Making good use of add-ons: Here’s how

Q. The previous version of Firefox would automatically switch to Internet Explorer when a Microsoft address was typed in, or it would offer to do so. Now I can’t find the add-on, if that’s what it was.

Can you help? Also, just how do add-ons work? Once they are installed, are they then automatic or must the user take some action to make them work?

A. The feature you’re seeking was never a standard part of Firefox, but it is available as an add-on at addons.mozilla.org; just search for “IE tab.”

The program allows you to open new pages, or tabs, running Internet Explorer within a single Firefox browser window. This is a handy feature for Microsoft sites and for any site that’s designed to run on Internet Explorer that doesn’t work so well on Firefox.

To answer your second question, add-ons are small pieces of software that can add features to the Firefox Web browser. They’re easy to use and rarely require much beyond the initial download and optional customization.

IE Tab is a great way to illustrate how add-ons work.

After you download the program (or any add-on) from Mozilla, you have to exit Firefox. When you start the program again, the add-on will be seamlessly incorporated into the browser and available for use. In this case, you can immediately right-click on any Web page and scroll down to “view page in IE tab.” The tab then switches from Firefox to Internet Explorer within your overall browser window. You also can right-click on links and choose “open Link in IE tab.”

You wouldn’t have to do anything else, but it’s a good idea to look at the options available to make sure you’re maximizing the program.

Click on “tools” at the top of your browser window, then scroll down to “add-ons.” Click on the program you want to tweak, then the “options” button.

The first Options menu for the “IE tabs” add-on shows that the browser will default to Internet Explorer when you go to some Microsoft sites. It also will allow you to make IE the default browser for other Web sites.

And if you decide you don’t like an add-on, go back to “tools,” then “add-ons” and select “disable” or “uninstall.” Some add-ons can be hard to find on Mozilla’s Web site, so I’d suggest disabling them unless you know for sure you don’t want them.

Q. I use CCleaner regularly to delete temporary Internet files, but I’m afraid to delete cookies because I suspect that would get rid of the good ones too, especially those that allow me to log on to online accounts. It’s very confusing. What to do?

A. In general, deleting good cookies shouldn’t be a problem, because you’ll get new ones the next time you visit the site, says Joe Vohwinkel, president of Agave Partners Consulting, a Raleigh, N.C., company that provides information technology services for small businesses.

But it’s true that deleting cookies sometimes keeps you from logging into sites that rely on the small text files to identify you. If that happens, the best thing to do is to contact the site’s Web master or customer service staff to restore your settings, advises David Whalen, a contributor to informational site CookieCentral.com.

If you are concerned about deleting good cookies, Vohwinkel advises against using CCleaner. That program doesn’t differentiate between good and bad cookies in its attempts to clean all of the “miscellaneous garbage” off your computer, he said. I’ve seen a similar complaint online about Ad-Aware.

Other tools, such as Spybot Search & Destroy, only remove spyware and leave harmless cookies alone, Voh-winkel says.

If you don’t want to leave the decisions up to a computer program, you can delete cookies manually in Firefox by clicking on “tools,” “options,” the “privacy” tab and the button for “show cookies.” Internet Explorer users should first close the browser, then go to “my computer,” your local drive (probably the C: drive), the “documents and settings” folder, your profile and finally the “cookies” folder.

From there, it’s clear which are harmless cookies. Good cookies will be from sites you frequent, while the bad may be a collection of numbers or contain the word ad.

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