Introduction

IE Session Manager is an add-on for Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 which saves, restores, and manages multiple Internet Explorer tab and instance sessions.

There are many useful applications of IE Session Manager - like saving sets of URLs on a particular topic, or quickly and easily saving and recalling large sets of URLs before and after a system restart (please consult the Applications topic to see some examples of how to apply and use IE Session manager).

If you are running the unregistered demo version, the demo version is fully functional with the exception that it is limited to four sessions and four tabs per session (for a maximum of 16 URLs).

Getting Started

To invoke IE Session Manger, select it underneath the Tools menu:

This will display the main window:



Within this window you can:

• Save the current session.
• Save a previously saved session with a different name.
• Load a previously saved session.
• Rename a previously saved session.
• Delete a previously saved session.

The upper half of the window contains a list containing the current session and the previously saved sessions.

The lower half of the window contains a tree control which displays the contents of the currently selected session. Within this control you are able to pick and choose which instances and URLs are saved or loaded.

Applications

In addition to saving and restoring URLs, there are several different workflows which IE Session Manager can be applied to:

Named Sets. Are you researching a particular topic and have many URLs open and want to recall the pages at a later time? Move all topic related tabs into a single instance of Internet Explorer and then use IE Session Manager's ability to pick and choose which URLs and save them into a named set.

Presentation Sets. Do you have an upcoming presentation where you need to recall a set of web pages? Simply open the pages while preparing for the presentation then save the set of URLs with IE Session Manager. On the day of the presentation, simply run IE Session Manager to recall the set of URLs.

Reclaim Lost Memory and Resources. Did you know that Internet Explorer is a memory hog? If that wasn't bad enough, it also doesn't free memory and resources once they are unused.

Need proof? Try this: Open two instances of Internet Explorer and then run Task Manger (select "Run..." from the Start menu and type in taskmgr.exe). Notice that there are three instances of iexplorer.exe running. Now close one of the instances of Internet Explorer and then go back to Task Manager. You will notice that even though the Internet Explorer window went away all three instances are still running and none of the memory was released. It's not until the very last Internet Explorer window is closed that all instances go away and free up the memory they were using.

If you find your system running low on memory but don't want to lose the web pages you have opened, simply use IE Session Manager to save all of the URLs that are opened, quit all instances of Internet Explorer, start Internet Explorer, and then use IE Session Manager to recall the previous session set which was saved. You will be surprised as to how much memory will be reclaimed and how faster your system will be.

Save Sessions Before Restarting Your System. Is it the second Tuesday of the month again and Windows needs to restart due to patches and updates which were installed? Have a number of web pages opened and you don't want to bookmark all of them? Use IE Session Manager to save a snapshot of URLs which are opened and then easily open them back up after the system has restarted.

 

How To Purchase

You may purchase a copy on our Purchase page. Once you have paid for your copy a registration code and access link to the fully functioning version will be e-mailed to you within 24 hours.

After you have obtained the fully-functioning version, close all instances of Internet Explorer, then simply run the installer and it will install over the demo which was installed. The next time you run IE Session Manager you will be prompted to enter the registration name and serial number which was sent to you in your confirmation e-mail.

Revision History

1.4	Fixed bug with saving of files with extended locales Fixed bug with saving session containing URLs to local files Changed internal file format of files to UTF8 Under Vista and Windows 7, files are now saved in AppData\LocalLow
1.3	Fixed installer bug Changed the way version and builds are incremented (went from x.x.x to x.x in order to properly handle updates)
1.2.1	Fixed keyboard tabbing Fixed space bar not checking checkbox Fixed issue with splitter not staying in place after widow was resized Fixed issue with column sizers needing to be clicked twice Improved error messages and error handling Created new installer using different install-maker tool
1.1.107	Fixed bug pertaining to non-HTML pages causing a crash
1.1.106	Fixed URL encoding bug
1.1.105	Fixed registration bug when running under Windows 7 Added version number to installers Fixed bug in installer where VC++ libraries were always installed
1.1.104	Fixed bug in installer where an error happened when attempting to register DLL.
1.1.103	Added splitter control between list view and tree view. Added tooltips to tree view so long titles and long URLs can be seen.
1.0.107	Initial public release.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between the demo version and the full retail version?
The demo version is fully functional with the exception that it is limited to four sessions and four URLs per session (for a maximum of 16 URLs).

