Innovative Concepts has added the features available in the Windows 8 start page to their portal website www.in-con.com. Windows 8 has many new features that “scares” some people and makes them hesitant to even try. Even worse, the features can be misinterpreted and promote some to do things different than intended.
However, since Innovative Concepts has a real software development team, the in-con.com website gets the benefit. To begin, without changing any of the look, feel, or operations of the website, its code has been upgraded to comply with the new HTML5 specification. This will allow many things including faster loading times in all current browsers.
So, what Windows features were added? The primary feature is called “Pinning”. While this is not entirely new to Windows 8, some of it is. Of course, the pre Windows 8 pinning features already existed inside of www.in-con.com. However, they studied the logs and realized that very few people new about them. To promote pinning they have placed a notification bar at the top of the website. A close button exists to prevent future alerts.
First, pinning in Windows 7 is quite simple. Just grab the tab and drag it down to the task bar. Special features will be available by right clicking on the icon. Regular clicking will take you directly to www.in-con.com.
Of course, Windows 8 works the same while in desktop mode. However, pinning in the native Internet Explorer is different. In fact, it can be considered easier. In the lower right hand corner, just click the pin icon and it will ask for confirmation before taking up space on the Start page.
This will place an icon on the Windows 8 Start page. Just like pinning on the desktop, this icon will take you directly to www.in-con.com. However, the icon will not give you the special features by right clicking the icon on the start page. Instead, the pin icon has been changed to indicate that pressing it will provide the special features menu.
The Innovative Concepts Start page icon is also an “active” icon. Updates can be placed directly on the icon without having to open the browser. For example, in the near future it will indicate work is being performed for a given user.
Some references:
- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/gg618532(v=vs.85).aspx
- http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/04/03/pinned-sites-in-windows-8.aspx
- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/features/pinned-sites
- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Getting-started-with-Internet-Explorer-9
- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/gg491729(v=vs.85).aspx
Of course, Innovative Concepts hopes everyone will enjoy these new features of their portal website. However, the likelihood is that someone will see this and want to apply it to their website or other business processes. If this is the case, give them a call or email anytime.