"I have discovered a keystroke that will help Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4 users. When typing a URL into the Address Bar, just type
the name (for example, microsoft) and then press Ctrl-Enter. This
keystroke appends http://www. and .com to whatever you type in the
Address Bar."
Here's another you might like to try: If you type the name (as you
described), then simply press Enter, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4
first looks for the site as entered. When it fails to find the site,
it appends http://www. and then it tries .com, .org, .edu, and so
forth to try to locate the site. For example, if you type into the
Address Bar
pcworld
and press Enter, Explorer fills in the full address
"If you want to add a Web page to your Links bar quickly,
navigate to that page, then drag the E-icon from the top left corner
of the page down to your Links bar. Release the mouse button when you
find a spot on the Links bar--this makes the Web page available as a
link until you decide to delete it."
The icon is the one associated with the Web page's Command box in
the upper left corner of the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 window.
"Most Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 users know that you can
choose View, Toolbars to select the features you want to have on the
toolbars. There is, however, a quicker way to get to the Toolbars
menu--just right-click the toolbar and you'll get the same menu that
you get by choosing View, Toolbars."
"Many people tend to ignore the right-click features of Windows
95 and 98 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. For example, most users
know you can click the arrow at the right side of the Address Bar to
expand the list of previously visited Web sites. However, many users
don't realize you can right-click in the Address Bar itself to open a
menu that offers Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Select All."
Microsoft has consistently included features in its software that
make it easier for anyone to use its products effectively, regardless
of physical ability--and Internet Explorer is no exception. If you're
taking advantage of these features, you should be aware of a recently
released update from Microsoft that addresses several key performance,
stability, and compatibility issues with accessibility aids. You can
get the full details in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q196944.
To download this update, visit the support area of Microsoft's Web
Site at
"When you're saving items to a Favorites folder in Internet
Explorer, things tend to get mixed up and out of order after a while.
Is there a way to make the Favorites folders display all items
alphabetically?"
Well, yes and no. You can display the items alphabetically, but
you're going to have to do all the work. In some ways, Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4 allows you to go one better than just an
alphabetized list--you can arrange the items any way you like. Try
this: Run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and choose Favorites. When the
menu opens, use the mouse to drag whichever item is at the bottom of
the list to the top of the list. When you reach the top of the list,
release the mouse button, and the last item becomes the first item.
You can use the mouse to drag all the folders and URLs in your
Favorites menu into whatever location you desire. That includes
alphabetical order.
"There are times when it is very convenient to edit an existing
URL in the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 Address Box. You can click at
the spot where you'd like to make a change, but this is often a touchy
operation. However, if you click in the Address Box and then press
Ctrl-left arrow or Ctrl-right arrow (depending on which way you want
to move), the cursor jumps to the next slash or period. This is a very
easy way to get around in an address."
Let's look at an example of how to use this tip. Let's say the
Address Box contains the URL:
http://www.pcworld.com
Click in the Address Box and place the cursor at the right side of
the URL. If you press Ctrl-left arrow, the cursor moves to the period
between pcworld and com. Press Ctrl-left arrow again, and you'll move
to the period between www and pcworld. Now press Ctrl-right arrow to
move back to the period between pcworld and com.
"You don't have to run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 to set the
properties. You don't even have to use the Control Panel to set them.
All you have to do is right-click the E icon on your desktop and
choose Properties from the menu."
When the Properties dialog box opens, click the appropriate tab and
make your changes. When you finish with your settings, click OK to
close the dialog box and save your selections. The next time you run
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, it will use your new settings.
"Is there an easy way to back up the ISP information? I recently
bought a new computer and had to call my provider to get going on the
Internet. The technician at the ISP's office told me I should back up
my Internet settings, but he didn't tell me how to do so."
This is another question we get on a regular basis. The information
you seek is stored in the Windows 95/98 Registry. To make a backup,
click Start, Run, type in
regedit
and press Enter. As always, be very careful when you are running
RegEdit--you can do some serious damage to your system installation if
you delete something you shouldn't or add something that doesn't
belong.
When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\RemoteAccess.
Click RemoteAccess to select it, then choose Registry, Export Registry
File. When the Export Registry File dialog box appears, type a name
and choose a location for your new file. Now click Save to save the
file and close the dialog box.
Back in RegEdit, choose Registry, Exit to close the program.
Since one reason to make a backup is to protect yourself if your
hard disk should fail, copy this file to a floppy disk or a Zip disk
for safekeeping. If you need to restore the settings, locate your ISP
REG file and double-click its icon. This merges the file with the
Registry and restores your original settings.
"Who needs the Font button on the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4
toolbar? All you have to do to change the font is choose View, Fonts
and make a selection. So I decided to get rid of the Font button in
the toolbar.
"To get rid of the button, choose View, Internet Options. When
the Options dialog box opens, click the Advanced tab. Now scroll down
to Toolbar and deselect the Show Font Button check box. Click OK to
close the dialog box and record your selection.
"The next time you run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, the Font
button will not appear on the toolbar."
"Is there any problem with putting My Computer in the taskbar
when you're running Microsoft Internet Explorer 4?"
No problem at all. In fact, there are two ways to place My Computer
in the taskbar: You can drag the My Computer icon to Quick Launch, or
you can create a new toolbar for My Computer.
If you simply drag the My Computer icon to the Quick Launch
toolbar, a shortcut to the My Computer folder appears in Quick Launch.
To get each item in the My Computer folder to appear in the taskbar,
right-click the taskbar and choose Toolbars, New Toolbar. When the New
Toolbar dialog box opens, click My Computer to select it, then click
OK.
Since there are a number of items in My Computer, they will consume
most of the space on the taskbar. To save some space, you can
right-click the new toolbar where there are no buttons and deselect
Show Text. Now all the My Computer icons appear without titles.
"When you need to research a specific topic, it's often best to
delete all your previous History files and start with a clean slate."
Good point, and you can certainly delete your History files
and start clean if you wish. However, although this was almost
required in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3, it is much less important
in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, since the program now dates the
History files.
To delete your History, run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and
choose View, Internet Options. When the Options dialog box opens,
click the General tab (if necessary) and click Clear History. When
asked if you want to delete all the files, click Yes. Then click OK to
close the Options dialog box.
"I'm almost sure I saw a tip on how to add a folder on the hard
disk to the Favorites folder. Is this possible or am I nuts?"
Sorry, but we can only answer the first part of your question. Yes,
it is possible to put a local folder into your Favorites folder.
Here's how:
Run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and type into the Address Bar the
folder you want to add to Favorites. For example, you might type
c:\data
and press Enter. This takes you to the requested folder. Now choose
Favorites, Add To Favorites. When the Add To Favorites dialog box
opens, you can click Create In to choose a folder for your new
addition, or you can click OK to put the page into the main Favorites
folder.
For example, suppose you have a folder named MyStuff. You would
type
c:\MyStuff
in the Address Box. Then choose Favorites, Add To Favorites and
choose a spot for your entry. The name entered into the Favorites
folder will be MyStuff.
Now choose Favorites, MyStuff. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 will
take you there.
"Is there an easy way to e-mail an entire Web page to someone?
Will the recipient get the whole page, pictures and all?"
Yes, you can send an entire page, and the recipient will get it,
pictures and all. Just navigate to the page you want to send and
choose File, Send, Page By E-mail. When Outlook Express opens, enter
the address and click Send. That's all there is to it.
Things are a bit different when a page uses frames (and there are
more of these every day). When the page you're sending has frames, a
dialog box opens offering to send the page as a read-only page or as
an attachment. If you simply want the recipient to view the page,
choose Read Only.
You may want to test these options by sending a few pages to
yourself before you send them to someone else.
"Everyone knows you can edit a Web page in Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4 by clicking the Edit button. But did you know you can edit
a Web page without even navigating to it? Try this: Click History.
When History opens, right-click the page you want to edit and choose
Edit. The page opens in FrontPage Express (assuming that's your
default editor)."
"I have three systems upon which I now have three sets of
favorites in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. Is there some easy way to
merge the three files, removing duplicates, yet not losing anything?"
There sure is. The easiest option is to use Windows Explorer to
copy the files from one Favorites folder to another.
Let's say you want to copy one set of Favorites to a floppy disk
and then copy that data to a second computer. Put a blank floppy disk
into drive A: and run Windows Explorer. Navigate to \Windows\Favorites
and click the Favorites folder. The contents of the Favorites folder
now appear in Windows Explorer's right pane.
Press Ctrl-A to select all the Favorites contents, then drag all
the icons to the A: drive icon. This copies all the folders to the
floppy disk.
Now place the floppy disk into the second computer's floppy disk
drive and run Windows Explorer. Navigate to \Windows\Favorites and
click the drive A: icon. Then press Ctrl-A to select all the Favorites
files on the floppy disk. Drag them all to the Favorites folder on
drive C:. If a dialog box appears asking if you want to replace
existing files, click Yes To All to replace all files that have the
same name.
"I don't know whether everyone knows this or not, but you can
drag text from the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 browser to a word
processor. If the word processor handles graphics, you can drag
pictures from Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 as well."
To see how this works, run Internet Explorer 4 and set its size to
cover about half of the screen. Then open your word processor (or
WordPad) and set it to cover the other half of the screen. Move to the
browser, select some text on the current Web page, and use the mouse
to drag it to the word processor.
If you're using WordPad or a word processor that can handle
pictures, try dragging a picture to the document, too.
"Although you can ordinarily use only BMP files as wallpaper, if
you have Active Desktop installed, you can make wallpaper of almost
any picture file (BMP, JPG, GIF). To activate Active Desktop,
right-click the desktop and choose Active Desktop, View As Web Page.
"To select your new wallpaper, right-click the desktop and
choose Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click
the Background tab and click Browse. Now locate and select the picture
you'd like to use as wallpaper."
This is another of those tips that never seems to die. Is there any
easy way to delete the addresses in the Address Bar without deleting
the History.
Fear not, a solution exists. Some time back, we wrote a REG file
designed to delete up to 20 addresses. Please remember that REG files
are potentially dangerous, and that we have no way of guaranteeing
that the following file will not damage your Windows installation.
To create the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following exactly
as shown here, except for the line BLANK LINE GOES HERE. When you see
this command, press Enter to create a blank line.
Now choose File, Save As. Choose a folder for storage, name the new
file Addr.reg, and click Save. Make sure Microsoft Internet Explorer 4
isn't running, and double-click the Addr.reg icon to run the file.
