I’ve got an HTC Imagio that came pre-loaded with Opera 9.5. I decided to try out the two newer versions of Opera (9.7 and 10) though to see if I preferred either of them but in the end decided to just stick with 9.5. I uninstalled the two newer versions and all was fine except for the fact that Internet Explorer was now the default browser on my device.

Opera 9.5 doesn’t seem to have an option in the app itself to set itself as the default browser. I searched the web plenty and found some threads on ppcgeeks.com that pointed to the following registry key as the one that you need to set to change the default browser:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\DEFBROWSER\0
Value = Opera Browser
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\DEFBROWSER\1
Value = “\Windows\OperaL.exe”

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Fueled by my recent find, I set off to find what was hopefully a simple registry tweak to set my IE homepage on my smartphone. It turns out it’s as simple as changing the value of the following key to the URL of your choice:

HKey_LocalMachine\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AboutURLs\home

If you don’t have one already, download one of the many Windows Mobile registry editors (I use the one by PHM).

When I first got my MacBook Pro (which I honestly now rarely use–maybe I should sell it?), I ended up using FireFox as my primary browser. The feature I really loved the most and missed whenever working on Windows was its inline search/find feature whenever you hit the equivalent of Ctrl-F on the Mac. Instead of the clunky ancient IE dialog box it added a small strip to the bottom of the browser window and allowed you to search from there. It was really nicely integrated.

Now, I’ve started using an add-in for IE that basically does the same thing. You can get the Inline Search add-in here.

Get it here.

Update 6/29 @ 11:27pm:
It actually didn’t install for me–at least not the way I thought it would. After uninstalling IE7 beta 2 and rebooting, I installed IE7 Beta 3 and rebooted again. When I then first tried launching IE, the IE window would quickly flash on and off my screen. I ended up uninstalling it and trying again but had the same results.

I uninstalled it again and did some searching. I tried again but this time I followed some of the advice I found across the web. If you’re running into the same flashing problem I was, you might want to try what seemed to work for me:

• Uninstall IE7 Beta 2. Reboot twice. The second time actually seems to install (or uninstall) some more stuff.
• Disable your anti-virus and anti-spyware software. 
• Install IE7 Beta 3. Reboot twice again.

Kinda strange, but that’s what worked for me and I now have Beta 3 working just fine.