Also called extensions or plug-ins, add-ons let third-party companies and users with programming skills extend the browser's functionality in different ways.

Mozilla Firefox is known as the world's most extensible web browser, but users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 mustn’t be forgotten when it comes to add-ons.

1. IESpell

IESpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell-checks text-input boxes on a Web page. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of Web-based text entry (Web mail, forums, blogs, diaries).

There are three ways to activate the spell-checker: from the tools menu, from its own top-level menu and from the right-click menu.

2. IE7 Open Last Closed Tab

This plugin creates a keyboard shortcut "Alt-X" to reopen the last closed tab which is very useful when you accidentally close a tab that you didn't want to close.

3. Inline Search

Inline Search provides find-as-you-type functionality on the web page you're currently visiting. A quick keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-F) will bring up a toolbar at the base of your browser window, just like Firefox's built-in search functionality.

4. StumbleUpon Toolbar

With this toolbar you can discover great websites, videos, pictures and more - all according to your interests.

"Stumbleupon is a brilliant downloadable toolbar that beds into your browser and gives you the chance to surf through thousands of excellent pages that have been stumbled upon by other web-users."(BBC World)

5. GooglePreviewIE

Do you  want to see a preview of a web page before you visit it? The GooglePreviewIE toolbar provides customized search-results pages with thumbnail previews for popular sites like Google, Yahoo and Amazon.  

6. Trailfire Toolbar

With Trailfire you can provide a unique method for commentary, web navigation and social discovery. By leaving "marks", which are essentially electronic notes, on individual Web pages and adding your comments you can guide people and help them discover interesting things.

7. Add Search Providers

With this extension you can add new search engines to IE7's built-in search field with ease. Check out the Add Search Providers page and choose your preferred service's pre-built tool or add your own.

8. Mouse Gestures for Internet Explorer
Mouse gestures allow the user to execute commonly performed tasks (open/close a window) by drawing a simple symbol on the screen.

9. Wikipedia Toolbar for IE
Wikipedia Toolbar allows you to search and access Wikipedia content from anywhere on the Web. Wikipedia toolbar is easy to install and guaranteed spy-ware free. You can search Google, dictionary, news, images, stocks and weather information right from your toolbar.

10. Star Downloader Free
Star Downloader is a download manager that accelerates your downloads by splitting the files into several parts and downloading them simultaneously. Download speeds are increased further by choosing the fastest mirror sites.

More extensions for IE7 you can find here.

written by Cristian L.