This removes up to 20 current addresses from the Registry.
"I very seldom use the Font button in the Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4 toolbar, so I decided to see how things would go if I
deleted it.
"To delete the Font button from the toolbar, run Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4 and choose View, Internet Options. When the
Options dialog box opens, click the Advanced tab. Scroll down to
Toolbar and deselect the Show Font Button check box. Click OK to close
the dialog box and save your selection. The next time you run
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, you won't have the Font button in the
toolbar.
"The fact that you have eliminated the Font button doesn't mean
you can no longer change the fonts--all you have to do is choose View,
Fonts and make your selection."
"I am a college student, and I would like to use the Internet
for most of my research. But I seem to have trouble finding specific
names on the Internet. If I enter something like John Irving, I get a
whole slew of entries for John and more for Irving. Is there a way to
narrow the initial search so I don't get so many responses to look
through?"
There is a simple solution. Most search engines do a better job of
finding names if you enclose the name in quotes. For example, if you
enter "John Irving", you should get a much better response. When we
tried an autosearch on this, Yahoo returned five entries.
"You can close all open programs at once using the taskbar. All
you have to do is hold down the Ctrl key and click the taskbar icon of
each program you want to close. After you have selected all the
programs to close, right-click one of the selected icons and choose
Close from the menu."
When you get to the Active Desktop Gallery page, click Cool
Utilities. After the next page opens, click J-Track Satellite
Tracking. This places a world map on your desktop, showing the
position of the selected satellites. To change the selections, click
Config. When the configuration window opens, click the arrow at the
right side of the Categories list and select the group in which your
favorite satellite appears. Select the satellite you want to see and
click Add. After you finish adding satellites, click Finish."
"My company recently upgraded from Microsoft Internet Explorer 3
to Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (without Active Desktop). Is there an
easy way to switch graphics off and on in IE 4? In IE 3, you could
just choose View, Options, and you'd see it on the first screen. In IE
4, you have to choose View, Internet Options, then click the Advanced
tab. Then you have to scroll down to Multimedia. Seems like a major
step backward in usability."
The steps you described are what you need to do to turn graphics on
and off in IE 4. Don't forget, though, that you can always press the
Spacebar to stop graphics from loading when things are moving too
slowly.
"I once read somewhere that you can access anything on your hard
drive without ever leaving Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. Could you
explain how one might do this?"
No problem. All you have to do is enter your folder name in the
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 Address Bar. Let's say you want to
access a folder named Data on drive C:. Just type
c:\data
in the Address Bar and press Enter. To get back to your Internet
site, click the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 back arrow (or press
Backspace).
"Is it possible to assign keystrokes to a URL? I frequently use
a particular Web page and would like to get to it quickly by pressing
a few keys."
You sure can. Let's say you frequently visit the PC World site. You
could assign the keys Ctrl-Alt-P to go immediately to
http://www.pcworld.com
Here's how. Click Start, Favorites, PC World (or whatever your
entry is named). Next right-click the PC World entry and choose
Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Internet
Shortcut tab. Then click in the Shortcut Key entry box and type P (in
either caps or lowercase). This assigns Ctrl-Alt-P to the PC World Web
site.
>From this point on, you can simply press Ctrl-Alt-P to go to the
PC World page.
"Recently, I filled out a form on the Web. I had to leave the
form for a while to check on something, and when I came back, the form
was empty. What happened to all the info I had already entered? Is
this a bug in IE 4?"
Unfortunately, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 keeps the data only if
the page is cached to disk and the data hasn't changed. Fortunately,
this is not a bug--it's the default operation of Microsoft Internet
Explorer.
"I just recently downloaded Microsoft Internet Explorer. I
understand that you can put personal pictures into the desktop folders
when using Internet Explorer 4. Would you explain how to do this? I
assume you have to use the same picture in all folders. Is this the
case?"
In the wonderful world of Internet Explorer 4, you can insert
personal pictures into your desktop folders. You need not worry about
having to use the same picture either; you can use a different picture
in each folder.
To add a picture to a folder, let's assume that you already have a
BMP file in mind and know where it is on your hard disk. Open the
folder you want to add the picture to and choose View, Customize This
Folder. When the Customize This Folder wizard opens, select the Choose
A Background Picture radio button and click Next.
Now, click Browse and, when the Open dialog box appears, locate and
double-click the picture file you want to use. (At this point, you
will also want to close the dialog box.) Note: The default is BMP. If
your picture is a GIF or JPG file, simply click the arrow at the right
side of the Files Of Type list box and select the appropriate file
type.
After you make your selection, click Next, Finish. Your picture
should now appear in the folder background. If it doesn't appear,
press F5 to refresh the folder.
"I sometimes like to add new folders to my Favorites folder to
help keep things organized. The problem is that the new folder always
seems to appear at the bottom of the menu, no matter what I name it.
Is there a way to get new folders placed at the top of the menu?"
Organized folders (in any order) await you. As we've mentioned in
past tips, you can place folders and URLs wherever you want in the
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 Favorites menu. Try this: Choose
Favorites and, when the menu opens, grab that new folder with the
mouse and drag it to the top of the menu. When you release the mouse
button, the folder will stay put in its new location.
"I sometimes need to print Web pages on a laser printer. Most of
the time, this is no problem. But some Web pages use a dark background
with light text. Such a page rarely looks good in print. Is there any
way to reverse the printing of a page with light text, so the text
appears in black and the background in white?"
It sounds like your Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is set to print
the background. Try this: Run Internet Explorer 4 and choose View,
Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens, click
the Advanced tab. Now, scroll down through the list to Printing.
Deselect the Print Background Colors And Images check box and then
click OK to close the dialog box and save your selection.
"I use the Links bar and always find it a pain because the
Address bar gets in the way. If I move the Address bar up one space,
it interferes with the toolbar (where all the buttons are located).
"I recently found the perfect place for the Address bar--drag it
all the way to the top of the screen. The Address bar will fit
perfectly to the right of the menus. In this position, you can see
enough of the Address bar without having it interfere with anything
else."
If you would like to try this, just run Microsoft Internet Explorer
4 and grab the Address bar with your mouse. Drag to the top right of
the Internet Explorer 4 window and release the mouse button.
"I don't know if most people are aware of this, but you can get
to the root folder of your hard disk very quickly in Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4. All you have to do is type a backslash (\) into
the Address bar and press Enter."
Let's say you are working in Internet Explorer 4 connected to the
Internet. You quickly decide that you need to view the files in your
hard disk's root folder to search for that oh-so-important document
you were supposed to send to your boss. You can simply type a
backslash in the Address bar and press Enter as described above. To
return to the Web page you were viewing before you navigated to the
hard disk, press Backspace or click the Internet Explorer 4 Back
button.
"As you know, you can open GIF or JPG graphics files in Internet
Explorer 4. You may not know that you can open a GIF or JPG file in
Internet Explorer 4 just by dragging its icon to the Internet Explorer
icon on your desktop."
Give this a try if you like. Place a JPG or GIF file on the desktop
and then drag its icon to the Internet Explorer icon. When you release
the mouse button, Internet Explorer 4 will open and display the
picture.
This will also work when you use the Internet Explorer 4 icon in
the Quick Launch tray. Just drag the picture icon over the Internet
Explorer icon and release the mouse button.
Is there an easy way to use keystrokes to add a Web page to the
Favorites folder.
Yes, there certainly is. All you have to do is press Ctrl-D. This
will add the current page to your Favorites folder with no questions
asked. If you want to move the added URL to one of your subfolders
later, you can choose Favorites, Organize Favorites and drag the new
URL to an appropriate folder.
It doesn't get much easier than that, now does it?
"I have a problem with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. Drive C is
getting full, and I have a problem with the temporary folder. I have
enough room on Drive D. Is it possible to get Internet Explorer 4 to
use a temporary folder on Drive D rather than Drive C?"
There sure is. You can tell Internet Explorer 4 to relocate the
temporary folder. But first, let's copy the old folder to your new
location. Run Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows. In the
right pane, locate the Temporary Internet Files folder and use the
right mouse button to drag it to Drive D. When you release the mouse
button, choose Copy Here from the menu.
Now, run Internet Explorer 4 and choose View, Internet Options.
When the Options dialog box opens, click the General tab. Next, under
Temporary Internet Files, click Settings. When the Settings dialog box
opens, click Move Folder. This will open a dialog box warning you that
you will delete subscription content. Click Yes to continue. When the
Browse For Folder dialog box opens, click your new folder (in Drive
D), then click OK to close the dialog box and record your selection.
You'll get a dialog box telling you to restart Windows.
Click OK, and then OK again to close the Settings and Internet
Options dialog boxes. Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer
4. You'll find that all your temp files will now go to the new drive.
"Here in my office we have several computers that are shared by
many people. Some of these people often put a password into the
Content Advisor in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. When they do this,
other people can't use the Internet. Is there some way to keep people
from fooling with Content Advisor?"
Yes, there is. You can make a change in the Registry that will
disable any Content Advisor use.
Since the Registry key that requires changing doesn't exist in all
installations, we wrote a REG file to add the key for you. Don't
forget that messing with the Registry in any way can be dangerous. We
don't guarantee that our REG file will do the job for you. So, proceed
with caution.
To generate the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following.
(Where you see BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter to enter a blank
line. Do not type in BLANK LINE GOES HERE.)
Now, choose File, Save As. When the Save As dialog box opens, name
the file Content.reg and locate a folder for the new file. Now, click
Save to save the file and close the dialog box.
To use the new REG file, double-click its icon. When a dialog box
opens asking if you are sure you want to add the information to the
Registry, click Yes. Another dialog box will open informing you that
the information has been merged. Click OK to close this dialog box and
continue.
Now, restart the computer and then run Internet Explorer 4. Select
View, Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens,
click the Content tab. You should find that the Content Advisor
buttons (Enable, Settings) are grayed out. Click Cancel to close the
dialog box.
If you need to enable the buttons again, you can modify the REG
file as shown here:
Name the new file Advisor.reg and save it. Now you will have two
files--Content.reg to turn off the Content Advisor, and Advisor.reg to
turn it back on. In both cases, you will need to restart the computer.
If this doesn't sound fun, you can always try threatening your
co-workers--but of course, we don't recommend that.
"I thought the History files were retained by Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4 for 20 days. But, if I close Internet Explorer 4 and then
restart it, the Back button is not available. So, what happened to my
20-day history?"
