Internet Explorer Tips and Tricks:

Are you having troble with Internet Explorer 8 (who isn't yet) and you need to uninstall it? Click here. Download Microsofts "Fix-it" too to a folder and then run it. Note: Automatic updates will try to reinstall IE8. Don't let it.

Are your web pages loading slower? If your using Internet Explorer, either open your control panel and double click on the "Internet" or "Internet Options" icon or you can also get to it from your IE browser by clicking on the tools tab and then internet options. Delete the temporary internet files. Windows stores "snap shots" of the pages you visited. Then using the "setting" tabs increase the folder sizes a couple notches to the right. Then click on the "Advanced" button and down near the bottom in the security section, put a check in the box that says to empty the temp files when the browser closes. Click APPLY and OK. If you're using the Netscape browser, you have to manually delete these though the options section.

Ever run into an Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6 web pages that just begs to be seen in Full Screen mode? We don't mean just maximizing the browser window; we mean having the browser take up the entire screen, with only the browser buttons showing. This one is really easy. Just press the F11 key on your keyboard and watch the browser expand. Press F11 again to make the browser return to its previous size.

WARNING!!! Don't click on the "OK" "YES" "Continue" or "INSTALL" buttons on the pop-up ads you receive while browsing the internet. These are advertisements that could install a program that you don't want, gather info off your computer, or do anything that you probably don't want. Close the window out by clicking on the "X" in the top right hand corner like your web browser. If there isn't an "X", push your CTRL-ALT-DELETE buttons together and the top one should be that window that's listed. Highlight it and select "End Task". These ads are also located on web sites saying your internet is not properly configured, etc. Remember this saying, "When in doubt, X out".

Back to "Cookies". If you turn them off, or deny them, a lot of web pages won't let you in, or view them. So, turn off the "Third Party Cookies" so you only get the ones from the web site you're viewing. Go into the control panel and double left click on "Internet Options" and then go on the "privacy tab". Click on the advanced button, and then check the box to override the cookie policy. Select to accept first party but to block third party cookies.

How to Remove Content Advisor Password in Internet Explorer. The following steps will remove any password set in the Internet Explorer Content Advisor and allow you to reset the program to its original state.
1. Click on Start and choose Run.
2. Type in RegEdit and select OK.
3. Now click on the little plus sign to the left of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4. Continue to drill down, always clicking on the plus sign at the left of the named key, through Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version and Policies.
5. Now click on the Ratings folder.
6. In the right pane of the RegEdit window, you'll see an icon called Key. Click on it and press Delete.
7. Next, choose Registry and then Exit to exit RegEdit. You've just deleted your original Content Advisor password.
8. Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer again.
9. For IE 5 or greater, click on Tools, Internet Options.
10. Click on the Content tab and click on Disable. When asked for a password, don't enter anything; just click on OK. This will disable Content Advisor because there's no longer a password.

How to Set the Size of the Internet Explorer Window on Opening
When you open IE, do you always have to resize the window because it's too large or too small? You can change the window size at opening by doing the following:
1. Close any open IE windows.
2. Open IE, right click on a link in the page you opened, and select Open in New Window from the context menu.
3. Resize the new window to the size you want all IE windows to be when you open them by clicking a link.
4. Hold down the Shift key and click the Close icon (X) at the top right of the window to close the new window.
5. Resize the first window you opened to the size you want IE to be when you launch the browser. Close it by holding down Shift and clicking the Close icon. Now your IE windows should open in the sizes you've set, depending on how you open the browser (from a link or by clicking the IE icon to launch the browser).

While you’re browsing on line, and then pause for awhile, does your modem disconnect from the internet? This could be caused by several different reasons:
1. “Noise” on your telephone line that your modem can hear but you may not. Ask the phone company to do a “line noise test.” It’s free and only takes a few minutes.
2. Your “receive buffers” set to “high” instead of “low.”
3. Your modem speed is set to 112500 instead of 57600 (you only have a 56K type).
4. Go into your control panel and double click on the modem icon. Then click on the properties of it and then the advanced settings button of your modem properties. Lower the receive buffers.
5. Open your control panel and double left click on Internet Options. Then select the Connections Tab. To the right of the connect box, click on the Settings button. At the bottom, click on the Advanced button.
6. Uncheck both boxes that say disconnect. Click on the ok button and then apply and ok buttons.

