Although it's not recommended to try the new Internet Explorer 4 Preview Release 2 on your production computer, you might consider downloading it if only to familiarize yourself with the next NT interface. It's not really that radical of a change from the current Win95/NT4 user interface (or from the IE3 browser, for that matter), except that, using its Active Desktop and Web View options, you can customize your user interface incredibly.
I've had very few problems with Preview Release 2, and none have led to crashes on an NT4 with SP1 machine. Furthermore, it's uninstallable, so if you really don't like it (or indeed, have problems running it), it's rather easy to get rid of. Keep in mind, also, that the final release of IE4 should be available by the end of this month (September 30, 1997).
Active Desktop
Basically, Active Desktop is like wallpaper for your desktop that you can customize like an HTML page. Active Desktop is really meant to be Microsoft's push client, allowing you to subscribe to various channels (web pages with content to be updated at certain times), although you can run Active Desktop effectively without having any push subscriptions. You can add an Java or Active X component, like a clock (or maybe a calculator), to your desktop by right-clicking on the area of your desktop where you want the component to go.
Web View
If you select View\Options from Explorer, you can opt to use "Web View", which makes one major change to your interface (single-click launch icons on your desktop and in Folder view), and adds lots of nifty smaller changes to your interface.
While Active Desktop sounds real nifty, Web View enables you to HTML-ize any folder by right-clicking on the folder, and selecting "Customize this folder".
Oh, the nasty part is that you can't "refresh" the folder anymore once in Web View without rearranging the icons to their default states (that is, selecting "Refresh", or hitting "F5", will cause the folder to "Arrange Icons").
Your changes are kept in two files in each folder that you choose to customize: desktop.ini, and folder.htm.
Also with Web View, Explorer's folders get the new Address Bar (as well as a web tool bar, and a Web Links bar, which is customizable) that tells you the drive and path of the folder (or web site) you're viewing. This drop-down selection bar allows you to view your directories; and it utilizes IE4's "auto-complete" feature, so you can begin to type a directory name and let IE4 complete the path for you. Of course, you can also type in a web address to view a web site from that folder.
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