Several readers have asked basically the same question over the
past few months. The problem with the History files is a problem of
perception only. The Back and Forward buttons only navigate to pages
visited during the current session. When you close Internet Explorer 4
and open it again, the buttons are not available until you have
visited a few pages in the current session. Fear not--this doesn't
mean that the History files are gone. To get to the files, just click
the History button on the Internet Explorer 4 toolbar.
"I personalized the Microsoft Home page (http://home.microsoft.com/)
and have been using it for several months. A few days ago, I cleaned
out my Temporary Internet Files folder, and my home page reverted to
the default.
"It seems obvious to me that deleting the temporary files caused
the page to revert, but I don't see why. Can I delete the temporary
files without messing up my personal settings on the Home page?"
As you have discovered, the information that determines what goes
on your Home page is stored in the Temporary Internet Files folder.
When you need to clear your temporary files, run Internet Explorer 4
and choose View, Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog
box opens, click the General tab (if necessary) and click Delete
Files. When the Delete Files dialog box opens, make sure the Delete
All Subscription Content check box is not selected and click OK. Back
in Internet Options, click OK to close the dialog box. This will clean
up your temporary files without deleting any cookies that may contain
important information.
"Since a full Favorites folder often represents a lot of work, I
decided to find an easy way to make sure I always have a fairly recent
backup of the Favorites folder. To do this, I decided to write a
simple batch file that will copy the folder to a floppy disk. Here is
the batch file I use:
@echo off
xcopy c:\windows\favorites\ /s a:\Favorites /i
Once you have saved the batch file, you can place a shortcut to it
on your desktop, or on the Quick Launch taskbar. All you have to do is
put the backup floppy disk into Drive A and click the icon to back up
your Favorites folder."
To create a batch file, run Notepad and enter the code as shown.
When finished, choose File, Save As and name the file FavBack.bat (or
any name of your choice as long as you use the BAT extension). Locate
a folder for the new file and click Save to save the file, then close
the Save As dialog box. Note that the file will always be available if
you save it in the root folder (C:\).
As Susan says, you can now create a shortcut to the new file. To do
this, run Windows Explorer and use the right mouse button to drag the
file's icon to your desktop. When the menu opens, choose Create
Shortcut(s) Here.
With the shortcut in place on your desktop, right-click it and
choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the
Program tab. Now, click the arrow at the right side of the Run list
box to expand the list. Select Minimize and then select the Close On
Exit check box. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your
settings.
Now, you can double-click your new icon to copy your Favorites
folder to a disk in Drive A. Since we told the program to run
minimized, you won't see the MS-DOS screen when the program runs. You
will see Drive A start, though.
Here is a Microsoft Internet Explorer 4/Windows 98 question:
"A few months ago, I bought this computer with Windows 98 and
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 installed. I like Windows 98 and
Internet Explorer 4, but I hate the Task Scheduler. Why are we forced
to use this whether we like it or not?"
First of all, we're glad you are enjoying Windows 98 and Internet
Explorer 4. You may enjoy them even more after we tell you how to turn
off Task Scheduler. Double-click My Computer to open the window. Now,
double-click the Scheduled Tasks folder to open it. When the Scheduled
Tasks window opens, choose Advanced, Stop Using Task Scheduler. Now,
press and hold down Shift while you click the Close box in the
Scheduled Tasks window. This will close both Scheduled Tasks and My
Computer.
At this point, you will no longer see the Task Scheduler icon in
the Windows 98 taskbar.
"I am rather new to the Internet and Microsoft Internet Explorer
4. I have been told that there is a program that will let you listen
to sound files in real time. Can you tell me where to find this
program?"
The program you need is Real Player. Using Real Player, you can
listen to live music and radio broadcasts on the Internet. To get your
copy, go to
We have often commented that making a change in your Registry is
potentially dangerous. The best way to guard against problems is to
always make a backup of your Registry files before you run RegEdit or
double-click that REG file.
You can make a backup manually using Windows Explorer. Just run
Explorer and navigate to \Windows. Locate System.dat and copy it to a
new folder or disk (Drive A, if you wish). Now, still in \Windows,
find User.dat and copy it to the same location as System.dat.
If you would prefer, you can download a Microsoft program that will
back up the Registry files for you. Go to
"I know this isn't a strictly Internet Explorer 4 question, but
can you tell me how to turn off the modem speaker? The sound of
dialing and connecting drives me crazy. I have even been thinking of
removing the speaker from the modem. I turned the speaker volume to
zero in Control Panel and it did absolutely nothing."
Repress those violent urges, Elliot, and try not to rip out the
speaker--that isn't necessary. To shut off the speaker, click Start,
Settings, Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click the
Modems icon. When the Modems dialog box opens, click Properties. In
the Properties dialog box, select the Connection tab and click
Advanced. When the Advanced Connection Settings dialog box opens, type
ATM0
in the Extra Settings box (that's a zero at the end). Now, click OK to
close the dialog box and save the settings. Click OK again to close
the Properties dialog box. You can now close Control Panel and test
your new settings. Since the command ATM0 tells the modem to set the
speaker to zero, you should no longer hear the modem dialing sounds.
And that, my friend, will avoid any unnecessary physical damage to
your computer!
"I recently tried to delete the contents of the History folder
using Windows Explorer. I used Ctrl-A to select all the files and then
pressed Delete. All I got was a system beep. No files were deleted at
all.
"Then, I selected the History folder and chose File, Delete. I got
a dialog box telling me that the folder is a system folder and asking
if I really wanted to delete it. I clicked Yes and got another dialog
box telling me that you can't delete the folder.
"Does all of this make sense, or is there something odd about my
installation?"
It all makes perfect sense--to your computer, anyway. Just as the
dialog boxes say, History is a system folder. Although you could
delete the folder using MS-DOS, we recommend that you not do so. If
all you want to do is empty the folder, run Internet Explorer 4 and
choose View, Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box
opens, click the General tab. Now, click Clear History. This is the
best and safest way to clear the contents of the History folder.
So, what would happen if you did manage to delete the History
folder? Windows would simply create a new one for you. Although you
may not do any permanent damage deleting the folder, you have nothing
to gain--that is, unless you simply enjoy deleting files.
We recently published a tip in response to reader Jane F.'s
question about Microsoft sites that contain graphics for use in Web
pages. As reader Nick I. points out, we missed an important site. We
suggested
"Whenever I select a URL from my Favorites, it loads in the
current browser window. This is annoying when one is threading through
information. If I don't want to lose my current window, I have to
duplicate it and only select a new URL from my Favorites. Is there a
way to force a new window?"
Although you can open a link in a new window by holding down Shift
while you click the link, this technique doesn't work with URLs in the
Favorites folder.
One trick is to make a shortcut to your Favorites folder on the
Quick Launch toolbar. You can hold down Shift to open a URL in a new
window.
If you decide to use this method, be careful how you use the Shift
key. The best approach is to click the URL once, then press Shift and
double-click. Good luck!
"Is there an easy way to move between frames in Internet
Explorer 4? I mean other than using the mouse to click in a new
frame."
There sure is--you can move to the next frame by pressing Ctrl-Tab.
If you keep pressing Ctrl-Tab, it will move you through all the frames
and then select the Address bar and the Links bar.
"I like the full screen view when using Internet Explorer 4, so
I set mine up to always open in full screen view. The only thing I
really miss is the Address bar. Is there any way to use full screen
view and still have the Address bar?"
Yes, you can still use the Address bar in full screen view. You
just can't place it below the toolbar as you can in the normal view.
To get your Address bar back, right-click the toolbar and choose
Address Bar. That's all there is to it.
Note that you can also add the Links and Menu bars. But they must
all go into the single toolbar--just keep in mind things could begin
to get crowded if you add them all.
"I initially tried putting My Computer into the taskbar but
decided it required too much space. I then accidentally discovered
that you could drag the entire My Computer toolbar to the right side
of the screen. This is where I use it now, because it doesn't take up
space needed for my folder icons."
You can drag the toolbar to the right, left, or top of the screen
if you wish. Just grab the toolbar with the mouse and move it to the
new location.
To create a My Computer toolbar, right-click the taskbar and choose
Toolbars, New Toolbar. When the New Toolbar dialog box opens, click My
Computer to select it and then click OK. It's that simple!
"If you use Windows 98, you can install Tweak UI and use it to
choose a new automatic search engine. You'll find this option on Tweak
UI's General page under Internet Explorer."
For those of you with Windows 98, here is how to install Tweak UI.
Insert the Windows 98 CD into the CD-ROM drive. When the opening
dialog box appears, click Browse This CD. Now, double-click the Tools
folder and then double-click the Reskit folder. Next, double-click the
Powertoy folder. Finally, right-click Tweakui.inf and choose Install.
After Tweak UI installs, click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When
Control Panel opens, double-click the Tweak UI icon. When the Tweak UI
dialog box opens, click the General tab. Now, click the arrow to the
right of the Search Engine list box and select a search engine that
you would like to use. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply the
new setting. The next time you run Internet Explorer 4, you can use
your new search engine. Just go to the Address bar and type
? (Space) [your search word]
For example, if you want to search for new automobiles, you would type
? automobiles
and press Enter. IE 4 will use your newly selected search engine to
locate occurrences of automobiles.
Tweak UI will do much more than this, so take some time to look
through its pages.
"I run several computer labs at the high school where I teach
and use one of the computers for personal browsing. None of my
bookmarks have sensitive material or links, but I feel my favorites
are My Favorites and should remain so. I wonder if there is way to
hide the Favorites folder from other teachers who occasionally use my
machine for research. Or is it possible to block access to that
folder? What would you recommend, other than not use a machine at work
for personal browsing?"
There's no easy way to handle this problem. Whatever makes a folder
difficult for others to see will also make the folder difficult for
you to use. However, you could create a hidden folder inside the
Favorites folder. This folder won't appear at all if your system
doesn't display hidden files.
To check on this, open any window and choose View, Folder Options.
When the Folder Options dialog box opens, click the View tab. Now,
select the Do Not Show Hidden Files option; then, click OK to close
the dialog box and record your settings.
Now, let's create the folder. Run Windows Explorer and navigate to
C:\Windows\Favorites. Right-click in the right pane and choose New,
Folder. Name the new folder MyStuff and press Enter. Now, right-click
the new folder and choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click
the General tab (if necessary) and select the Hidden check box.
Alternatively, you can select the Do Not Show Hidden Or System Files
option. Now, click OK to close the dialog box and save your settings.
Run Internet Explorer 4 and choose Favorites. You'll find that the
new folder doesn't appear. So, how do you add pages to the folder?
