It would be nice if there was a safe password storage facility (like Password Minder) / Auto Form Filler found in MSN Desktop. I want to be able to view all the passwords I have stored for different sites, and be able to delete them.
Improved Download Management
It would be good if there were better download features similar to those found in other programs (eg. Firefox, Getright Lite etc). Getright Lite allows the user to have more options of views to see a transfer queue, download later, throttle the download.
I should not need 3rd party software to be able to resume a download! The download manager in IE should be able to handle the situations like connection drop.

Figure: Bad Example – IE’s download window is too simply, there is no way to resume an interrupted download session
We have also tested this on Vista/IE7+, however it’s kind of sad, there is no improvement. Also, when I disconnect the Internet connection, the download window is just staying there, no indication of the status at all.

Figure: Bad Example – Vista/IE7’s download window is simply hanging there when the connection drops

Figure: Good Example – GetRight can help you to resume download and manage your sessions

Figure: Good Example – FireFox has a download manager that allows you to restart an interrupted download session
Note: Better download managers than the one that comes built into IE7
Help me manage RSS feeds in IE like it’s done in Firefox
There is no need for a full RSS reader in IE. However the Live Bookmarks feature in Mozilla Firefox is simple and effective. It creates a special folder in your bookmarks list and adds a separate link inside that folder for each post in the RSS feed.
If there is an .rss file then this icon shows the .rss reference is pulled from the META tag
Eg.
<link id=”RSSLink” title=”RSS” type=”application/rss+xml” rel=”alternate” href=”http://blogs.ssw.com.au/andrewweaver/rss.aspx”></link>

Figure: Live Bookmarks in Firefox
Windows Update on the Tools menu is inconsistent with other Microsoft products
The menu location of “Window Update” on IE is inconsistent with other Microsoft products. On IE it is located on the Tools menu (Tools | Windows Update), but on other Microsoft products (including Visual Studio and Office XP) it is located on the Help menu (Help | Check for Updates). Please refer to our SSW Rules to Better Windows Forms Applications.
Help me see the full URL of a locally saved web pages
When you save a document from IE using the browser’s ‘Save As…’ feature, when you look at the HTML, you will see a comment showing the URL address it was when you saved it. This way you can always know where that particular document came from without having to keep the URLs somewhere else or manually editing the document. I want it to go a step further by adding an info bar.
Eg. When you open up a page from “C:\dataAdam\Test.htm”, then there should be an info bar like this that says “This is a Saved Copy of the web page www.ssw.com.au… Click here to load the page”.

Figure: An info bar indicating the live source would be good
Help me have fewer IE windows through tabbed browsing [Fixed by Microsoft in IE7]
It is quite obvious that tabs, such as those used in Mozilla Firefox and Visual Studio .NET are here to stay. In today’s world where people have more and more applications open, tabs help to reduce clutter in the taskbar.
Help me manage External Tools easily
Crazy Browser and Firefox supports a custom list of external tools. Currently IE allows very limited support for this eg. addition to the basic list of programs for email, news, and editing. Currently, to edit the list of external tools you often need to use a registry hack. IE should allow you to set custom executables as external tools in the Internet Options dialog. This would let me use lots of automated tools that are command-line driven.

Figure: Crazy Browser’s list of external tools
And please make it consistent with Visual Studio.NET Tools External Tools.

Figure: Visual Studio has an external tools option

Figure: IE needs the same “Tools | Add-ons” ability as Firefox
Help me know how long the page took to load
When IE finishes loading a page, the status bar simply displays a ‘Done’. What is should display is ‘Done. Load Time xx seconds’. This will help both the developer and the typical user to detect performance issues. This is a standard in Rules to Better Windows Forms.
Better SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access (SSMA Access)
This Microsoft utility is not ready SQL Server Migration Assistant Wizard for Access.