By default Internet Explorer 7 has a search option at the top right hand corner of the browser. This embedded search tool makes quick work of the web, and for your convenience (and Microsoft’s coffers) is connected directly to Microsoft’s Live Search.

In case you’re not a fan of Microsoft‘s search engine, and we’re not particularly attached to it, you can change it to another search engine. To do this click on the triangle to the right of the search text box and select the “Find More Providers…” option. That will open up a new window and from there you have the following four search engine options “AOL”, “Ask.com”, “Google”, “Lycos.com” and “Yahoo!” Select the one you want, that will pop open a new “Add Search Provider” option remember to check the “Make this my default search provider” check box and then click the “Add Provider” option. Congratulations you’ve just changed IE7′s search provider and don’t have to use Microsoft Live Search anymore.

Alternatively, you can set the search box to go directly to just about any search box on any website, provided it meets certain criteria. While you’re still on the “find more providers…” page look for “Create Your Own” and follow the instructions posted there. FireFox has a similar set of options if you use that great browser.

One of my biggest qualms with Internet Explorer 7 is that allows you to only download two files from the same server at any given time. We can tweak this within the Windows registry. Here’s how you do that for IE7. Click the Windows Start button, type “regedit” and follow this path “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” -> “Software” -> “Microsoft” -> “Windows” -> “CurrentVersion” -> “Internet Settings“.

Double click on the “MaxConnectionsPerServer” option and change the decimal value to something larger than “2“. Then double click on the “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server” and again change its value to something larger than “2“. Once that’s done, reboot your computer and you’re all set. IE7 will allow you to download more than 2 files from the same server.

The method for IE7 when used in Windows XP is the same as in Windows Vista, if you’re using an older version of IE here’s what you have to do.

Load up the registry editor (Start -> Run then type regedit and press the OK button) and follow this path HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> CurrentVersion -> Internet Settings. From there edit the “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server” and “MaxConnectionsPerServer” DWORD values to anything greater than 2. Exit then reboot your computer and you’re set. Internet Explorer can now download more than 2 files from the same server from now on.

Data Execution Prevention is a very handy feature if you routinely surf in the shadier side of the internet. It can help stop the spread of spyware or virus attacks, but unfortunately for Internet Explorer 7 users who are running Microsoft Windows Vista, it’s disabled by default. To enable Data Execution Prevention load up internet properties (start IE7 then go to “Tools” -> “Internet Options“) then click the “Advanced” tab and scroll to the “Security” section. There you should find the “Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks” checkbox. Check it, then click the OK button. Once that’s done you’ll have an extra layer of security when browsing the internet.

For those of us who have “upgraded” Microsoft Office to 2007, you may that Outlook Express’ spell check feature no longer works. Instead, it has turned into a French spell checker. This happens because Office 2007 uses new proofing tools, and these break OE when Office is installed.

The fix is easy, but first you need to dig out the old version of MS Office (standalone versions of Word, Excel or Outlook also work). Insert the disc into the CD drive. If the autoplay feature is running then the Office setup should run, if not go to your CD drive and double click on the “setup.exe” file. From there choose the custom install option, turn off everything and expand the “Office Shared Features” section and find the “Proofing tools“. Select English and change its setting to “Run from my computer” then continue on with the installation. Once that’s done restart Outlook Express, go to “Tools” -> “Options” and check to see that “English is chosen as the language of choice. Once that’s done your Outlook Express will spell check in English again.

Picture this; the deadline is edging closer and you have to send a copy of an image heavy article to a colleague via email. You decide to scan the document in and output the images into a PDF, then attach that PDF to an email. You hit send, but the mail server spits back “file size too large”. What can you do, the document is all images!?

Frequent PDF supporter will advise you to keep as much of a PDF in plain text, use vector graphics instead of images and never embed fonts. These are all good suggestions, but in our case none help. The PDF could be Zipped, but that doesn’t guarantee a significant drop in file size.

It’s best to optimize the images before converting them to PDF, but if you don’t have access to photo editing software you’re not completely out of luck. There are at least two ways to optimize an existing PDF’s file size, smaller.

First open up the PDF in Adobe Acrobat (note, Acrobat Reader will not work), then go to File > Reduce File Size > choose the lowest Adobe Version Compatibility option (say Adobe 4.0) and click OK. In our tests this brought a 6 page PDF of all images from 18MB to 2MB. The second method is tucked away under the Advanced tab > PDF Optimizer. By clicking the “Audit Space Usage” you can see exactly what components of your PDF occupy the most space, and optimize strategically. In our example it’s all images, so the only option is “Scanned Pages.”

Click on the “Scanned Pages” option and move the “optimize compression of page regions…” slider all the way to “Small size.” This is an extreme example that sacrifices image quality, but reduces PDF size the most aggressively. The best choice is to find the quality level you’re comfortable with. If image quality is too degraded, move the slider a notch or two towards the higher end of the scale.

For our 18MB PDF, the Low end of the scale reduced file size to 672KB, middle to 1.2MB and High to 11.5MB. A 1.2MB attachment is certainly easier to email than a bloated 18MB PDF!