Well, you can't add them directly. What you can do is add them to the
folder you have been using--perhaps a folder named Jeff. When you
finish the session, type in the Address bar
c:\windows\favorites\mystuff
and press Enter. Your new folder will now appear in the browser. Next,
choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. When the Organize Favorites
window opens, you can press Ctrl-A, right-click, and choose Move Here
from the shortcut menu to drag all the files from your visible folder
to your invisible folder.
To access your folder when you want to visit a page, type
c:\windows\favorites\mystuff
in the Address bar and press Enter. You can now click any site you
wish to visit.
This is another of those questions that appear on a regular basis:
How do you set the download folder so that all downloads automatically
are sent to that folder?
The easiest and best way to set the download folder is to just
choose a folder the first time you download something.
Let's say that you create a folder named Downloads, and you want
all your downloaded files to go into that folder. Just run Internet
Explorer 4 and locate a file to download. Here's a download
suggestion--go to
and download Wow256.zip. When you click this file, you'll be sent
to a new page. On this page, click the link Download File Now! link.
When the File Download dialog box opens, select the Save This File To
Disk option and click OK. Now, the Save As dialog will open. Locate
your Downloads folder and double-click to accept it. Then, click Save
to start your download and close the dialog box.
>From this point on, Internet Explorer 4 will default to this
folder selection. You don't have to edit the Registry or make any
changes to your system at all.
In our previous tip, we described a method you can use to place a
hidden folder inside the Favorites folder. This works well, provided
no one changes the View settings.
Suppose you create a hidden folder, then someone comes along and
chooses View, Folder Options, View and selects the Show All Files
option. Your folder still wouldn't appear when you choose Favorites in
Internet Explorer 4. However, the folder would show up when you choose
Favorites, Organize Favorites.
So, here is another approach to the problem of folder security.
Suppose you create a new folder at a new location. Run Windows
Explorer and go to C:\Program Files. When Program Files opens, move to
the right pane and right-click. Choose New, Folder and name the new
folder MyStuff.
Now, close Windows Explorer and open Internet Explorer 4. Choose
Favorites, Organize Favorites. When the window opens, you can click
the site you want to visit. You can add sites to the new folder just
as described before--place them in a visible folder first, then go to
the Address bar, type
C:\Program Files\MyStuff
and press Enter. Now, choose Favorites, Organize Favorites and move
your URLs to the new folder.
"Is there any way to turn off that sound you get when you click
a link in Internet Explorer 4? I would very much like to learn how to
live without this annoying sound. I have looked everywhere in Internet
Explorer 4, and I can't find a way to turn off that sound."
You can't turn it off in Internet Explorer 4, but you should be
able to turn off the sound in Windows 95/98. Click Start, Settings,
Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click the Sounds icon.
When the Sounds Properties dialog box opens, scroll down through the
list and locate Start Navigation. You'll find this item under Windows
Explorer. Click the item to select it and then click the Name
drop-down arrow. In the list, select None (it's the very first item in
the list). Then, click OK to close the dialog box and save your
changes. You can now close Control Panel by clicking its close box
(the X in the upper-right corner).
The next time you run Internet Explorer 4, you should hear no sound
when you click a link.
"I was told that it is possible to create a floating Quick
Launch toolbar. Is this true? I have looked for a way to do this and
have found nothing."
You can indeed turn the Quick Launch toolbar into a floating
toolbar. Simply grab the toolbar at the very left side (next to the
Start button) and drag upward. If you grab the toolbar in the right
place, it will move out onto the desktop as a floating toolbar.
By the way, you can also use this method to change the location of
your Quick Launch toolbar. If you don't like its default position next
to the Start button, drag it out to the desktop and then drag it back
to the taskbar in a new location.
We recently suggested a way to shut off the modem speaker when
dialing. Several readers have asked about using the command when other
commands already exist.
Let's start from the beginning. If you want to shut off the modem
speaker, and nothing else has worked, you can enter a command to turn
off the speaker. To do this, click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
When Control Panel opens, double-click the Modem icon. In the Modem
Properties dialog box, click Properties and then use the slider to set
the speaker volume to Off. Click OK to close the dialog box and save
your changes. If this works, you're finished.
In some cases, this method doesn't work. If you are in this
situation, double-click Modems again and then click Properties. Now,
click the Connection tab. Next, click Advanced and then click in the
Extra Settings entry box. Enter
atm0
to turn off the speaker. If an AT command is already present, add M0
to the end of the command. If you need to add another command, say
S11=55 to speed up dialing, add it to the end of the AT command
string. For example, you could use
atm0 e1 s11=55
Whatever your command string, click OK once it is entered. Back in
Properties, click OK, and then click Close when you get back to the
Modems Properties dialog box.
Also, several readers reported that the modem no longer worked
after they entered the command string. The only way we could get the
modem to fail was to enter ATMO (the letter O), rather than ATM0 (the
number zero). If you experienced a modem problem, check to make sure
you entered zero. Did you get all that?
"I use Windows 98 and MSIE4. Often, when I browse the Internet,
I end up with five or more pop-up windows getting opened. If I don't
close them as soon as they open, then I have to close each one after I
close MSIE4. Is there any way to close all these windows at once?"
Yes, there sure is. You can click one of the windows in the
taskbar, then hold down Ctrl while you click the others. This should
select all the windows you want to close. Now, release the Ctrl key
and right-click one of the selected window icons. Choose Close, and
all the selected windows will close.
"When I first got on the Internet a few years ago, I used a
search engine page called AllinOne. This was a whole page of search
engines. I found this page extremely useful, but I lost it somewhere
along the line, during an upgrade. Does AllinOne still exist? If so,
can you tell me where to find it?"
Yes, it does still exist. It's called the All-in-One Search Page.
You will find it at
If you would like to have this page readily available when you're
in MSIE4, you can use the mouse to drag it to the Links bar. Just grab
the icon to the left of the address and drag it over the Links bar.
Release the mouse button and you'll have your search engine collection
in a handy spot.
"I drag some of my most often used URLs to the Links bar. The
problem is that all the icons are the same. Is there a way to change a
link's icon?"
There certainly is. To change a link's icon, run MSIE4 and
right-click the link you want to change. When the menu is open, choose
Properties. In the Properties dialog box, click Internet Shortcut (if
necessary). Now, click Change Icon. When the Change Icon dialog box
opens, select a new icon and click OK. If you don't see an icon you
like, click Browse.
Now, locate the icon you want to use and double-click it to close
the dialog box. When you get back to the Change Icon dialog box, click
OK. In the Properties dialog box, click OK to save your changes and
dismiss the dialog box. The new icon will appear the next time you run
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.
There is an easy way to eliminate those pop-up ads that have become
increasingly popular on the Internet. We often get this question, and
we suggest that you download and install AdsOff. You'll find it at
"You recently ran a tip about placing the Address Bar up in the
menu bar. I suspect this tip is mistaken. I do not see a way to move
the Address Bar to the menu bar. Could you explain what I might be
doing wrong?"
We can't explain what you might be doing wrong, but we can run
through the instructions again. To move the Address Bar to the menu
bar, simply move the mouse pointer over the left side of the Address
Bar--right over the word Address. Now, press and hold down the mouse
button while you drag the Address Bar up to the menu bar. When you
reach the menu bar, release the mouse button. The Address will anchor
itself in the new location.
Now, move the mouse pointer over the left side of the Address Bar.
When the pointer turns into a horizontal double arrow, hold down the
mouse button and drag to the right (or left) to size the Address Bar
so you can read the addresses and still see all the menu items. Good
luck!
"Since we have the Quick Launch bar with MSIE4, I decided that
would be a good place to keep shortcuts to my floppy disk drive and my
CD-ROM drive.
"This is no problem to do. All you have to do is open My Computer,
then click drive A:. Now, press Ctrl and click your CD-ROM icon. Next,
drag them both to the Quick Launch bar and release the mouse button.
You'll get a dialog box asking if you want to create a shortcut. Click
Yes to continue.
"Now, you can easily access your CD-ROM or a floppy disk from the
Windows 95/98 taskbar."
"Is there any way to add programs to the Links bar? I know I can
open Notepad from the Start menu, but it would be so much easier if I
could just click an icon on the Links bar."
You can add almost anything to the Links bar. Since Notepad is what
you want, let's look at how to add Notepad.
Run MSIE4 and choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. When the
Favorites window opens, double-click Links. Now, right-click in the
Links window and choose New, Shortcut. This opens the Create Shortcut
wizard. Click Browse and navigate to C:\Windows. Next, find
notepad.exe and double-click its icon to close the Browse dialog box
and set your command line to Notepad. Click Next to continue. Now,
type a name for the new shortcut--Notepad--minus the EXE part--should
do fine. Click Finish to complete your new shortcut. Back in the
Organize Favorites window, click Close.
You will now have the Notepad icon in your Links bar, ready for
quick use.
"I now use Windows 98 with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and with
Active Desktop. I have finished a Web page in FrontPage Express that I
would like to use. I created links to all the files and folders I
need, and now I would like to get rid of all the standard desktop
folders. I know this is possible, but I don't know how to do it. Could
you cover this topic?"
To use a Web page as your desktop, you'll need to activate the
Active Desktop. To do this, right-click the desktop and choose Active
Desktop, View As Web Page. Right-click the desktop again and choose
Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click the
Background tab and select your new page. If it isn't in the current
list, click Browse and locate the file. Double-click its icon to set
your new background.
To eliminate the standard desktop icons, click the Effects tab.
Now, select the check box labeled "Hide icons when the desktop is
viewed as a Web page" and then click OK to close the Display
Properties dialog box and apply your selections.
At this point, the only thing you will see on your desktop is what
you added to your Web page.
"A few months ago, I signed up with the phone company for a message
system. Shortly after the message system was installed, I began having
trouble dialing my ISP to get on the Internet. I finally discovered
that the trouble occurred only when I had active messages.
"When you have messages pending, the dial tone is broken up to
indicate that messages are present (at least, this happens on my phone
system). This broken dial tone apparently confuses the modem. I found
that if I clear all the messages before I try to use the Internet, I
have no problems. I thought I should pass this along, since other
people may have a similar problem."
Correct, the broken dial tone does confuse the modem. As you say,
you can clear all your messages first and avoid the problem. However,
if you would rather not have to always check your messages, you can
add some delay to the modem dialing to take care of the broken
dial tone problem.
