Fucking Microsoft

[andrewducker]

Yesterday I updated MSN Messenger. I _like_ MSN Messenger - it's nicer than any other IM client I've used, and if I could access AIM and Yahoo through it I'd dump GAIM in an instant. As it is, GAIM makes for a good second place.

Today, the PC wouldn't open Internet Explorer _at all_. Opening a Windows Explorer window and then going to a website worked, but then pressing Ctrl-N to open a new window would kill both of them (and the taskbar).

It took me about 10 minutes to connect these two facts and uninstall the MSN toolbar that MSN Messenger had handily installed for me.

And now it all works fine.

(Sidenote - on this PC I use Firefox and Lilian uses IE - that way we can both have our separate cookies and both be logged into LJ at once, without all the tedious back and forthing we'd otherwise have to resort to. If anyone has an alternate way of doing this - without either of us being forced to use IE, please let me know).

Comments

[terminalmalaise.livejournal.com]

You should be able to create separate profiles for each of you, which'll have separate cookies and can have a different theme and set of extensions. This site explains how to create shortcuts to launch the profile manager or to just load up a specific profile once it's made.

This bit sounds handy (haven't tested it personally):


Tip:
I find it helpful to use profiles in Firefox, and I was getting annoyed at the profile manager popping up, so I wondered if there was a way To make desktop shortcuts that go straight into a specific profile. There is:

Create 2 or more profiles in the profile manager, for instance one called John, and another called Marsha - then create two shortcuts to Firefox and then right click on properties, and change the shortcut targets to the following command line parameters:

"[path to Firefox]\firefox.exe" -p "John"

"[path to Firefox]\firefox.exe" -p "Marsha"

(or whatever you've called the profiles....)
...and where path to Firefox is pretty self explanatory.

Then when you click on the appropriate shortcut, your chosen Firefox profile loads.

Oviously you have to install themes and extensions separately for each profile.

[andrewducker]

Can I have two instance of Firefox running at once - one with each profile?

[time-for-tea.livejournal.com]

It sounds like it, but if not, I would recommend Opera as another fine alternative to IE. I'm pretty much over to Firefox now, but I am still very keen on Opera.

[andrewducker]

The only problem, of course, being in actually having to fork over money for software. Goes against the principle of something or other :->

I'll look into it!

[time-for-tea.livejournal.com]

There's an adware version, which I find to be very unobtrusive.

[terminalmalaise.livejournal.com]

Not any way I know of, unfortunately. I can't even run Portable Firefox off of my flash drive as a separate instance.

[darkoshi]

If the profile thing doesn't work, and you don't want the adware version of Opera, you could try out the K-Meleon browser... I installed it on my mom's Win95 computer. Although I had some problems with the menus not working, and had to go back and use an older version, 0.82, instead of the latest, 0.9.

Really, what I love about Opera (in spite of me not using it much), is the toolbar buttons for turning image loading on&off, and for changing between user&author mode (to get rid of annoying backgrounds when trying to read text), and for changing the zoom factor. I suppose I never was able to make Opera my main browser though, because certain sites just don't work right with it.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

It's Mac only, but I find Adium to be more aesthetically pleasing, and easier to use than MSN Messenger, and it's a multiprotocol client!

[0olong.livejournal.com]

You could resort to the full, chunky version of Mozilla - not as chunky as it once was, and it certainly does the job.

Incidentally, I had a dream last night where you were fixing my computer. Very strange.

[diotina.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Trillian? *adds you to friendslist*