Red X Marks the Spot (Where a Picture Should Be)
When I go to some Web sites, the text displays okay but the pictures don't. Instead there's a red X where the picture should be. What's the problem and how can I fix it? There are several different reasons that pictures don't display in IE. Some you can fix, and some you can't. A common one (that can only be fixed by the Web site designer) is mis-configured HTML code that points to the wrong location for the picture. For example, in writing the code for the page, the designer may have pointed to a location on his/her local hard drive where the picture is stored. The photo would show up when the designer previewed it on his own computer, but you can't access his hard disk when viewing it over the Internet. If you right click the red X and select Properties, it will show you the location. If it looks like a local disk path (for example, c:\graphicspicture.jpg), that's the problem. Contact the Web designer, if possible, and let him/her know.
Another problem might be that the picture isn't in a format supported by IE (for example, Corel PhotoPaint's .CPT or Adobe PhotoShop's .PSD formats). IE supports the following image formats: .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .ART, .WMF, .EMF, .PNG, .MOV, .XBM, .AVI, .MPG, .MPEG. Again, there's nothing you can do about this. If neither of these is the problem, check to be sure Show Pictures is turned on. Click Tools | Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and under Multimedia, ensure that Show Pictures is checked. Some images may need ActiveX or Java to display. On the Security tab, click Default level for Internet zone and ensure the setting is Medium.

Some add-ons aren't listed in the IE Add-on Manager

Internet Explorer with XP Service Pack 2 includes an Add-on management tool that lets you easily disable and enable browser add-ons, but you may find that some of the add-ons you know are installed don't appear in the list when you open the Manage Add-ons dialog box. This can happen because a flag was set in the registry during installation of the add-on that prevents it from being managed this way. There's a fix available that you can download from Microsoft. See KB article 888240 for a link to the download and more info on this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888240/en-us

Slow Performance of Favorites menu with SP2

If you find that your computer is slowing down to a crawl whenever you try to access the Favorites menu in IE or Windows Explorer after you installed Service Pack 2, it may be because you're redirecting the My Documents folder to a non-local (network) location and have enabled the desktop.ini cache. There is a hotfix available for this problem, but Microsoft recommends you apply it only if severely affected. Read more in KB article 898612 at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/898612/en-us

How to get to the web if your browser is blocked or broken

Web browser software is blocked by administrative policy, or not working? You may still be able to get to web sites. This is a case where Help can actually be helpful! Open a program such as Microsoft Calculator.
Press the F1 key to open the Help window.
In the top left corner, click the "document with a question mark" icon.
Select "Jump to URL."
Type in the URL of the website you want to visit, and it comes up in the right pane of the Help window.
Important tip: you must type the full URL, with http://, not the shortened version that starts with www.

Browser that doesn't leave tracks

A new web browser called Browzar is designed for those who want to surf the web without leaving tell-tale signs of where they've been and what they've done. It doesn't use cookies, caches, histories, autocomplete and other features that can traditionally "catch" user information. Read more about it here:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2010991,00.asp

Starting in early November, IE 7 will be distributed through the Automatic Update feature, but Microsoft has also provided a free tool to block automatic installation of IE 7, aimed especially at businesses that may run applications incompatible with the new browser or who need to test it before deploying it. If you don't have auto update turned on or don't want to wait to install IE 7, you can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

Slow performance when you use the Favorites menu in XP SP2

If you get slow performance on your Windows XP Service Pack 2 computer when you use the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer, it may be because you've redirected the My Documents folder to a network location and the desktop.ini cache is enabled. There's a hotfix available to fix the problem. To find out how to get it, see KB article 898612 at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/898612/en-us

How to make IE open maximized in XP SP2

If you click the short cut to IE in Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and it doesn't open maximized (but clicking the Maximize button does maximize the window), it's probably because the shortcut has "Normal Window" set as its default Run property. If you want it to always open maximized, here's how to change that:

Right click the desktop.
Create a shortcut to Program Files/Internet Explorer/iexplore.exe.
Now right click the shortcut and click Properties.
Click the Shortcut tab.
Change the value in the Run command to "Maximized."
Click Apply.

Now IE will open maximized when you click any shortcut for it.

Are you using Firefox 2 and can't see some items on the page-such as navigation buttons? Try this:

Please make sure that you are not viewing cache files:

1) On Firefox go to Tools -> Clear Private Data

2) Select the Cache and click on Clear

3) Go to your page and then click on the Refresh button