There’s no shortage of apps to help you get where you’re going
Q. Do you know of a street mapping program that will let me plug in multiple addresses and create a route for me?
A. Google Maps is one of my favorites. Most everyone knows that you can put in an address and ask for directions and that it will show you the available routes.
Using the mobile app, it will give real time routing directions from your current location.
This can be fine-tuned to include to exclude tollways and freeways.
It will even take local traffic conditions and use them to determine the quickest route.
What many don’t know is that Google Maps will also let you plot multi-destination routes as well.
It’s really quite simple. Check out the How-To-Geek article called How to Plan a Road Trip with Multiple Destinations in Google Maps at tinyurl.com/helplinegoogleroutes for detailed instructions.
If you’re looking for something to plan a multistep road trip you can also look at something like roadtrippers.com, which is limited in the free version but has many nice features in the paid version.
For one of my road trips I used trips.furkot.com which is quite robust and completely free.
Q. Should I delete Internet Explorer and make Microsoft Edge my default?
A. First of all, let’s be clear on one thing: Removing Internet Explorer is technically feasible but not easily done, as it is deeply integrated into the Windows operating system.
If you are interested in using Microsoft Edge as your browser you can just set it as your default and use it without removing other browsers.
Personally, I like to have multiple browsers available. I keep Chrome and Firefox installed in case one browser starts malfunctioning or doesn’t work properly with certain websites I can easily call up another browser and keep going.
Microsoft will eventually phase out Internet Explorer.
You can expect it to be removed from the operating system as part of one of its larger updates in the future.
And if you have not already done so, give Chrome or Firefox a try. You might find you like them better than Edge, though Microsoft will try to convince you to keep using its product.