The last few columns have all been aimed at helping to solve some of the problems of the modern Internet age. It's not just possible on a daily basis to visit all the sites that we'd like to so we use Windows Live to bring the latest bits of information from all our favourite sites to us and then pick and choose what we'll follow up in more detail when it suits.

Our friend's list on our MSN Space enables us to keep up to date: read about what they've been doing, download their latest photos, chat with them with MSN Messenger, and follow up our interests and hobbies. In a little while we'll even be able to do some buying and selling using Windows Live Expo.

Start your Internet day by signing into MSN Messenger and then loading Internet Explorer. Things are easier if you've installed the MSN Search toolbar onto Internet Explorer because it enables you to load your mail and Space with just one click as well as having the advantage of tabbed browsing windows. So now load Internet Explorer and on the first tab bring up Windows Live. Open two more tabs and load your mail so it's on the second tab and put your MSN Space on the third tab. Now you're set up to keep an eye on your feeds on Windows Live, check your mail, add some new photos and content to your Space and use your friend's list to check if they're online or have put new information on their Space.

Before going any further, do a check of the permission levels you've set in your Spaces profile. As a general rule the Public and General sections can be set to Public. These settings enable everybody to read your Space and find your Space when searching for people with particular interests and hobbies. Howeever, your Social and Contact info should be restricted to your family and friends by using the Messenger, Friends, & Friends of my Friends setting. The one exception to this rule is if you're using your MSN Space for your business and in this situation you'll want to make your contact information (for example, business phone number and address) publicly available. As well, enter your business name in the Display name field so others readily find you in their friend's list. Finally, bear in mind you enter as much or as little information as you want others to see in your profile (note you can enter your age as being up to 255 years!).

As your friend's list expands, you'll want to group them, add keywords and make some notes about their Space. These features are all possible via the Edit friends list link. The little pencil icon next to each person brings up a screen that enables you to decide which six friends appear on the front page of your Space, add keywords (tags) that describe their Space (then you can quickly see who has special interests), and add notes about their Space (they may have some useful information you want to refer to from time to time, for example).

It takes a little time to first set up your Space so it becomes the centre to keep in touch with family and friends but when finished you can sit back and let the information come to you.

At this stage there's a preview of the trial version of Internet Explorer which can be downloaded. The reason for the general availability of this version is for web developers, among others, to test their sites to ensure they've got everything up to date with new standards enforced by IE7.

After a few emails from those who had viewed this site and www.webDotTrainSim.com with IE7 to report that all the text on any page was underlined as soon as the mouse hovered over the page, webDotWiz thought it time to investigate. The problem was easily fixed - phew!

IE7 is principally concerned with security and the main focus is on protecting us from phishers, that is, those criminals who are intent on stealing money from our bank accounts by using email links to bank and financial sites that appear genuine and obtaining usernames, passwords and account numbers. Note that phishing scams are not perpetuated by a few kids with too much time on their hands - phishing is carried out by highly-organised criminal organisations who aim to steal billions of dollars. In that respect, IE7's address bar flashes if you browse to a suspsected phishing site.

Another security feature is that, when logging into a site that requires a username and password, you're informed if there's an accompanying digital certificate (any page asking for personal information should be prefixed with https: rather than the normal http:).

Onto the good part and after a straight-forward installation, all is going well on webDotWiz's machine and a test machine at Rushworth Community House. Note however IE7 will only install on a Windows XP machine with Service Pack 2 installed and a genuine version of XP.

The interface has been redesigned to enable more screen real estate for web pages so buttons have been repositioned and there's no longer the usual File Edit... menu options across the top of the window.

Tabbed browsing is now implemented and this enables you to have IE open in one window and be able to quickly jump between different sites once each is loaded onto its own tab. Those who've been using the MSN toolbar in IE6 will be at home or, if you spend a lot of time in a text editor such as NoteTab or EditLite, tabbed browsing will come naturally.

IE7 can detect if a site has an RSS feed and you can add that feed to your favourites. Of course, then you can add that feed to your Live.com page so any new information comes down the wire automatically.

By default IE7 turns on Clear Type to make reading easier on the screen. Clear Type has been around for a few years and it's found its place on notebook and laptop computers to improve screen readability but research has shown we need it when reading web pages on our desktops.

Don't install IE7 beta preview on any mission-critical computers but, if you're a web developer, you need to install it on a test machine to check any compatability problems with your web sites - there's plenty of information at MSDN and on the IE blog.