Q. How can I remove the Active Desktop?

A. You can turn off the Active Desktop without removing it by performing the following:

1. Right click on the desktop
2. Select "Active Desktop"
3. Unselect "View as Web Page" (by clicking it)

To actually remove Active Desktop completely while leaving the browser intact:

1. Start the Add/Remove Programs control panel applet (start - settings - control panel - add/remove programs)
2. Select "Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0" and click the Add/Remove button
3. Click the "Remove the Windows Desktop Update component, but keep the Internet Explorer 4.0 Web browser" option and click OK
4. A dialog box explaining the change will be shown and you should click the "Restart Windows" button
5. Once restarted the active desktop will have been removed

Q. How can I get past the "Active Desktop Recovery" page?

A. This can usually be fixed by deleting the desktop.htt file:

1. Start explorer
2. Move to %systemroot%\Profiles\<your username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
3. Select Desktop.htt and delete (it is a hidden file so you will need to change the view first View - Folder Options - View)
4. Close Explorer
5. Right click on the desktop and choose Refresh

Q. What keyboard commands can I use with Internet Explorer 4.0?

A. Below is a list of common keyboard commands:

Q. How can I create a keyboard shortcut to a web site?

A. It is possible to create your own keyboard shortcuts with a Ctrl + Alt + <letter> combination as follows:

1. Start Internet Explorer
2. Select "Organize Favorites" from the Favorites menu
3. Right click on the link and choose Properties
4. In the Shortcut key dialog box type the combination, any combination of Ctrl, Shift, Alt and a key that is not used
5. Click OK

You can also use the above to create a keyboard shortcut to a desktop item by right clicking on the shortcut and choosing properties.

Q. How can I customize folders with web view enabled?

A. If you have installed the Windows Desktop Update and have the view as web page enabled ( view - as web page) you can customize the folder (view - customize this folder) and then select the type (background picture or a whole HTML file) or you can change the default which is stored in a hidden HTML file (%systemroot%\web\folder.htt). You can then edit this file and change accordingly.

There is a line in folder.htt "HERE'S A GOOD PLACE TO ADD A FEW LINES OF YOUR OWN" which you can add your own links which will then appear on all folders.

There are 4 other templates you can edit:

• controlp.htt - Control Panel
• printers.htt - Printers
• mycomp.htt - My Computer
• safemode.htt - Safe Mode

As I said these are hidden so you will either need to remove the hidden attribute (attrib <file> -h) or just enter the name specifically in the edit utility you use to change these files. A word of warning, make a backup of these files before you break them :-).

Q. How can I change the icons in the Quick Launch toolbar?

A. The icons on the quick launch taskbar (Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Show Desktop and Channels by default) are all stored in %systemroot%/profiles/<user>/Application Data/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Quick Launch and to remove/add just add and remove the files from this directory using Explorer.

You can copy any shortcut to this directory and the update will be done straight away, no need to logoff/reboot. As you can see below I have added a shortcut for Word and Frontpage just by copying the shortcut to the Quick Launch directory, easy.

An alternative method is to just drag a shortcut over the Quick Launch bar and it will add the shortcut for you.

All the files in this folder are shortcuts except for Show Desktop and View Channels. See the next FAQ for their contents.

Q. I have lost Show Desktop/View Channels from the Quick Launch bar, help!

A. As was discussed in the previous FAQ these icons are just files in the %systemroot%/profiles/<user>/Application Data/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Quick Launch directory. To get the Show Desktop/View Channels icons back create the following files in the Quick Launch directory (or copy from another user)

For Show Desktop, create "Show Desktop.SCF" with the following content:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3

[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

For View Channels, create "View Channels.SCF" with the following content:
[Shell]
Command=3
IconFile=shdocvw.dll,-118

[IE]
Command=Channels

Q. How do I change the default Search Engine?

A. The URL for the Search Engine used with the Go - Search the Web is stored in the registry so this can easily be changed:

