How To Disable Internet Explorer!

Once you’ve picked your new browser, it’s time to call things off with IE. This poses a bit of a problem, as many Windows functions and programs depend on IE’s rendering engine. While it’s technically possible to remove IE completely, you may be better off leaving it in, if you value functionality. In Windows XP and Vista, you can do the next best thing: Removing access to IE for all users of your system.
So, how do you disable (block access) to Internet Explorer?
From the Start Menu, click on “Programs.” An icon labeled “Set Program Access and Defaults” should be near the top of the menu. If it is, you may skip the next paragraph. If it’s not, please continue below.

You’re going to want to open your Control Panel, also from the Start Menu. Next, open the Add or Remove Programs window. You’ll have four choices on your left. What you need is the lowest option: Set Program Access and Defaults. I’m sure you’re anxious to break this off. We’re almost done.

Select the “Custom” option, and then go ahead and designate what you want your default programs to be. You may disable access to Internet Explorer by clearing the checkbox next to it. All program shortcuts to Internet Explorer will be removed, and your default Internet browser on the Start Menu will be of your choice.

There may arise a situation during which you may need to open IE. Most often it will be to open a site which doesn’t play nicely with other browsers. With all the shortcuts gone, just open the Run box (hold the Windows Key and press R), type “iexplore” then hit OK. See? While you’re no longer exclusive, you and IE can still be friends. It’s alright, really. I won’t tell the other browsers.

10 Greasemonkey scripts you shouldn't browse without

One of the main draws for Firefox is how customizable it is, both in appearance and functionality. We've shown you some of our favorite Firefox themes, but if you're looking for more than a cosmetic change in your browsing experience, you should get to know Greasemonkey.

In case you're not already familiar: Greasemonkey is a Firefox add-on that allows you to apply powerful user-created scripts to the sites you visit. Scripts do everything from drastically changing the layout of a site to adding new menus or doing common tasks automatically. Greasemonkey can change a font that annoys you, or it can change the way you use your browser.

Firefox isn't the only browser that can take advantage of userscripts. For Webkit-based browsers like Safari, check out GreaseKit. Opera is capable of running many userscripts through its own User JavaScript feature. Some of the scripts mentioned in this post might only work in Firefox, though.

Here are ten of my favorite scripts. If you're using some good ones that you don't see here, sound off in the comments.

1. Google Account Multi-login:

If you have more than one Google account, grab this script to replace the "log out" link on most Google services with a menu that lets you quickly switch from one of your accounts to another. A nice time saver for Gmail junkies.

2. Helvetireader:

I love the way Helvetireader cleans up Google Reader. Download it if you're interested in viewing Google Reader in a simple red and white layout, all in Helvetica. It gets everything that's not essential to reading your feeds out of the way.

3. Download YouTube Video as Mp4:

Does just what it says. Causes a download link to appear right under the embed codes to the right of the video on any YouTube page. This definitely beats pasting the URL into one of those YouTube Downloader websites.

4. OinkPLUS Music Torrent Site Enhancer:

With this script, you can see artist info (bio, similar artists, tags) on popular music torrent sites like Mininova and ThePirateBay. OinkPLUS gets info from Last.fm, and it's the same music info display that was used on the late, great music torrent site Oink.

5 . Nested Twitter Replies:

If you ever get tired of clicking on username links in Twitter to see what one of your friends just replied to, Nested Twitter Replies is for you. It displays Twitter conversations as threads, so you can follow the whole thing without leaving the page.

6. Twitter and Friendfeed Short URL Expander:

Don't get Rickrolled -- does anyone still do that? -- or sent to a malicious site by a shortened URL on Twitter or FriendFeed. This script expands them so you can see what you're clicking.

7. Remove All Facebook Ads:

Self-explanatory and essential. This even gets rid of those text ads that regular ad-blocker plugins have trouble with. If you use Facebook, don't pass it up.

8. Simplepedia:

Simplepedia strips Wikipedia down to the bare bones. Just elegant, easily readable text, the links, and the included images. All of the sidebars and other layout elements are gone, leaving just the information you're looking for. Simplepedia was also recently reviewed here on Download Squad.

9. Greased Lightbox:

This script makes browsing image sites like Google Image Search, Flickr, Wikipedia, MySpace, deviantART, and FFFFOUND easier by displaying linked images at full size in a lightbox when you click them. The lightbox display includes a link to the image in its original context, in case you want to click through after you've seen it.

10. Linkify Ting:

When this script runs across some plain text that's clearly the address of a website, it turns that text into a link. This is awesome for saving you from a lot of needless copying and pasting.