Using Firebug in Internet Explorer
This tip comes from Ben Kelly. We all need to test on Internet Explorer, but we've been spoiled with tools like Firebug in other browsers. Ben has a tip to get Firebug to work in Internet Explorer:
In IE, go to your Favorites bar and copy-paste the following chunk of code and call it "Firebug". (Jonathan: In IE 7, I created a bookmark, then right-clicked on the properties, and then pasted the following code into the URL field.)
javascript:(function(F,i,r,e,b,u,g,L,I,T,E){if(F.getElementById(b))return;E=
F[i+'NS']&&F.documentElement.namespaceURI;E=E?F[i+'NS'](E,'script'):F[i]('sc
ript');E[r]('id',b);E[r]('src',I+g+T);E[r](b,u);(F[e]('head')[0]||F[e]('body
')[0]).appendChild(E);E=new%20Image;E[r]('src',I+L);})(document,'createEleme
nt','setAttribute','getElementsByTagName','FirebugLite','4','firebug-lite.js
','releases/lite/latest/skin/xp/sprite.png','https://getfirebug.com/','#star
tOpened');
Then on any website, open that bookmark and it will give you a Firebug console.
Apparently, it seems to work pretty well for CSS and DOM stuff, but has some limitations when it comes to script debugging.
Enjoy.
Area highlighter trick
This feature - mouse pointer highlighting - was not available in the "original" Windows XP. At least, I've never seen it in the versions I had.
But I found it quite useful lately. It does not help in finding bugs, but it greatly helps with screen demos and walkthroughs.
How it works.
Once enabled, hitting Control produces flashing circles at mouse pointer's location.
Task Manager workaround: close process in a second
How many times were you clicking "End Process" button in Windows Task Manager hopelessly trying to shutdown a hanging application?
Next time, you can try the following.
- Click "Start" -> Select "Run.."
- Type "cmd" -> Click "OK"
- In OS Shell window appeared, type "taskkill /IM your_program.exe"
A few necessary comments.
TaskKill.exe is Microsoft command line utility. It kills and unloads from memory a process or a process tree entirely and [almost] instantly. It is available in versions from Windows XP and higher. It comes installed by default but may not be accessible by a regular user in your organization. You may also experience security permission issue, depending on privileges of your user account.
