Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has come a long way from the days of IE6 and may even represent one of the best touch screen web browsers around. Other third party companies don’t want to be left out of the future though, and Firefox has been the strongest advocate as its beta version of Firefox for Windows 8 continues to be developed. Recently, a blog post by Mozilla’s Brian Bondy, revealed that one annoyance of using Internet Explorer on the desktop and modern interface, will be remedied.
For users who switch between the desktop version of Internet Explorer and the Windows 8 application, they know that their data is not shared between the two pieces of software. If you login to your favorite site (let’s say WPCentral) on the desktop version and then switch your hybrid device into tablet mode and pull up the Windows 8 app – you are going to need to re-login.
Mozilla has a solution for your problems though, initially they announced that they were going to use a syncing method in the cloud to keep the two applications matched. Today, it was announced that the company will be going another route – instead, Mozilla will allow the two different applications to share a single profile file on the local machine.
In essence, users who switch between the two versions of Firefox will not have to worry about their bookmarks, cookies, and other data being kept in sync. In a world where users are flipping, twisting, and detaching their devices – a synchronized system between legacy desktop and Windows 8 applications are needed.
Bondy released a comment about the recent change on his personal blog, stating that:
“We’ve had feedback around this, and we’ve found that a better experience would be obtained by sharing a single profile.”
The one downside? The desktop application and Windows 8 app will not be able to run side by side, but there may be a work around by using different profile setups.
Are you happy with Internet Explorer or are you waiting for Google/Mozilla to release (or improve upon) their own Windows 8 style web browsers?
Source: Brian Bondy; via Neowin