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
3. Double click on Search Page
4. Change to the search page you want, e.g. http://www.altavista.com/ and click OK
5. Close the registry editor

Now when you select search you will be taken to this URL. If you want to change back to the default enter http://www.msn.com/access/allinone.htm

Q. How do I remove the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop?

A. This can be done from the advanced options of Internet Explorer:

1. Start Internet Explorer
2. From the View menu select Internet Options
3. Click the Advanced tab
4. Deselect "Show Internet Explorer on Desktop"
5. Click OK
6. Restart the machine

Q. How can I browse off-line?

A. As you may be aware when you connect to a site the information you view is cached locally to speed up future visits to the site (the cache size can be set View - Internet Options - General - Temporary Internet files - Settings). Its actually possible to view the web using only the cache when not connected, obviously you can only view sites that are stored in the cache. To work off line:

1. Start Internet Explorer
2. From the file menu select Work Offline

You can then enter URL's and link as normal but will receive an error if you attempt to link to a site that is not cached. To stop working Offline just deselect "Work Offline"

Q. How can I reclaim wasted space by Microsoft's Internet E-mail readers?

A. Microsoft's Internet E-mail clients (both Internet Mail under IE3 and Outlook Express under IE4) waste a large amount of disk space due to the method used to store mail. The reason behind this is to improve performance, however if you do want to reclaim some of the lost space perform the following:

1. Select one of the folders, e.g. Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items
2. Select Folder from the File menu and select "Compact all Folders"

Also set-up Outlook to automatically delete the "Deleted Items" folder contents

1. Select Options from the Tools menu
2. Select the General tab
3. Check the "Empty messages from the 'Deleted Items' folder on exit" and click OK

Q. I cannot specify a download directory when I download a file.

A. When you download a file you are asked what to do, "Open this file from its current location" or "Save this file to disk". If you take the latter option you are asked for a storage location and you then click Save. Also on the selection screen is a "Always ask before opening this type of file", if you clear this check in future any downloads of this type will be downloaded to the Temporary Internet Files folder and opened by the program associated with the file type. To undo this perform the following:

1. Double click on My Computer
2. From the View menu select Folder Options
3. Select the File Types tab
4. Select the file type you have the problem with in the Registered File Types box and click Edit
5. In the bottom right corner is a "Confirm open after Download". Check the box so there is a tick in it and click OK
6. Click OK again to close the "Folder Options" dialog box
7. Close My Computer

Q. Internet Explorer opens .EXE files instead of Downloading them.

A. As in the previous FAQ if you unselect "Always ask before opening this type of file" for an executable it updates the registry so you are not asked however this can be fixed:

1. Start the registry editor (regedt32.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile
3. Double click on EditFlags
4. Change the 3rd pair of numbers from 01 to 00, e.g. D8070100 to D8070000
5. Close the registry editor

For files such as WAV, MOV and AVI (ActiveMovie files) you would modify the entry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AMOVIE.ActiveMovieControl.2\EditFlags to be 00000000.

Q. How can I change the default start page?

A. When you first start Internet Explorer it loads a page, by default this is a Microsoft page (http://home.microsoft.com/) however this can be changed:

1. Start Internet Explorer
2. Select Internet Options from the View menu
3. Select the general tab
4. In the first section "Home page" enter the page you wish to be displayed when you start Internet Explorer and click Apply, then OK. If you just want a blank page click the "Use Blank" button, again click Apply then OK.
5. Close Internet Explorer

The above just updates registry entry "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page". You could create a registry script that updates a machines registry to set your page up as the clients Homepage. The REG script would have the following:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Start Page"="http://www.ntfaq.com/"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Default_Page_URL"="http://www.ntfaq.com/"

You would then setup a link on your page to the script and people would select "Open from current location". The official Microsoft image for this is

(if you want it right click on it and select "Save Picture As").

I have set the above up so it sets http://www.ntfaq.com as your start page but I would advise against it ;-) If you wanted no start page, e.g. blank, set the value to "about:blank".

