Internet Explorer has dozens of options you can set to make it faster, more secure, more private, and still allow optimal functionality. Everyday I hear people complain that IE has such-and-such problem, and I stopped to realize that most of this is because people dont take the time to investigate their programs options thoroughly. In this guide, I will go through the options and give my recommendations on how to set them.

Step 1: It is strongly recommended that you obtain the latest version of Internet Explorer before we begin. The current release version is Internet Explorer 7.0. You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer from Microsofts Web site – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.

Step 2: Once you have the latest version of IE installed, lets make sure that its up-to-date by visiting Windows Update service…http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/. If you do not download the latest version and the latest security updates, you will NOT be protected from the latest security threats and it cannot be assumed that you will have a stable browsing experience.

Step 3: Now were ready to begin the customizations and tune-ups. Start by opening your copy of IE, and going to the Tools menu, and selecting Internet Options. This brings up the “General” screen as shown below…Note: These options apply to all versions of Windows including Windows XP Service Pack 2. However, Service Pack 2 also offers Popup Blocker settings, Manage Add-On settings, and few Advanced settings that are not mentioned here.

On this screen, you can set your default Home Page. Since I run my own site on my server, my home page is my servers machine name, but you can feel free to use whatever you want, for example http://www.muskingum.edu/campus/.

In the middle of the dialog, we see the Temporary Internet Files Options. By clicking the Settings…button, we see the following dialogue box.

These settings are used by IE to determine how much of your hard drive space can be used for storing web pages and graphics temporarily. The Windows/IE default settings allow IE to use up to 20% of your hard drive space for storage. Considering how big hard drives are and how small web pages are (even including scripts and graphics), it is wasteful to use that much space. A typical web page uses less than 1MB of space, and a typical web site visit (the number of pages you actually see) uses less than 50MB. Therefore, ideally you should allow an amount between 1MB and 50MB. For my personal use, I have chosen 10MB of Temp space, let me explain why. My web site, including graphics and my photo album, is 25MB in size. However, I dont visit every page on my server every day. In fact, I only frequently use my Home Page and Links pages. Therefore, I considered the fact that I have a high-speed connection, and decided that on average, per site, I view only 10 pages per site. At 1MB per page (max estimate), I decided to use 10MB. The issue here is really a matter of your connection speed. Since allowing only 10MB allows you to save approximately 10 pages of data, on a dial-up connection you will be forever reloading pages, so its better to use the higher setting of 20MB. Note: This settings does NOT prevent you from downloading files and programs that are larger than you choose to allow. IE bypasses this limit for downloads.

Recommendations: Dial-Up- 20MB…Broadband- 10MB

Also shown on this dialog is the Downloaded Program Files folder (aka View Objects, shown above). These are ActiveX-based programs that you have installed. Note that when you right click a program listed, you see 3 options: Update, Remove, and Properties. Properties tells you about the program. Update contacts the service and downloads/reinstalls the latest version of the program. Remove completely uninstalls the program. This is especially useful for troubleshooting programs.

Returning to the General options page, we see two options for Fonts. These settings allow you to change IEs default font settings. Personally, I hate the Times New Roman default font that it uses, so I always change mine to something cleaner. I have found most users prefer Arial or Tahoma for Web page fonts, and Courier New or Lucida Sans Typewriter for Plain text.

Step 4: Next we move on to the Security tab…

This tab is especially important to us, because it tells IE what access rights on your system a web site has. There are four zones to choose from: Internet, Intranet, Trusted, and Restricted. Internet is the default zone that all web sites use by default. Intranet is typically for systems on your own network. Trusted is for sites that you trust explicitly and permit to run any programs, scripts, options they need to operate. Restricted is the zone that blocks and denies sites from running ANY scripts, programs, etc.

The Security Level can be set for each Zone, and allows custom degrees of security. Before script-kiddies began writing malicious scripts, IEs default settings were fine, because it added a wider variety of freedom to web sites. However, in todays day and age of malicious advertising and scripts, it is necessary to increase that security. Therefore, it is best if we set the level to Medium for ALL zones except Restricted, which must remain on High.

Recommendation: All Zones- Medium…Restricted- High

Clicking on the Restricted or Trusted zones, and selecting the Sites button, we see a list of sites weve added to each zone. As you can see from my list, I have added numerous sites to mine. The sites I list are ALL various advertising businesses, and other shady companies and sites that run scripts and store cookies that I dont want them to do. At the bottom of this guide, I offer a Registry Patch for download that you can use to add these sites to your list as well. I update this at least once a month, and usually once a week if possible.

Step 5: Moving on, but keeping our Security focus, we go to the Privacy tab…Note: This tab is only found on Internet Explorer 6.0 and later.

Here we can customize a web sites permission to use Cookies. Personally, I leave mine on Medium, but Medium-High is also useful at times for better protection. You can also block all cookie use by putting the slider at its top-most level. If you do this, you can click the Edit button and add specific sites that are allowed to bypass that setting.

Recommendation: Medium, Medium High, or…Block All, and Edit the Allow List for the sites you want.

Step 6: Now we move on to the Content tab which allows you to setup “Parental Controls”Personal Information, and adjust Auto-Complete settings.

If you have small children that use the Internet in your household, you may find that Content Advisor is a useful option in IE. Personally, I di
slike it, so I will ignore it in this guide.

Certificates and Publishers settings allow you to see which sites you have accepted Digital Signatures from. Adding a site to your Publishers list means they are free to install updated versions of their programs into IE as needed. Notice that I allow only a small number of sites and publishers to do this.

Auto-complete settings dictate whether IE is allowed to remember information that you type into web forms (for example a registration form). For convenience, I almost always store all options, however, I clear them periodically. If your computer is shared by anyone else, I do NOT recommend enabling UserNames and Passwords option.