To do this, click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When Control
Panel opens, double-click the Modems icon. In the Modems dialog box,
click your modem to select it. Now, click Dialing Properties. Under To
Access An Outside Line, add three commas to both entry boxes and click
OK. This tells the modem to delay before dialing--each comma adds one
second. Next, click Properties and click the Connection tab. Deselect
the check box labeled "Wait for dial tone before dialing" and then
click OK. Back in Modems, click Close to close the dialog box.
Now, with three commas inserted, the modem will wait for three
seconds before attempting to dial. If this isn't enough time for your
system, try adding another comma to get a four-second delay.
"When I try to connect using Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, I get a
message telling me the modem isn't working. I installed the modem only
a few weeks ago, and it worked at first. Is there some way to test the
modem?"
First double-click My Computer and then double-click Dial-Up
Networking. Next double-click the Connection icon and click Connect.
If your modem works and you successfully connect to your ISP, you need
to check IE 4 to make sure you told it to use the correct connection.
If you can't connect using the Connection dialog box, you might
have a modem problem, or you may have set your connection to an
incorrect ISP (perhaps an earlier one).
To see if your modem is responding, click Start, Settings, Control
Panel. When the Control Panel opens, double-click the Modems icon. Now
click the Diagnostics tab in the Modems Properties dialog box. Click
your modem entry to select it, then click More Info. If all is well,
the program reports the modem parameters.
If your modem is OK, you may have told IE 4 to use the wrong modem
(perhaps a modem you had installed previously).
If all else fails, reinstall your modem software. Good luck!
"When you want to make changes to items in the Quick Launch
toolbar,
all you have to do is right-click a blank spot in Quick Launch and
choose Open. This opens the Quick Launch window. You can make your
changes and then choose File, Close to close the window."
"I changed the Windows Explorer settings to List, then I chose
View, Folder Options. When the Folder Options dialog box opened, I
clicked the View tab and then clicked Like Current Folder. Now all my
folders open in List view. Is this normal?"
Yes, it is. When you click Like Current Folder, all the folders in
your installation take on the settings you choose in any single
folder. If you set the Windows Explorer to list without clicking Like
Current Folder, you can have other folders open in a different view.
"When you click History to look for a previously visited site, the
History pane is often so small that you can't tell exactly which site
is which. You could use the mouse to make the History pane larger, but
this isn't really necessary. If you simply move the mouse pointer over
an item in the History folder, a tool tip opens and displays all the
information you would see on the line if you resized the pane."
Something to keep in mind--you can only set the History pane's size
to half the window size, which means you may still have to depend on
the tool tips to see an entire line.
"How much of a problem is it to subscribe to a Web site? I see
comments about subscribing all the time, but I have never seen an
explanation of how to do it."
It's fairly easy to subscribe to a site. Let's say you would like
to subscribe to PCWorld.com--smart choice. Choose Favorites, then
locate your PCWorld URL. Right-click the URL and choose Subscribe.
When the Subscribe Favorite dialog box opens, you can select either
"Only tell me when this page is updated" or "Notify me of updates and
download the page for offline viewing".
If you click Customize, IE 4 opens the Subscription Wizard. Make
your selections and click Next. Note that you can also elect to have
the selected site send you an e-mail message when there are updates.
"I sometimes need to print a Web page. I was wondering if there is
a way that I can get MSIE 4 to print personal notes in the header of
footer when I print a page. This would help me file these printed
pages. Can you help?"
Yes, we sure can. You can put personal notes into the header (or
footer). Run IE 4 and navigate to a Web page. Now choose File, Page
Setup. When the Page Setup dialog box opens, you will see entry boxes
for both the header and footer.
Just click in the entry box and add your note there. If the note is
all you want to appear, delete the default entry and type it. Click OK
to close the dialog box and save your additions.
Your changes remain in effect until you change them. Therefore, you
need to change your note for each Web page you want to print.
"I just installed MSIE 4 a few weeks ago and there is a Logoff Eben
command in the Start menu. Is there some way to get rid of this
command?"
This is another of those questions we see on a regular basis. In
order to help all of you who want to get rid of the Logoff command, we
have written a short REG file. Please remember that we can't guarantee
any REG file will do exactly what you expect. Use REG files at your
own risk.
To write the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following as shown
here. Where you see BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter. Whatever you
do, don't type BLANK LINE GOES HERE--you won't like the results.
REGEDIT4
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoLogOff"=dword:00000001
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
Now choose File, Save As and name the file NoLogOff.reg. Locate a
folder for your new file and click Save.
To use the new file, double-click its icon. When asked if you're
sure you want to enter the information into the Registry, click Yes.
The next time you start the computer, the Logoff command will not
appear. Good luck!
"I have never seen anyone mention the fact that you can drag a URL
to the Quick Launch toolbar. I do this all the time when I am doing
research on the Web. After I finish with all the URLs, I right-click
them and choose Delete.
"All you have to do to put the current Web page into the toolbar is
drag the Address icon to the Quick Launch toolbar."
"I like to have all my subscribed sites readily available, so I
decided I needed to have a Subscriptions folder in the Windows 98
Start menu. I searched for a way to do this for several months, and
finally found one.
"If you right-click Start and choose Open, the Start menu window
opens. Right-click the window and choose New, Folder. Now name the
folder
"I would like to remove the My Documents folder from the Favorites
folder. If I delete this folder, will I also be deleting it from the
hard disk? I am afraid to try doing so because a lot of my programs
use it."
Delete away. When you delete My Documents from the Favorites
folder, you will not affect the original My Documents folder in any
way.
To delete the folder, just choose Favorites, then right-click My
Documents and choose Delete.
"When I installed MSIE 4 and Outlook Express last year, all the
pictures that appeared in newsgroups showed up in the Preview pane.
Now, for some reason, the pictures no longer appear in the Preview
pane. I have to click the attachment icon and view the pictures in the
IE 4 browser. Do you have any idea why the Preview pane might have
stopped displaying the pictures?"
Our guess is that someone has deselected the option to show the
pictures. To get this option set again, Run Outlook Express and choose
Tools, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Read tab.
Next, select the check box labeled "Automatically show picture
attachments in messages". Click OK to close the dialog box and save
your selection.
The next time you enter a newsgroup with Outlook Express, any
pictures in the messages should appear in the Preview pane again. Good
luck!
"I installed the Internet Explorer Sound Pack and now I would like
to uninstall it. I went to the Control Panel and opened Add/Remove
Programs. There is no listing for the sound pack. Is there some way to
get rid of the sounds I get every time I navigate to a new site?"
As you have already discovered, you can't actually uninstall the
sound pack. However, what you can do is turn off the sounds. Click
Start, Settings, Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens,
double-click the Sounds icon. Next, scroll through the Event list and
locate Windows Explorer. Click Complete Navigation, then click the
arrow at the right side of the Name list box. Select None and then
click Start Navigation from the Events list. Set this to None, then
click OK to close the dialog box and save your selections. You can
also close the Control Panel now (choose File, Close).
"I always found it a pain to use Windows Explorer to open the Quick
Launch folder when I needed to make some changes. I just discovered
you can open the folder without all that fuss. All you have to do is
right-click a blank spot in the Quick Launch bar and choose Open. This
opens the folder, and you can do whatever you want."
The only requirement for this is to make sure you click a blank
spot. If you can't find a blank spot, grab the divider line to the
right of the Quick Launch area and drag it to the right with your
mouse. This will leave a blank area to the right of your last Quick
Launch button.
"Is there some way to make a backup of the information you have to
enter to connect to your ISP? I printed it out, but then lost it. I
had to call the ISP and get it to talk me through the process again."
Yes, you can make a backup and avoid any more ISP inconveniences .
You will need to use RegEdit, but you should have no problems as long
as you don't make any changes to the Registry. To make the backup,
choose Start, Run, type
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\RemoteAccess.
Click RemoteAccess to select it, then choose Registry, Export Registry
File. When the Export Registry File dialog box appears, name your file
ISP. Next, choose a location for your new file and click Save. Close
the Save As dialog box. To close RegEdit, choose Registry, Exit.
To restore your ISP settings, all you have to do is double-click
ISP.reg and Windows will merge the file with the Registry. Note: This
does not save any of your passwords. However, it will save the stuff
you need to call the ISP about.
"Netscape makes editing bookmarks easy, but is there an easy way to
remove unwanted entries from the Internet Explorer 4 Favorites list?"
There are two ways to delete URLs in IE 4--you can delete them
directly from the menu, or you can choose Favorites, Organize
Favorites to open the Organize Favorites window. You can now
double-click any folder to open it. To delete a listing, click it and
press Delete. To delete a listing from the Favorites menu, just
right-click the item and choose Delete.
If you need to delete more than one listing, it's easiest to open
the Organize Favorites window, click the item you want to delete, then
press Delete. When you want to delete more than one item at a time,
click the first one, then hold down Ctrl while you click the others.
After you select all the items you want to delete, press Delete.
"I had decided to save some of my links in a separate folder to
trim the size of the Links bar without losing any URLs. While fooling
around with this idea, I discovered that one can simply hide currently
unneeded links.
"To do this, right-click the link you want to hide and choose
Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the General tab and then
select the Hidden check box (under Attributes). Click OK to close the
dialog box and record your selections.
"The next time you run Internet Explorer 4, the hidden URL will not
appear in the Links bar.
"When you decide to use those hidden links again, you will need to
make sure you have your folder view set to view hidden files.
Otherwise, you can't see the files to change their attributes. To so
this, run Windows Explorer and choose View, Folder Options. When the
Folder Options dialog box opens, click the View tab. Now, in the
Hidden Files folder, select the Show All Files radio button and click
OK to close the dialog box and save your selection.
"Now you can run IE 4 and choose Favorites, Organize Favorites.
When the Organize Favorites window opens, double-click the Links
folder to open it. Right-click the URL you want to unhide and choose
Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the General tab and then
deselect the Hidden check box. Click OK to close the dialog box and
save your changes."
"Is there any easy way to tell if my Internet Explorer 4 is the
128-bit version?"
Run Internet Explorer 4 and choose Help, About Internet Explorer.
When the dialog box opens, you will see Cipher Strength: 128 Bit if
your system has the 128-bit update installed.
This update is available only to IE 4 users in the United States
and Canada.
Several readers have suggested placing numbers before items in the
Quick Launch folder as a means of sorting the items. You can certainly
do this if you wish. Here's another way to get the same results that
may tickle your fancy:
Sort Quick Launch entries by using the mouse to drag them where you
want. For example, if you would prefer to have Outlook Express as your
first icon, just grab it with the mouse and drag it to the first
position in the Quick Launch bar.