If you use Netscape use the following to change your default homepage

1. Start Netscape
2. From the Edit menu select Preferences
3. Select the Navigator category
4. Enter the required start start page in the Home Page box and click OK

It does not store the start page location in the registry, rather in a javascript file prefs.js, which is located in the Program Files\Netscape\Users\<Netscape Profile Name> directory. The line in the file is

user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://www.ntfaq.com/");

however you should not edit this file.

Q. I have forgotten the content advisor password.

A. The password for the content advisor is stored in an encrypted form and decryption it, while possible, is to complicated for our purposes so we will instead just "reset" the password as if it had never been set.

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings\
3. If this is a "Key" value select it and press DEL. Click OK to the confirmation.
4. If there was not a value but was instead a sub-key ".default" move to this folder and delete the "Key" value.
5. Restart IE and you should be able to set the password with Internet Options - Content.

Q. Where can I download IE 5.0?

A. IE 5.0 beta can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm

Internet Explorer 5.0 does not ship with the Active Desktop so if you want Active Desktop you will need to have installed IE 4.0 Service Pack 2 with Active Desktop and upgrade to IE 5.0.

Q. How do I clear Internet Explorers History?

A. Internet Explorer keeps a history of the sites you visit and can be viewed by clicking the History button on the toolbar. If you wish to clear this History perform the following

IE 4

1. Select "Internet Options" from the View menu
2. In the History section click "Clear History" (you can also set the number of days to keep history for)
3. Click Yes to the confirmation
4. Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box

IE 5

Same as above except Internet Options is under the Tools menu

The History files are actually stored under the directory %systemroot%\Profiles\<user name>\History\History however the permissions on the files are complex so deleting manually is not advised.

Q. How can I modify IE's toolbar background?

A. The picture behind the IE toolbar buttons can be set to any bitmap you wish. To do this perform the following:

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar
3. From the Edit menu select New - String Value
4. Enter a name of BackBitmap and press Enter
5. Double click the new value and set to the name and location, e.g. c:\images\savtech.bmp
6. Close the registry editor
7. Restart IE

Below is an example.

Q. How can I restore the IE animated logo?

A. Using the Internet Explorer Admin Kit it is possible to modify the small "E" logo in the top right hand corner of Internet Explorer (ISP's such as MSN do this). To restore to the default perform the following:

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar
3. Select BrandBitmap and click Delete. Confirm
4. Select SmBrandBitmap and click Delete. Confirm
5. Close the registry editor
6. Restart the computer

Q. Are there any Easter Eggs in Internet Explorer 5.0?

A. There are two Easter eggs I know of for IE 5.0.

1. Open up Notepad
2. Type:
   <!-- introducing the Trident team -->
3. Save the file as "test.htm" (make sure you add the quotes or .txt will be added to the end)
4. Open up "test.htm" in IE5
5. IE5 Easter Egg #1 is shown

(Actually this Easter Egg also runs on IE4.01)

Number two:

1. Start IE5
2. From the Tools menu, Internet Options
3. Select the General tab
4. Click the Languages button
5. Click 'Add'
6. Type: "ie-ee" (without the quotes) and click 'OK'
7. Move "User Defined [ie-ee]" to the TOP of the list. Click OK
8. Click OK to the main dialog
9. Click on the Search icon (to pull up the side search menu), notice the new Search options :-)
10. Select 'Previous Searches'

To remove ie-ee just start the Languages dialog again, select ie-ee and click Remove.

Q. How can I stop users accessing local drives via Internet Explorer?

A. If you type "C:" (or any other drive) in the Microsoft Internet Explorer address box you will be shown the contents and if proper NTFS file permissions are not in place users will be able to delete, rename, read any files on the disk. This is usually a problem if you have a locked down environment where users do not normally have access to Explorer etc (such as an Internet Cafe).