My Profile is used by IE to get personal information about you, and give it to certain web sites. It prompts you to select or create an entry in your address book with your information for use. I used to use this option a lot, because I wasnt as concerned about privacy. However, I have since removed my phone and email from the entry I use in an effort to prevent spamming.

Recommendation: Disable Username & Password saving; Do NOT select a Profile…If you already did, go to your Address Book and DELETE the entry. If you want to keep said entry, delete it and recreate it. Sorry, once its linked, its linked.

Step 7: On Connections tab you can make adjustments to how you connect to the Internet…

You will find information about your dial-up or LAN settings. Since I am on a LAN, I had to create a Test connection to show the dial-up properties. The Dial-Up information below ONLY applies to users on a dial-up connection. If you are on a broadband connection (DSL or Cable) or on a local network (such as Muskingum College network), skip the following 2 paragraphs and screenshot.

You have 3 main connect options for dial-up settings–œ Never dial (you must manually dial before web content is available, IE will “Work Offline); Dial when needed (IE will prompt to connect); or Always Dial (IE will automatically connect when needed).

Selecting Test, and click Settings, we see all the available options. for the connection. For Proxy settings, unless it is required, it is strongly advised that you DISABLE ALL options for Proxy settings. Clicking Advanced, you will see the Disconnect options. I recommend you DISABLE the D/C if Idle for 20 minutes, and D/C if no longer needed options.

For LAN connections, choices are a little more simple. If you are behind a proxy, set things manually. If you are not, DISABLE all options! Unless you know you have a proxy in use (typically used in a corporate environment), chances are very likely that you do NOT have a proxy. That being said, 90% of the people reading this page will want to disable all these settings.

Recommendation: Automatically detecting proxy settings causes IE to take up to 30-seconds to determine if there is a proxy on your network. This can cause a significant delay in the load time of IE, which is why its important to disable it if youre not using a proxy.

Step 8: On the Programs tab, you will have the selection of choosing your default programs for Internet Use. Personally, I generally leave things alone since I use only IE.

Step 9: Finally, we move on to Advanced Options-

As you can see, theres a LOT of options here. The settings shown in the image are my recommendations, and Ill explain them below…

Browsing Options–œ Most of these settings I leave as default settings, although heres a few things I *do* change.

1. I *do* allow IE to check for Internet Explorer Updates. This enables Windows Update function on the Tools Menu, and also tells IE to check the Windows Update site for new versions.
2. I *do* disable Script Debugging even though this image shows it enabled, because I had been testing something earlier.
3. I *do* enable Install on Demand, because this allows ActiveX controls to be installed/updated without restarting the browser…it still prompts for security checks.
4. I *do not* allow the Personalized Favorites menu. This option hides infrequently used items, which I find to be very disruptive when I am looking for things.
5. Not Shown: Prior to IE6.0, there was an option for Enable Page Hit Counting. This setting allowed IE and sites to count the amount of sites you went to and store it in a cookie. The feature has been removed in recent versions due to privacy concerns.
6. I *do not* Reuse Windows for Launching Shortcuts. This allows links in MSN Chat and launching shortcuts, favorites, and email links to open in new windows rather than taking over the window that is already open.
7. I *do not* show Friendly URLs. This hides the full web path from the user, and I like to know EXACTLY where I am and where IE is taking me at all times.
8. I *do* allow In-line Auto-Complete. This allows the address and start > run…lists to auto-complete addresses AND drop down the selection list to show other choices.
9. Because Im on DSL, I *do* allow Passive-Mode FTP. Cable and Dial-up users do not need this setting.

Java Script Options–œ I *do* enable ALL of these options. Note: Users of Suns Java Runtime will see an additional option here to enable their service. Leave it enabled!

Multimedia Options–œ I *enable* all options *except* for the Radio Toolbar, Media Content Bar, and Automatic Resizing. This image shows the Media Content bar enabled, although I usually have it disabled.

Security Options–œ

1. While I *do* check for a publishers revocation, I *do not* check for a servers because not all servers have a certificate to check for, and this often causes IE to lock up.
2. I *do not* allow Integrated Windows Authentication. This allows your current Windows login info to be sent to a server for login BEFORE prompting for valid login. This is dangerous since the other side could be monitoring for passwords.
3. I *do not* have IE Warn me about the security items, because Ive seen them many times.

There are two options here that I sometimes use, and sometimes dont. Check for Signatures on Downloaded Programs and Do not save encrypted pages to disk. For the first option, this is similar to the server issue…if a file is not signed at all, it can cause hang ups. As for Encrypted files, these are pages you view over HTTPS secure sites like online banking. These often are set to expire after use anyway, so saving them is not really a concern, but I do sometimes use this as added security.

You can have IE delete your Temporary Internet Files automatically on close, however, be aware that using multiple browser sessions will lose their page caching too, AND it causes IE to perform slower.

Registry Patches:

Download Aarons Internet Explorer Settings to save yourself the time and hassle of going through this guide step-by-step – Internet Explorer Registry Settings

Download Aarons Internet Explorer Security Zones to block a wi
de list of advertisers and other nasty sites – Zone Settings

Other Recommendations:

1. Get a Popup Blocker – This will save you from the headaches of annoying advertisement popups. Presently, the one I recommend is the Google Toolbar, a free download which offers you immediate Google searches and the added benefit of blocking popups.

2. Get the Sun Java Runtime – Due to legal action against Microsoft, they will be discontinuing their built-in Java Virtual Machine environment. This means that most users (especially Windows XP users) will need to download the Sun Java Runtime in order to access sites that use Java (example includes Yahoo Games, MSN Gaming Zone, and Muskingums Webmail system).