"I find that I often need to change the sound system volume as I
navigate through the Internet. Some sites have very loud audio, and
others are not loud enough. The way I have my system set up, it is
inconvenient to reach the speaker volume control, so I have been
double-clicking the Speaker icon in the taskbar to set the volume. I
just now discovered that you don't have to open the Volume Control
dialog box to set the volume--all you have to do is click the Speaker
icon once to open the master volume control. Using this method, it is
very easy to change the volume as you surf the Internet."
"Sometimes you may need to go back to one of the addresses stored
in the Address Box list in Internet Explorer 4. Of course, you can
click the arrow at the right side of the Address Box to expand the
list and then select a URL.
"You can also simply press F4 to open the list. I find this easier
than using the pesky mouse to open the list. Also, you can select an
address from the list by pressing the down arrow until you reach the
URL you want. Then you press Enter to navigate to the selected site."
Here is a Quick Launch tip: "I have quite a few icons in my Quick
Launch toolbar, so I decided to make some dividers to separate the
icons into groups. Here is how I did it.
"An important first step is to create the divider icon. To do this,
run Paint and choose Image, Attributes. Set both width and height to
16 and click OK. Now choose View, Zoom, Custom and select the 800%
radio button. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your view
selection.
"Now choose File, Save As. When the Save As dialog box opens, name
the file Divider and then click the arrow at the right side of the
Save As Type list box. When the list expands, select 16 Color Bitmap
(*.bmp, *.dib) and then select a folder for your new icon (I saved
mine in c:\Windows). Click Save to save the icon and close the Save As
dialog box.
"Next, you can draw your divider. I used a thick (two lines) dark
gray line down the center of the icon. On the left side of the dark
line, I drew a single lighter gray line. This produces a 3-D icon.
With your icon drawn, choose File, Save.
"To use the icon in your Quick Launch bar, right-click a blank spot
in Quick Launch and choose Open. Now right-click the Quick Launch
window and choose New, Text Document. In the document, enter
[Shell]
IconFile=c:\Windows\Divide.bmp
and choose File, Save As. When the Save As dialog box opens, name
the file divide.scf and click Save. Now you can delete the no longer
needed New Text Document.txt.
"At this point, the new icon will appear in your Quick Launch bar.
To make more than one divider, simply right-click the icon and choose
Create Shortcut. You can drag the new icons around to place them."
"When I am connected to the Internet, I move the mouse pointer over
the connection icon in the taskbar to check my connection speed. When
I first installed the modem, the speed was usually 48,000 to 55,000
bps. Now the speed is always 11,5000. I believe this is the speed at
which the computer communicates with the modem. I know that I can't be
connecting at this speed.
"Have you ever seen this happen? Is there a way to get an accurate
connection-speed readout again?"
Yes, there is. There are two possibilities--you may somehow have
used an incorrect driver, or your INIT string may be incorrect. If you
think the driver is incorrect, you need to contact the manufacturer.
If you can locate the manufacturer's site on the Internet, you may
then be able to download a new driver.
To add the correct INIT string, check your modem's documentation or
check with the manufacturer.
To change an INIT string, click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
When Control Panel opens, double-click the Modems icon. Now click
Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Connection
tab and then click Advanced. Click the Extra Settings entry box and
add your new INIT string. Click OK to close the dialog box and save
your new INIT string. This will take you back to the Properties dialog
box, where you should click OK again to save your settings and close
the dialog box. Click Close in Modems Properties to close the dialog
box.
We use a U.S. Robotics Sportster Internal, and the string AT&F1
takes care of the connection-speed display problem. Unfortunately, we
do not know the correct string for other modems. Good luck!
Here is another modem question. "The computer I use at work dials
much faster than the one at home. My modem seems to dial the ISP
number very slowly. Is this a function of the type of modem I use, or
is there a setting in DialUp networking that I can change to get a
faster dial?"
You can tell your modem how fast to dial, assuming that it uses the
standard Hayes commands. To change the dial speed, click Start,
Settings, Control Panel. In Control Panel, double-click the Modems
icon. When the dialog box opens, click the Connection tab and then
click Advanced. Click the Extra Settings entry box and add S11=40 to
the existing INIT string. If there is no INIT string and you have no
reason to add one, simply type
S11=55
and click OK. Back in the Properties dialog box, click OK again to
save your settings and close the dialog box. In Modems Properties,
click Close to dismiss the dialog box.
"When I was downloading a file, in the File Download dialog box, I
deselected the check box labeled 'Always ask before opening this type
of file'. Now all the files I click download to the Temporary folder.
Is there a way to get that dialog box back?"
We get numerous questions on this topic, so we wrote a REG file to
reactivate the File Download dialog box. Note that modifying the
Registry always carries a risk of creating software problems.
That being said, if you want to try this REG file, run Notepad and
enter the following exactly as shown here, with one exception--when
you see BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter--don't type in BLANK LINE
GOES HERE.
REGEDIT4
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile]
@="Application"
"EditFlags"=hex:D8,07,00,00
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
Now, choose File, Save As. Name the new file DownLoad.reg and
locate a folder for the file. Click Save to save the file and close
the Save As dialog box. You can now double-click your new file's icon
to merge it with the Registry.
Restart the computer and run IE 4. You should get your File
Download dialog box again.
Note: Some users have reported this method does not work for them.
It works fine for our installation, which is 4.72.3612.1713 with SP2.
"I like using the single-click feature with Active Desktop.
However, I don't like the underlining that appears with all the icon
names on the desktop. What I really would like is to keep the
single-click feature, but lose the underlining. Is this possible?"
It sure is-- you can get rid of the underlining. To turn off that
icon underlining, open Internet Explorer 4 and choose View, Internet
Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens, click the
Advanced tab. Now scroll through the list of options and locate
Underline Links. Here you'll find three radio buttons labeled Always,
Never, and Hover. If you don't want any underlining, select Never.
Click OK to close the dialog box and save your new selection.
"I just installed Windows 98 Second Edition on my computer and it
also installed Internet Explorer 5. I would prefer to use IE 4. How
can I get rid of IE 5 and go back to IE 4?"
As far as we can tell, you can't run IE 4 in Windows 98 SE. This
product requires the IE 5 core files.
The only way to get IE 4 back is to reinstall your original version
of Windows 98. If you decide to do this, you can go to the Microsoft
site and download the bug fixes that go into Windows 98 SE. Of course,
you won't get the added features. Good luck!
"When I close Internet Explorer 4, I get a dialog box asking if I
want to disconnect. Ordinarily, I don't want to disconnect. Is there a
way to turn off this dialog box?"
We usually hear from people who want to get the disconnect dialog
box back again. Run IE 4 and choose View, Internet Options. When the
dialog box opens, click the Connection tab. Now, click Settings and
select the check box labeled "Disconnect if idle for" and enter a time
in the spin box. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your
selection. Click OK in Internet Options to dismiss the dialog box.
"Help! I deleted the Internet Explorer 4 icon from the desktop in
favor of the one in Quick Launch. Before I destroyed the Internet
icon, I could right-click it and choose Properties, then make changes
without running IE 4. If I right-click the icon in Quick Launch and
choose Properties, all I get is a standard Properties dialog box for
shortcuts. Is there some way to make changes without the desktop
Internet icon? I really don't want to put it back on the desktop."
Fortunately, you can do just what you want in Control Panel. Click
Start, Settings, Control Panel. In Control Panel, double-click the
Internet icon. This will open the Internet Properties dialog box--just
as if you had run IE 4 and chosen View, Internet Options.
"I sometimes would like to download several small files at the same
time. Is this a problem for IE 4? Is it faster to download several
files at once?"
No problems here, Carl. You can download more than one file at a
time. However, we have found that you should stick to no more than
four or five files.
Unfortunately, downloading multiple files simultaneously (or
nearly) does not save download time. If your modem downloads at 56
kbps, then all the files together can't download faster than 56 kbps
total. But a multiple download is often more convenient. Good luck!
If you happen to be among the many Internet surfers users who often
use search engines, you might want to consider making one of them your
home page. Yahoo offers a customizable home page. Just go to
To replace the link, run Internet Explorer and choose Favorites,
Organize Favorites. When the Organize Favorites folder opens,
double-click Links. Next, right-click the Links folder and choose New,
Shortcut. When the Create Shortcut dialog box opens, click the Command
Line entry box and type
You may find it easiest to copy the line from here and paste it in
the entry box with Ctrl-V.
To avoid this particular problem, it might be best to save your
links in another folder rather than just deleting them. You could run
Windows Explorer and go to \Windows\Favorites\Links. Use the right
mouse button to drag the no longer needed links to another folder.
When the menu appears select Move Here.
This way, you can easily replace your links later.
"Your tip about changing IE 4's headers and footers when printing a
Web page is handy. But how do we restore the default settings?"
In an October tip, we suggested that you delete the default headers
and footers and enter your own. To do this, run IE 4 and choose File,
Page Setup. When the Page Setup dialog box opens, you will see entry
boxes for both the header and footer. Click in the entry box you want
to use, delete the default entry, and type your information. Click OK
to close the dialog box and save your additions.
Since you can change the headers and footers at any time, it is
probably best to save the original contents in Notepad for later
reentry. To do this, run Notepad and open IE 4. Choose File, Page
Setup. When the Page Setup dialog box appears, select the text in the
Header entry box and press Ctrl-X to cut the selection. Now move to
Notepad and press Ctrl-V to paste the selection. Next, cut the text in
the Footer entry box and paste it into Notepad.
In Notepad, choose File, Save As and name the file Header and
Footer.txt. Click Save to save the file and close the Save As dialog
box. Now you can always open your notepad file if you want to replace
the original headers and footers.
The default header is &w&bPage &p of &P and &u&b&d is the default
footer.
"I have added some of my own links to the Quick Links bar in IE 4.
Now I would like to change some of their icons. Is this possible?"
Yes, it is possible. To change a Quick Link's icon, run IE 4,
right-click the Quick Link icon you want to change, and choose
Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Internet
Shortcut tab. Click Change Icon; in the Change Icon dialog box, select
a new icon. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your new icon
selection.
If you don't see an icon you like, click Browse and locate an icon
file. Double-click to open it, then select the icon you want to use.
Back in the Change Icon dialog box, click OK. In the Properties dialog
box, click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.
