14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has been little shy of praising the latest version of the AVG Security Toolbar for Internet Explorer as a “great example of the Guidelines for add-on developers in action.” According to Paul Cutsinger and Herman Ng, from the IE team, the AVG Security Toolbar team is setting a new standard in terms of IE toolbar quality and user experience.
Because they are third-party products, toolbar development, design and ultimately UX are out of Microsoft’s hands. The Redmond company does provide guidelines for developers to follow in order to ensure that the user experience associated with Internet Explorer doesn’t suffer, but the software giant doesn’t really have a say in how toolbars, or any other browser extensions are built.
“The AVG Security Toolbar team has recently released a new version of their toolbar. It has a more predictable user experience and does a better job of allowing users to stay in control of their browser,” Cutsinger and Ng noted. “They’re building valuable add-ons for people and at the same time they’re respecting user choice.”
Cutsinger and Ng revealed that Microsoft would like to see the same effort from all add-on developers when it comes down to extending Internet Explorer. In this regard, the two members of the IE team indicated that the guidelines provided along with leveraging supported extensibility points ensures that end users will enjoy a consistent and reliable experience, especially with browser extensions installed.
“Here are some high level examples of the changes they’ve made in the new version of their toolbar: It no longer takes over the search provider. Instead it uses the proper IE8 set default provider API so that users can choose their default. The close button is visible so that users can manage it like other toolbars. Additionally, the toolbar is positioned in a supported location which improves stability and performance. It no longer modifies the new tab page to maintain a predictable new tab experience for users,” Cutsinger and Ng added.
AVG launched version 9.0 of its security products line-up at the start of this week, offering support for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7. According to the security outfit, the AVG Security Toolbar, including for Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), is offered to customers that buy AVG solutions.
AVG Internet Security 9.0 is available for download here.
AVG Antivirus Professional 9.0 is available for download here.