To stop the ability to view local drives from Internet Explorer perform the following:

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3. From the Edit menu select New > DWORD value.
4. Enter a name of NoRun and press Enter
5. Double click the new value and set to 1. Click OK to close the value edit dialog.
6. From the Edit menu select New > DWORD value.
7. Enter a name of NoDrives and press Enter
8. Double click the new value and set to a number representing the drives you wish to hide (explained below). Click OK to close the value edit dialog.
9. For IE 4.01 SP1 and above perform the following steps:
   1. From the Edit menu select New > DWORD value.
   2. Enter a name of NoFileUrl and press Enter
   3. Double click the new value and set to 1. Click OK to close the value edit dialog.
10. Close the registry editor

The NoRun setting disables viewing local files by typing a file address or URL (for example, "file://d:\") in the Address box, and also disables the Run command on the Start menu.

The NoDrives setting disables the selected drives. It is explained in 'Q. How can I hide drive x from users?'. Basically drive A is 1, B is 2, C is 4, D is 8 etc. and you add the values together. So to hide drive C and D, you would add 4 and 8 which is twelve or C in hexadecimal and set NoDrives to C (selecting Hex mode).

Q. What additional restrictions are available in Internet Explorer IE4.01 SP2 and above?

A. Additional restrictions can be applied to IE 4.01 Service Pack 2 and IE 5.0 which have an updated Shdocvw.dll.

The restrictions below should be added to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions of type DWORD value. Set to 1 to be enable, 0 to disable.

NoFindFiles and NoTheaterMode are created by default during the installation of Service Pack 2 but are of type BINARY due to limitations of .inf files. You can, if you wish, delete and recreate these as DWORD values.

Also HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ Toolbars\Restrictions\NoToolbarOptions can be created which disables adding, removing, or moving toolbars.

Q. How can I configure proxy settings in Internet Explorer 5.0?

A. To configure LAN Proxy settings in Internet Explorer 5.0 perform the following:

1. Start Internet Explorer
2. From the Tools mention select 'Internet Options'
3. Select the 'Connections' tab
4. Click the 'LAN Settings' button
5. By default the 'Automatically detect settings' option will be selected but this causes a large amount of polling on the network and you may wish to disable this. You can also configure the location of a configuration script.
6. To manually configure check the 'Use a proxy server' and enter the DNS or IP address of the server and the port it uses.
7. Click OK
8. Click OK to the main dialog

The following registry entries can be directly updated instead:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyEnable - Set to 1
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyServer - Set to <proxy server>:port, e.g. proxy:80
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyOverride - When not to use the proxy server. For local set to "<local>" (don't type the quotes but do type the < and >)

Q. How can I install Internet Explorer 4.0 without adding the IE icon to the desktop?

A. Install using the following command to stop IE adding an icon on the desktop or from becoming the default browser (this will not work if you have installed the Windows Desktop Updated):

C:\> IE4SETUP.EXE /C:"ie4wzd" /S:""#e"" /X /R:N /Q:A /m:0"

Q. How do I use the Internet Explorer 5.0 repair tool?

A. The Internet Explorer Repair tool can be used to diagnose and possibly fix problems with Internet Explorer 5. This tool has the following features:

• It is used to identify problems with Internet Explorer caused by the presence of files that are out of date.
• It is used to fix problems caused by the incorrect or incomplete registration of Internet Explorer files.
• It is used to restore or repair the desktop or Start Menu short-cuts for Internet Explorer that have been deleted or do not function properly.

To start the repair tool perform the following:

1. From the Start menu select Settings - Control Panel
2. Double click the Add/Remove Software control panel applet
3. Select 'Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools'
4. Click the 'Add/Remove' button
5. Select 'Repair Internet Explorer' and click OK
6. Click 'Yes' to the repair confirmation

If you don't have the option in the Add/Remove Software control panel applet it can be run from the command line:

C:\> rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE5Maintenance "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Setup\SETUP.EXE" /g "C:\WINDOWS\IE Uninstall Log.Txt"