I have to uninstall the previous version of IE 8 Beta 1. Uninstalling Internet Explorer from Vista is a little bit tricky than other applications.

So, here is how to uninstall IE8 Beta 1 in Vista?

(Note: I was little impatient to verify this, but you can also update IE8 Beta 1 to Beta 2 through Windows Update)

Usually to remove an application from Vista, one can go to Control Panel and click Uninstall a Program under Programs. All the installed applications will be listed there and one can choose the program to be uninstalled and click Uninstall from the top.

But IE8 is not listed on the list of applications. To uninstall IE8, Click View installed updates from the left sidebar in that Control Panel. From the installed updates list find Windows Internet Explorer 8 and click Uninstall.

It may be required to restart the system before you can install IE8 Beta 2 and you may be asked to restart again before using Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.

You can download IE8 Beta 2 here.

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Search the Commands in Office 2007 Ribbon Using Search Commands from Office Labs

Mr.Byte — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:53:18 +0000

Did you ever get lost with too much of functions and commands in Office 2007 ribbon? Or did you ever blame that you were not able to find the command that you wanted to use in Office 2007? Well, here is the solution to all that! Its Search Commands from Office Labs.

Search Commands was just recently released by Microsoft which is a part of Office Labs project. You need not wonder where is the command you are looking for anymore. All that you have to do is start typing the name of command or the description of the command that you might be looking for and Search Commands starts to display all the possible commands you might be looking for. Search Commands works with Word, Excel and PowerPoint from Office 2007.

Download Search Commands for Office 2007

Tips for better usage of Search Commands

First, there is a well structures and well designed guided help which will explain how to use and get the best of Search Commands.

No matter what you doing in Office 2007 applications like Word, Excel or PowerPoint, just use the keyboard shortcut Win Key + Y to use Search Commands.
Also after searching, you can just use the number displayed near the commands as the keyboard shortcut to use those commands.

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Black Google for Earth Hour

Mr.Byte — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:50:51 +0000

About a year ago I wrote a post ‘Use Black Google and Save Energy‘ but today Google has taken it seriously for the Earth Hour this year. Earth Hour is an international event to switch of lights and unwanted appliances for 1 hour which is at 29th March for this year from 8 pm to 9 pm local time.

Also I mentioned in the earlier post that if all the Google pages (including search results) were black it would save 750 Megawatt Hours a year around the world. Though Google has tuned off their lights only in their homepage for this Earth Hour.

If you have a computer and you keep your monitors running even if you are not working, then try to switch off your monitors and save energy. Read these staggering numbers of what happens if your monitor is left running for a year.

Read how you can automatically switch off the monitor after specified time of non-usage? and also if you are not using your computers while your sleeping, lets shut down and save energy.

So did you switch off your lights and unwanted appliances for this Earth Hour, write down what you did….

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I Just Downloaded IE8

Mr.Byte — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:58:22 +0000

I just downloaded IE8 beta 1 and installed it. Thankfully it has the Emulate IE7 button which helps to render the pages as if its from IE7 as many pages are not fixed up to render the pages for IE8. This beta is aimed for the web developers and designers.

I checked LyteByte with IE8 and I found only one glitch that I have to fix. I suppose if the pages are working well with Firefox, Opera and IE7 then it is most likely to work with IE8 too. But even some big sites like AOL looks totally messed up with IE8. Hopefully this release should help everybody to fix their websites and blogs.

The two big things in IE8 are the Activities and Slices.

Google as the default search provider in IE8?

But before that, while setting up IE8 what surprised me was it asked for the settings for search provider and other settings and by default search provider was listed as Google and not Live search. I am not sure if it has taken all these setting from IE7 but anyway if they want they could have listed Live search in the express settings. Maybe Microsoft is trying to change its principles?

Check here in the picture below that Google is listed as the search provider in express settings

So about the new big thing in IE8 Activities and Slices:

About the Activities,

Activities give users ready access to the online services they care about most from any page they visit, and developers gain an easy way to extend the reach of their online services. It’s as simple as selecting text to get started with an Activity

To give few examples, you can stumble a page by just right clicking the page and lookup stumbleupon reviews, you can add a page to digg, search something regarding that, blog about the content, find the definition, share it with different media like Facebook, translate to the language you prefer, find the location in a map, etc. And all this happens within the page you are browsing. Since Activities are like add-in, one can get much more features in the future which would enhance the browsing experience.

