RefreshIE

Modern websites deliver content in real time, and this implies a system that refreshes the whole page at a short interval. However, this doesn’t need to affect or interrupt your browsing experience. In case a specific website doesn’t get refreshed automatically, although you need it to, applications like RefreshIE might come in handy if you’re using Internet Explorer.

At its core, the application detects all running instances of Internet Explorer, and lets you pick those you want to refresh. Needless to say that Microsoft’s web browser needs to be installed and used, so if you’re not a regular IE user, there’s little this program can do for you.

In terms of visuals, the application sports a clean interface, built on a classic window design that doesn’t pose any accommodation problems. The center area is split into two panels, one to show all running pages, while another is used to display only those that get refreshed.

As soon as a new tab or window is opened and you land on a specific page, this is automatically detected by the application and shown in the list mentioned above. A single mouse click is enough to send it on the target list. There’s no trigger button for the whole process. A simple progress indicator lets you know the remaining time until the next refresh.

Your effort narrows down to filling in a text field with numerical values that represents the number of minutes it takes for a page to get refreshed. The process runs in real time, so there’s no confirmation required, other than pages of interest to be on the target list.

However, you need to make sure you don’t include any multimedia content on the target list, because the refresh acts just as you would manually trigger it, which means any playing video or song starts from scratch.

Bottom line is that not all web pages are built in the way you want, and not all types of content deliver the message you’re looking for. However, applications like RefreshIE want to give you a bit more flexibility, and although not packed with a large variety of features, it gets the one task it was built for done right.