Microsoft Tutorials
Application Pinning with META Tags
If there's one thing I want you to learn from the wide range of blog posts I've written, it's that it's the small things matter when you're creating your websites. Whether it's a one-page showcase, a business website, or an enterprise web application, there are always small details you can add that will really help someone out...even if that someone is on a Windows PC. One of those small details is setting your website up for "pinning", a functionality that debuted in Windows 7. Let me show you what it is and how you can implement it on your websites!
Edge & Mobile Browsers
From a developer's perspective, the Web is moving faster than ever. Thanks to reinvigorated browser vendors, frequent releases of new mobile devices, and our own need for better APIs and tools, we're seeing loads of movement across each platform. Since browser venders like Mozilla, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera know we need the ability to test these features on desktop and mobile platforms, they have mostly been helpful in providing edge versions of their browsers. This post will show you what each vendor provides in the way of edge versions, as well as how to get them.
Turn Internet Explorer into Chrome with Chrome Frame
I'm just going to cut to the chase: Internet Explorer is rubbish. I don't care what version you throw at me — 6, 7, 8...rubbish. Apparently Google agrees with me because they've released Google Chrome Frame, a browser plugin and META tag system that allows you to turn IE installs into a virtual "Chrome" install so that IE will support HTML5's canvas tag and take advantage of JavaScript performance improvements featured in Google Chrome.
Making IE8 Emulate IE7
As you probably know, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 was "officially" released yesterday. If you were caught off guard by this and haven't had time to test your sites in IE8, don't lose sleep; you can make IE8 render pages like IE7 using a simple META tag.
Sizzle and Peppy Selector Engines in MooTools
A few weeks back I touched on how you could implement the Peppy and Sizzle selector engines in MooTools. Both posts showed how to remove the default Moo engine from use and instead make each respective selector engine the one and only. It doesn't have to be that way. You could use all three engines within the page as well.
PHP, Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL), and IIS: Connect and Query with ODBC
I was recently thrown a real curveball of a project. Instead of using a fresh MySQL database to pull information from, the customer required that we pull information from their new Microsoft SQL Server 2005 server. This isn't the most desired method of PHP->Database interactivity but that's what the project called for and that's what I needed to do. Here's how to get things going.
IE Says “Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet Site ________. Operation Aborted.” I Say “WTF?”
During the development of a recent website, I fitted the site with some awesome MooTools effects. Per usual, I would check each page with Firefox and once the page looked good, I'd switch over to Internet Explorer to make sure the site looked the same. That's where the problem began.
Override Vista and XP’s Themed Buttons and Scrollbars Using a META Tag
The first thing I do to any fresh Windows XP or Vista install is change the theme to old-school "Windows Classic" theme. Square gray boxes, in my opinion, are much better than the awful "rounded", colored bars. The XP and Vista theme settings also bleed into Internet Explorer, shaping and color buttons in ways I don't want.
The First Year of IE7 — Still Hated
The IEBlog posted The First Year of IE7 today and lets just say that the comments are anything but positive. Check out the scathing comments:
Prevent Double Margin & Padding In IE6 When Using CSS Float
My thoughts on Internet Explorer have been well documented; for those that don't already know, I think IE hinders the internet's progress and represents another embarrassment for Microsoft. That said, a majority of users still browse with Internet Explorer 6 so it's important to make sure our customers' websites look good in the browser.