Q. Do you know of a street mapping program that will allow me to 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 an address and ask for directions and it will show you available routes. Using the mobile app, it will give you real-time driving directions from your current location.
This can be refined to include the exclusion of tolls and highways. It will even take local traffic conditions and use them to determine the fastest route.
What many don’t know is that Google Maps will also allow you to plot multi-destination routes.
It’s really very simple. See the How-To-Geek article titled How to Plan a Road Trip with Multiple Destinations in Google Maps at tinyurl.com/helplinegoogleroutes for step-by-step instructions.
If you’re looking for something to plan a multi-stop road trip, you can also check out something like roadtrippers.com, which is limited in the free version but has a lot of great 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 remove Internet Explorer and make Microsoft Edge my default?
A. First, let’s be clear about one thing: removing Internet Explorer is technically feasible, but not easy to do as it is deeply integrated into the Windows operating system.
If you want to use Microsoft Edge as your browser, you can simply set it as your default browser and use it without deleting other browsers.
Personally, I like having multiple browsers available. I keep Chrome and Firefox installed in case a browser starts to malfunction or doesn’t work properly with certain websites. I can easily call another browser and continue.
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 haven’t already, try Chrome or Firefox. You might find you like them better than Edge, although Microsoft will try to convince you to continue using their product.
helpline@chron.com