"I have never seen this mentioned, but you can choose any color you
want for your links. To select a color, run IE 4 and choose View,
Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens, click
the General tab and then click Colors.
Under Links, double-click the color to the right of Visited. When
the Color dialog box opens, click Define Custom Colors. Now you can
choose any color you want and click OK. Repeat the procedure for
Unvisited sites.
When you're finished selecting colors, click OK. Back in Internet
Options, click OK to close the dialog box and save your selections.
"I have been having a problem with IE 4 crashing at complex Web
pages. I even discussed this with Microsoft and found no solution. One
day I was telling a friend about this, and he suggested turning down
the video acceleration. I did and have had no problem since.
"I thought others might be having a similar problem and would like
to try this solution. I have no idea why it works."
If you're having a problem with crashing at complex Web pages, give
this a try--it can't hurt.
To set the acceleration, right-click your desktop and choose
Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click the
Settings tab. Click Advanced, then click the Performance tab. Use the
slider to reduce the acceleration, as Tom suggested, and click OK to
close the dialog box and save your changes. Restart your computer and
check out that cantankerous Web page.
Is it OK to install Internet Explorer 5 over their existing
Internet Explorer 4 installation.
Drum roll, please. Yes, you can install IE 5 over IE 4. In fact,
there are several advantages to doing so. First, IE 5's setup program
will save a backup of IE 4, and you can return to IE 4 if necessary.
Also, if you want to keep your Quick Launch contents, you have to
install IE 5 on top of IE 4. IE 5 does not offer the Quick Launch
feature.
Note that these tips cover IE 4 only, so if you decide to install
IE 5, you need to subscribe to those tips. You can keep reading these,
but you won't get any IE 5 info here.
"When I first installed Internet Explorer 4, I could download WAV
files and then listen to them later. Now I can only download WAV files
if I right-click them and choose Save Target As. If I left-click a WAV
URL, the file opens Media Player and plays the file. Is there a way to
get the standard download function back?"
Usually this happens when you've told IE 4 not to ask the question
about opening or downloading. Try the following fix.
Open Windows Explorer and choose View, Folder Options. When the
Folder Options dialog box opens, click the File Types tab. Now locate
WAV File in the list and click to select it. Click Edit and select the
check box labeled "Confirm open after download". Click OK, and back in
Folder Options, click OK again to close the dialog box and save your
selections. That should do the trick.
"When you want to organize your Favorites, you may find it helpful
(as I do) to open the Favorites folder in Windows Explorer view. Just
hold down the Shift key and choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. I
find that the resulting window is much easier to work with than the
standard Organize Favorites window."
"When you use a phone company's answering service, the phone system
produces an interrupted dial tone for a few seconds to let you know
you have messages. When this happens, your modem may decline to dial
because it thinks there is no valid dial tone. Rather than always
checking for messages before you sign on to the Internet, you can just
add a little extra delay to the modem dialing.
"To do this, click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When Control
Panel opens, double-click the Modems icon. In the Modems dialog box,
click your modem to select it, and click Dialing Properties. Under To
Access An Outside Line, add three commas to both entry boxes and click
OK. This tells the modem to delay before dialing. Next, click
Properties and click the Connection tab. Deselect the Wait For Dial
Tone Before Dialing check box, then click OK. Back in Modems, click
Close to close the dialog box.
"Since each added comma represents a one-second delay, the modem
will wait for three seconds before it tries to dial. This should be
enough time for a normal dial tone to appear."
"If you use the Quick Launch toolbar for more than just the default
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 stuff, you'll want easy access to it. I
have found the best way for me to make changes in Quick Launch is to
open its window and work there. For a long time, I used Windows
Explorer, then I discovered that you can open the Quick Launch window
from the toolbar. All you have to do is right-click a blank spot in
the Quick Launch toolbar and choose Open."
"I find it difficult to deal with the small icons in the Quick
Launch bar when I need to delete files or change icons. It's much
easier to work with Quick Launch items if you right-click the Quick
Launch bar in a blank spot and choose Open. When you do this, Quick
Launch opens in a nice, normal-size window, and you can work with it
easily. When you finish, you can choose File, Close to get rid of the
window."
"I use the Links bar often. As a result, I frequently add and
remove links. You don't have to choose Favorites, Organize Favorites
to delete a link. Just right-click the link and choose Delete. You can
also easily add a link by dragging the current page's URL icon from
the Address Bar to the Links bar."
"I like to run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 in the no-pictures
mode. To do this, run MSIE and choose View, Internet Options. When the
Options dialog box opens, click the Advanced tab. Locate the check box
labeled Show Pictures, then click OK.
"The next time you run MSIE, you'll have no pictures on any of the
pages and your browser will run faster as a result. If you want to see
a picture, just right-click the picture's placeholder (where the
picture would usually appear) and choose Show Picture."
"I would like to gain as much anonymity on the Internet as
possible. A friend gave me the address of a URL he has been using as a
proxy server to hide his identity. I can ping the URL, but I don't
know how to make Internet Explorer 4 connect through the server. Can
you help?"
To use a public proxy server, you have to tell IE 4 where to
connect. Run IE and choose View, Internet Options. When the Internet
Options dialog box opens, click the Connection tab. Now, under Proxy
Server, select the Access The Internet Using A Proxy Server check box.
Then enter the proxy address (either as Address.com, or in IP
form--for example, 192.168.12.12). You also need to enter the port
number--80, 8080, 3128, and so forth. Click OK to close the dialog box
and save your settings.
We should warn you that people sometimes pass around URLs they can
access. In many cases, these are not actually open to the public, and
you could get kicked off. Don't assume you have complete anonymity
using a proxy server. To check this out, visit these two sites:
"I use two URLs every day. To make them easy to access, I created
shortcut keys. Now all I have to do is press Ctrl-Alt-M and Ctrl-Alt-N
to open them.
"To create a shortcut key for one of your Favorites, run Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4 and choose Favorites, Organize Favorites.
Right-click the URL you want and choose Properties. When the
Properties dialog box opens, click the Internet Shortcut tab. Click
the Shortcut Key entry box and then press the letter you want to use.
You don't need to press Ctrl-Alt because Windows will add that for
you. For example, press M, then click OK to close the dialog box and
save your new shortcut key assignment. You can now click Close to
close the Organize Favorites dialog box.
"To open your Favorite, simply press Ctrl-Alt-M (or whatever letter
you used)."
"I have been told that you can use JPEG files for wallpaper as long
as you're running Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or 5. I use Windows 98
with MSIE 4, and I can't see a way to get a JPEG file to work as
wallpaper.
"I would really like to use JPEG files as wallpaper because I have
a large number of really nice photographs, all in JPEG format. How can
I do it?"
You can use JPEG files as wallpaper as long as you installed Active
Desktop along with MSIE 4. If Active Desktop is available, right-click
the desktop and choose Active Desktop, View As Web Page. Right-click
the desktop again and choose Properties. When the Display Properties
dialog box opens, click the Background tab, then click Browse. Locate
the picture you want to use and double-click its icon. Click OK to
close the dialog box and apply your selection.
Without Active Desktop, you can only use BMP files as wallpaper.
"If you have several URLs you visit every day, you can make
navigating to those sites easier by assigning some shortcut keys to
them. Suppose you make a daily visit to http://www.myweb.com. You can
assign Ctrl-Alt-M (for myweb) to the URL.
"To assign a keyboard shortcut to http://www.myweb.com while
viewing that site in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, first choose
Favorites, Add To Favorites, then choose a folder for the URL
(assuming you don't already have the URL in your Favorites folder).
With the URL in Favorites, choose Favorites, Organize Favorites.
Locate the http://www.myweb.com URL and right-click it. When the
pop-up menu appears, choose Properties. If necessary, click the
Internet Shortcut tab and then click in the Shortcut Key entry box.
Now press M and you will see that Windows assigns Ctrl-Alt-M as your
new shortcut keys. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your
assignment.
"When you get back to the Favorites window, click Close to close
that dialog box. Navigate to some other site and press Ctrl-Alt-M. IE
4 should return you to http://www.myweb.com."
"I am running Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. If I choose Help,
About Internet Explorer, it says I am running version 4.72.3110 with
SP1. I would like to upgrade this program. Where do I go to download
the upgrade files?"
Looks like you're in pretty good shape. Since you're using Service
Pack 1, you could go to
"I run across so many sites now that have sound. Since much of the
sound is irritating, I have been keeping the speakers turned down. The
problem is that I am now missing some of the sounds I would like to
hear. All I really want to eliminate is the electronic music you get
at some sites. Is there a way to eliminate just these sounds?"
We assume you're talking about MIDI sound. If so, you can eliminate
it quite easily. Double-click the speaker icon at the right side of
the taskbar to open the Volume Control. In the Volume Control, you
should see a control labeled MIDI. Select the Mute check box and click
the Close box (the X in the upper right corner) to close Volume
Control. You will no longer hear MIDI sounds.
If the MIDI control doesn't appear in your Volume Control, choose
Options, Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, select the
check box labeled MIDI and click OK. Now you can proceed as described
above.
There is more to the Internet than just the World Wide Web:
"The Web isn't the only world on the Internet. You might like to
try Gopher, too. Gopher is a text-only service originally developed by
the University of Minnesota. To have a look at Gopher, type
"Is there a way to use the Address Bar when you're in full-screen
mode? I really prefer this mode, but I miss the Address Bar."
You can use the Address Bar in full-screen view. The only real
difference is that you can't position it below the toolbar as you can
in normal view. To get your Address Bar in full-screen mode,
right-click the toolbar and choose Address Bar. That's all there is to
it.
"Recently in the Internet Explorer 4.0 Tip of the Day, we saw a
mention of freeware FTP. What is FTP?"
FTP is the acronym for File Transfer Protocol. If you have a Web
site, you would normally use an FTP client to transfer files from your
computer to the Web site location. There are two types of FTP
programs--the FTP client you would use to transfer files to and from
your computer, and the FTP server you would use at a Web site to allow
people to connect and transfer files.
"I have found it difficult to sort objects in the Quick Launch
toolbar. What I did to solve the problem was to number the objects. To
do this, right-click the Quick Launch toolbar in a blank spot and
choose Open from the menu. You can now right-click the object you want
to appear first in the toolbar and choose Rename. Add a number to the
front of the name--for example, '1. Internet Explorer.' Number all
your objects as you want them to appear, then close the Quick Launch
window. When you restart the computer, the Quick Launch objects will
appear in the correct order."