Activities Add-on Page

About the Slices,

WebSlices enable you to see when updated content—such as the temperature, or an auction price—is available from your favorite websites. A WebSlice is a “piece” of a webpage that you can subscribe to. Once you have subscribed to the WebSlice, it appears as a link on the Favorites bar. When the WebSlice is updated, the link on the Favorites bar will appear with bold formatting. You can then click the link to see the updated content.

To give few example, you can view friend’s status from Facebook, Monitor ebay items, track the buzz items from Stumbleupon, get the news headlines, track the weather, and much more. Similar to Activities, new Slices can be coded to give new features.

IE8 has a new interface for managing add-ons.

Also the downloads in Internet Explorer 8 are checked by Microsoft Safety Filter before downloading. You can turn on or off this feature and by default its turned on.

There are lots of other new features, to try it out Download IE8

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Microsoft DreamSpark – Free Professional Development and Design Tools Software for Students

Mr.Byte — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:59:00 +0000

Microsoft has decided to give away something for free again (at least for students). They are giving professional level developer and design tools at no charge. This would help students to use Microsoft’s technology to build new things and boost Microsoft directly or indirectly.

All that you need is Windows Live ID, verify that you are student and just click to download the entire installation file. But you have to be in United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or Belgium. If you are indeed in these countries and if your school is not listed then you can get it from JourneyEd.

Free Products Given Away By Microsoft
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Microsoft Expression Studio
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Xna Game Studio
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition

Download Free Microsoft Products at Microsoft DreamSpark – More at MSDN Channel 8

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Download Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Mr.Byte — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:12:37 +0000

Microsoft has recently released the service pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2007. It includes security improvements, stability improvements, and performance improvements. If you have been using Office Update, then you might have already installed some of the fixes. Yet this has the comprehensive list of all updates and fixes so far and also other new fixes. You can get the list of all the fixes here.

Click here to download Microsoft Office 2007 SP1 or Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 SP1

How to remove Office 2007 SP1 installation?
In case SP1 causes some problem, it should be noted that if you want to remove the SP1 installation alone from the computer, you cannot use Add or Remove Program from Control Panel. You have to uninstall the whole application and then install Office 2007 like you did for the first time!

Microsoft has also released beta version of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista. Although it’s currently available to only MSDN or technet users, it will be available to the public in another couple of days.

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Sneak Preview of Yahoo Messenger for Vista and its Features

Mr.Byte — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:05:31 +0000

Recently we had the new Yahoo Messenger 9 beta and now it gets even better in the Yahoo Messenger for Vista. But this is just only a preview version and not in beta phase.

There are lots of new features in this preview version but not all the old features are incorporated yet. For example, new email notification is still missing along with no webcam, no voice, plugins, photo sharing, IMvironments, audibles etc. But the new features make it a worth try as you can still login to Yahoo Messenger 8 or 9 if you want as this is installed separately.

Here are some of the best features
New interface and there are no more the drop down menu style for changing the settings. You click the Main Menu button at the top which opens a comprehensive settings page. It’s more like the ribbon in Microsoft Office which has all the features and settings listed down rather than in the form of drop down menu.

Also you can resize the size of the contacts and you can list them side by side or by the traditional list down method. The usage is more like changing the views in Vista Windows Explorer.

You can chat with different people in individual windows are put together in a single tabbed window. Drag and drop windows to merge and you can also drag out a tab to form a new window. You can also do that by clicking explode or implode conversation at the bottom of the window. Check here to how you can also use tabbed windows in Yahoo Messenger 8 or 9.

Choose different colors for different windows for easy identification.

The all new Yahoo Messenger Emoticons which are more live!

Send files as large as 2GB!

Keep your favorite contacts in the Vista Sidebar to keep in constant touch. Just click the sidebar to chat with them or send any files.

More are yet to come and have a try at Yahoo Messenger for Vista and read more about it at yahoo messenger blog.

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Use Black Google and Save Energy

Mr.Byte — Tue, 29 May 2007 10:15:28 +0000

White is Costly and Black is Cheap when it comes to color and electricity. In my earlier post, â€˜Switch Off Your Monitor and Save Energyâ€™, I mentioned that switching off the monitors when not in use could save lot of energy. Now it seems you can also save energy just by shifting from White Google to black Google. According to EcoIron, “An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts.” As Google currently has more than 200 million queries a day, and if Google has a black background, it would save 750 Megawatt-hours a year! Thatâ€™s lot of energy which means Google with a white background is very costly.

Blackle took this point into consideration and they have created an all black homepage for searching in Google. Have a look at this and try it out. Black Google seems to be little odd as we are quite acquainted with the White Google.

So, Will you switch to black Google on the basis of energy conservation? Let me know your opinion!

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