www.paessler.com

INTRODUCTION

Upon first downloading IE booster I wasn't totally sure of what purpose the tools included would serve. After playing around with the software on some of my favorite web pages I realized just how valuable of a tool this piece of software is. IE booster can be used in so many different situations, from mass design of new web material, to teaching applications, wherever HTML needs to be seen and understood in a straightforward and quick manner.

The software is made up of three main tools, "Copy Meister", "Interactive Web Detective", and "web pages Analyzer". Each of these modules have their own unique purpose, and when the components are used together they really do most of the work for you. Those of us that have done web design in the past can definitely relate when it comes to sitting up all night scanning through hundreds of lines of code trying to figure out problems and tweak our designs. IE booster will save a lot of that wasted time by finding things for you and giving you proper copy and paste tools that IE should have had in the first place.

INSTALLATION & SETUP

Installation was performed using IE 6 and installed very fast with no problems on both Intel and AMD platforms. The Paessler web page is very well organized with a very quick path to the download link and none of the annoying redirects typically found when downloading trial versions of software. Another pleasant feature of the installation was the lack of the now all too common explanation of the adware to be included with your installation. From download to full functionality there was not one slight problem and the entire process took no more than ten seconds of my time. Another very important component of any software package is a proper uninstaller. IE booster includes one right in the installation directory, and the program is sure to remove everything, unlike some situations where you are left with registry clutter and other inconveniences. The ease of installation and well laid out web page are a hint at how well organized and easy to use the software really is.

INTERFACE & EASE OF USE

Although IE booster comes as one complete software package, there are three main functions, and to do the software justice each one must be explained individually.

Copy Meister

Copy meister allows a user to select a portion of content right off of a web page and copy it in a variety of different ways. Content can be copied as text, HTML source, Rich text, image URL, Link URL, or text URL. This is a excellent time saving tool, allowing users to get the source code they are looking for without using "view source" in IE, and sifting though hundreds of lines of code. Everything here is very straightforward and everything is explained in the Copy Meister window. Included in the Copy Meister window is a display of exactly what has been selected, and what is going to be copied. I tested this particular function with generic web sites, as well as some more complex web sites like forums and bulletin boards, like vBulletin and PHPBB2. Everything copied just perfect. My only complaint about this portion of the software was its presence as "always on top" of the IE window that information is being copied from. This is a minor complaint, and is quite possibly part of the way IE handles tools such as this, and may have nothing to do with the software itself.

Interactive HTML Detective

The detective part of the program is mainly designed to highlight the different elements of a web page, using a drop down menu that is automatically updated with the types of element contained in the document. Quick buttons for copying links, title, URL's and showing source code are included as well. At first I honestly could not figure out how to get the program to highlight anything at all. After becoming a little frustrated I found that you have to click a button under the dropdown menu to get the software to highlight your selection. This button is also where it displays the highlighting color and what element is to be highlighted, but it displays this information as the button text. It was a bit of a no-brainer on my part but a nice, obvious button at the bottom with the words "Highlight Now" would be more effective in my opinion.

The highlight function does exactly what it is asked to do and highlights all elements on the web page This kind of tool would be priceless in a teaching environment, or any other situation where you need to find a certain element in a hurry. Additionally, the HTML detective will allow you to zoom in and out of web pages, and quickly resize the window to a preset size, or your own custom size -- perfect for checking if a web page is backwards compatible, or assuring your own design is. I particularly liked the zoom function which is great if you run a high desktop resolution such as 1600x1200.

Web Page Analyzer

The web page analyzer is an excellent resource for finding out every little thing possible about a given web page. As a web page designer you will find this to be an excellent tool for monitoring how your web site is progressing, especially with the built in Google.com functionality to check who is linking your web page, your traffic ranking, and other similar pages. Functionality with the Paessler Webserver Stress Tool is also built into the analyzer along with traceroute and ping functions to make sure everything is running smoothly. All of these functions work excellent and a few of them even offer graphical analysis of the pertinent data. Often forgotten in html analysis software, I was impressed to see a print function. I have used many utilities over the years that resulted in copying and pasting information to Word in order to get it on paper.

FUNCTIONALITY

IE Booster 2 extracts information from web pages that you normally do not, or cannot see. Guided by the easy to use interface, anyone who's non-technical should be able to use this application. One of the most annoying part of a lot of IE plugins are the annoying menu-bars IE Booster 2 stays in the background, and out of your workspace when you need it. The only annoyance is when you are using it, it will not let you do anything in the browser behind it. Upon testing the programs for memory use, I was not surprised to find that the memory footprint was small indeed, taking up almost no resources. The Web Page Analyzer actually uses a small amount of system resources, which is surprising considering the amount of information it makes available. Processing time is also noted in the information bar at the bottom, and was always under 1 second.

There is lots of other software available to a web designer to help him/her get the most out of their web page, but IE Booster 2 is the only complete package. Most of the other programs offer one function, such as many programs out there that do nothing but find dead links. Fortunately IE Booster does everything in one easy to use package.

CONCLUSION

IE Booster 2 seems to have something for everybody, from the average web browser who might find the zoom functions useful, to the busy site designer perfecting their code. I think one of the best functions of the program would be for someone just learning how to code HTML. I remember when I was learning, it was sometimes difficult to understand what part of code caused a certain part of the design to display. This is all simple with IE Booster.

Designers who run massive networks of web sites often have better things to do than spend hours trying to fix a problem with their site due to a misplaced tag. IE Booster can find things like this in a matter of seconds, saving time for more important things.

The only significant "con" I could find was the program was in fact due to how well it worked. There are a lot of malicious individuals out there on the Internet who wouldn't think twice about stealing your hard work, and software like this makes their process easier in the same way it makes creation easier. Unfortunately any useful tool such as IE Booster can be used in a negative way, and the fact that it works so well only makes chances worse.

PROS: a. Easy to use b. Very useful CONS: a. Always on top