Does the demo expire?
No.

May I distribute IE Session Manager?
You may distribute the demo as long as it has not been modified.  The full (registered) version may not be distributed.  In an effort to curb piracy the full version is only available to registered paid users.

Does IE Session Manager save the web pages? What happens when I save a snapshot?
IE Session Manager doesn't save the contents of the web pages, just the URLs. If the content of a page dynamically changes (like a web based e-mail client, or a web page which uses AJAX), the page most likely won't appear 100% exactly like it had since IE Session Manager only saves the URL and doesn't save any state information (it behaves much like a bookmark manager does).

Which versions of Internet Explorer will it run in?
IE Session Manager runs in Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10, and Internet Explorer 11. IE Session Manager is 32-bit only, and runs with the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer on 32-bit versions of Windows and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Will it run in Windows 8?
IE Session Manager runs in desktop mode in Windows 8, but not Metro mode.  IE Session Manager requires an x86 processor and does not run on systems using an ARM processor, and does not run on ARM-based WinRT systems.

Is IE Session Manager or Electric Brain Productions affiliated with the Internet Explorer team or with Microsoft?
No.

Internet Explorer 8 has a feature which recovers pages after a crash. Why should I use IE Session Manager?
Although Internet Explorer 8 does have a crash recovery option, it only takes effect when Internet Explorer unexpectedly crashes. If you need to restart your system (say, after a system update) this functionality is not available, nor does it help free and recover lost memory and resources.

What's the difference between what IE Session Manager does versus the "Add Tab Group to Favorites" feature that is in Internet Explorer 8?
First, the "Add Tab Group to Favorites" feature only exists in Internet Explorer 8, and IE Session Manager supports Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8.

Although the "Add Tab Group to Favorites" feature does exist in Internet Explorer 8, IE Session Manager is much more powerful.  With "Add Tab Group to Favorites" one needs to perform this action for each instance of IE running (very cumbersome if many instances need to be saved, such as when needing to restart the operating system due to a upgrade).  It also saves the tab group permanently in the Favorites folder.  Quite often one needs to save large sets of temporary URLs and not have the URLs clutter the favorites menu.  Here is a rundown of some the benefits of using IE Session Manager:

• Saves all tabs and all instances, not just the tabs from one instance at a time.
• Saves all tabs and all instances, and groups by instance and date - not just one big lump of URLs but instead is organized just the way the user had them.
• Saves only the URLs selected by the user.  The user is able to pick and choose which URLs are saved.
• User is able to easily save entire set with a custom name, or with a time stamp.

Does IE Session Manager automatically backup and restore sessions?
IE Session Manager only works through manual operation.  During the development of IE Session Manager we explored this feature but found bugs in the Internet Explorer SDK which prevented the implementation of this feature.  If there is enough interest we will work with Microsoft on fixing the blocking issues.

Where are the sessions saved?
Under Windows XP, the sessions are saved in C:\Documents and Settings\{current user}\Application Data\IESessionManager.

Under Windows Vista and Windows 7, the sessions are saved in C:\Users\{current user}\AppData\LocalLow\IESessionManager.

Are there any known issues with IE Session Manager?
Here at Electric Brain Productions we like to be very forthcoming and up front about our products and their known issues and workarounds. At this time, the following known issues exist:

• Installer occasionally displays a message saying "Due to a bug in MSI, you are now seeing this message".  This dialog box is due to an error within MSI (the behind-the-scenes installer) and can be ignored.
  
• There are no known bugs with the add-in itself.