This method will certainly work. However, we have had no problem
with the Quick Launch toolbar getting out of order. If you simply use
the mouse to drag each object in the toolbar into the desired
position, they should stay where you put them.
"When you place Address Bar and Links on the same toolbar, you can
quickly switch between full views of either. If you want to view the
Address Bar, just double-click Address. To view the full Links bar,
double-click Links. The selected bar will slide into full view."
"I like the single-click option, but I hate the underlining. Is it
possible to retain the single-click option while turning off the
underlining? I have looked, but have seen no such option. Is there a
Registry Edit that would do the job?"
"I know this might seem a little weird, but I like the single-click
option. What I don't like is the underlining that goes with it. Is
there any way to retain the single click and lose the underlining?"
Good news--you won't need the Registry edit. Try this: Run
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and choose View, Internet Options. When
the Internet Options dialog box opens, click the Advanced tab. Locate
Underline Links in the list. Under this heading, you'll see three
radio buttons--Always, Never, and Hover. The default is Always, but
you can select either Never if you want no underlining at all, or
Hover to see underlining only when you move the mouse over an icon.
When you finish with your selection, click OK to close the dialog
box and save the setting. Note that whatever you select will apply to
both the desktop and MSIE 4.
"I often have trouble connecting to my ISP these days. Rather than
sit around trying the number over and over, I let the computer do the
job for me, via Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.
"If you want your computer to do the redialing for you,
double-click My Computer to open it. Next, double-click Dial-Up
Networking to open it. Now choose Connections, Settings. Select the
Redial check box, then set the number of redials you want to try
before giving up for a while. Finally, set the time between tries, and
click OK to close the dialog box and apply your changes."
"I need to use a larger font size in IE 4--my eyes are not what
they used to be. I know how to increase the font size by choosing
View, Fonts, but the change goes away when I close the program. Is
there a way to change the default settings to a larger font size so I
won't have to select a new font whenever I run IE 4?"
Yes, there sure is. Choose View, Internet Options. When the
Internet Options dialog box opens, click the General tab (if
necessary). Now click Fonts. When the Fonts dialog box opens, click
the arrow at the right side of the Font Size list box and select your
new font size (Small, Medium, Larger, and so on), then click OK to
close the Font dialog box. Back in Internet Options, click OK to close
the dialog box and save your font selection.
Over the years, we have had a number of questions about security
problems with Internet Explorer 4 and Windows 98. Some readers have
complained that Microsoft is no longer providing security patches for
IE 4. Although MS is certainly concentrating on the current products,
we still see IE 4-related patches at the MS site. To see what's
happening right now, and to download any new security-related patches,
go to
"If you want to make sure you don't lose your Favorites should your
computer go down, you can save them to a floppy disk very easily.
Place a blank formatted floppy disk into drive A:, then run Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4 and choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. Now
press Ctrl-A to select them all. Right-click one of the selected files
and choose Send To, 3 1/2 Floppy (A). This will copy all the Favorites
to the floppy disk for safekeeping."
"I like to download music files--some MP3, some WAV. The only
problem I have run into is that if you click the sound file's URL, the
audio player will open and play the song, but you can't save it as a
file. I found that you can save many of these files if you right-click
the URL and choose Save Target As."
If you want to save a file for later use, this method often works.
However, before we get a stack of negative e-mail, we should warn you
that you may be violating copyrights when you download and keep these
files.
"You can left-click an Acrobat Reader PDF file, and the file will
open in Acrobat Reader. But I often don't want to read the file while
I'm online, and Acrobat Reader only offers a Print command--no Save.
You can handle this problem easily. All you have to do is right-click
the PDF link and choose Save Target As."
"I like IE 4, but would like to try Netscape. I think it's unfair
for Microsoft to prevent the use of Netscape in Windows 98. Is it
possible to uninstall IE 4 and then install Netscape? Will I have
problems when I want to reinstall IE 4?"
There is no reason you can't try Netscape without uninstalling IE
4. We have done exactly that and had no problems using both. When
Netscape asks if you want to make it the default browser, you can
answer No if you want to keep IE 4 as your default or Yes if you want
Netscape.
We have had several questions about this. Microsoft does not lock
the system to keep you from running Netscape or any other browser,
aside from previous versions of IE. For example, if you run IE 4, you
can't also run IE 3. And if you decide to run IE 5, you can no longer
run IE 4.
"I would like to try the IE 5.5 beta. However, I definitely don't
want to lose IE 4. Is it possible to install IE 5.5 so I can run both
IE 4 and IE 5.5?"
Unfortunately, the answer is no. If you install IE 5.5, you will no
longer have IE 4 available. As far as we know, Microsoft has never
allowed the use of two of its browsers in the same Windows
installation.
You could probably load IE 5.5 and try it. If you don't like it,
you could uninstall. It's a risky proposition though. We suggest that
you wait until the release of IE 5.5, then consider whether you want
to use it or keep IE 4.
"If you like, you can run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 in Kiosk
mode. This means you will see the Web page with no toolbars, status
bars, or menus in the way. To do this, you need to make a shortcut
first. Just right-click the Internet icon and choose Create Shortcut.
Now right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. When the
Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Click the Target
entry box and press the right arrow key to move to the end of the
current command line. Type
-k
at the end of the line. Your Target line should now look something
like this:
"Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your settings. When you
double-click the new shortcut, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 will open
in Kiosk mode. The only problem with this is that you now have no
navigation buttons at all, but you can use the keyboard shortcuts
shown here to navigate:
Alt-left arrow = Back
Alt-right arrow = Forward
Ctrl-D = Add to Favorites
Ctrl-H = Open History folder
Ctrl-B = Open Organize Favorites
Ctrl-L = Open a new Web page
Ctrl-N = Open a new window
Ctrl-R = Refresh (you can also use F5)
Ctrl-W = Close the active IE window
"You can also use Alt-F4 to close the active IE 4 window."
"Sometimes I view the picture files (GIF, JPEG) in the Temporary
Internet Files folder. When I double-click a file, I get this message:
'Running a system command on this item may be unsafe. Do you wish to
continue?' If I go ahead and run the file, nothing drastic happens. Is
there a way to get Windows to stop showing the warning--perhaps a
Registry edit?"
You won't need to edit the Registry for this one. Just run
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and choose View, Internet Options. When
the Internet Options dialog box opens, click the Security tab, then
select the radio button labeled Custom. Next, click Settings. With the
Security Settings dialog box open, locate Launching Applications And
File In An IFRAME and select the Enable radio button. Click OK to
close the dialog box and save your selection. In Internet Options,
click OK to close the dialog box.
Now, when you click a file in the temporary folder, it will open
without a warning message.
"I have a question--what happens to all that information when the
download fails? Last night I spent approximately seven hours
downloading a single program. When I woke up in the morning to check
on its progress, the download had failed after about 75 percent of the
full file. I was wondering if I have to erase all the stuff that
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 has already downloaded."
Usually, if you restart a failed download, MSIE 4 will start a new
file. If the original file is named download.zip, the new file will
become download(2).zip.
We discussed Download Accelerator Plus in a recent tip. This
program not only speeds up your downloads, but allows you to resume a
download (in most cases--some sites won't allow it). Go to
"Can you rename Favorites something else? I know you are going to
wonder why I want to change the name. I'm a schoolteacher, and I have
had problems with a few kids deleting the Favorites folder. If I were
to use a different folder, maybe I could hold on to my URLs for a
while."
You can use any folder you want for your Favorites, but you'll have
to edit the Registry. Remember to exercise caution when modifying the
Registry. However, since we place our Favorites in a separate folder
accessible to both Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0, we have a REG file
you can use.
First, create the folder you want to use and copy your Favorites
into it. To create the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following
as shown. Where you see BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter. Do not type
BLANK LINE GOES HERE.
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\Shell Folders]
"Favorites"="D:\\Newfavorites"
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\User Shell Folders]
"Favorites"="d:\\Newfavorites"
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
NewFavorites is your new folder. If you want, substitute your
desired name for NewFavorites. Choose File, Save As, and name the file
Fav.reg. Click Save to save the file and close the Save As dialog box.
To merge the REG file with the Registry, double-click its icon. The
next time you start Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer will use your
new Favorites folder.
Choose File, Save As and name your file Addr.reg. Locate a folder
for your new file and click Save. To enter the data in the Registry,
double-click your new file's icon. You'll get a dialog box stating
that you are about to add information to the Registry. Click Yes to
continue.
Note that the REG file does not delete the Address Bar entries.
What it does is set them all (25 of them anyway) to a blank line. You
will see the icons in your Address Bar drop-down list. As you navigate
to new addresses, the icons will fill in with real URLs.
"Is there some simple way I can create a shortcut to my Favorites
folder on my desktop?"
Yes, there sure is--and it's very simple. Run Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4 and navigate to c:\Windows. Locate the Favorites folder in
MSIE's right pane. Use the right mouse button to drag the Favorites
folder icon to the desktop. When you release the mouse button, choose
Create Shortcut(s) Here from the menu.
"So far, I have avoided making any purchases over the Internet. I'm
afraid someone will get my credit card number and use it. What I do is
locate what I need on the Internet and then call that company with my
order. Am I being too cautious?"
We hear a lot about the dangers of the Internet, and much of what
we hear is certainly possible. One person who lost $1000 on the
Internet makes a better news story than the 50 million people who had
no problems. When you order from a company you know is legitimate, and
you are placing the order on a secure Web page (as is the case when
you're dealing with any reputable company), you're not in much danger.
There is always the possibility that an employee of the company
you're dealing with will misuse your credit card number, but this is
just as likely when you give your card number over the phone. In fact,
even when you use your card in person, a dishonest employee can cheat
you. For years, people have been victims of double-carding (making an
extra copy of a blank receipt, which the employee can fill in later).
Most Internet companies tell you you'll be placing your order on a
secure page. If you do NOT get this notice, proceed with caution--or
don't proceed at all. Also be wary of any company that doesn't publish
an address and phone number.
By the way, a number of people have been fleeced because they sent
their credit card numbers to someone by e-mail. We have even seen
credit card numbers posted in news groups. As Damon Runyon said, "This
is a real sucker."
"When printing Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 pages, I would like to
have the page number appear at the right side of the header. If I put
in &p to tell Explorer to print the page number, it always prints at
the left side of the header. Is there a way to tell Explorer to print
the page number at the right side of the page?"
To tell Internet Explorer where to print items in the header and
footer, use the position code &b. To check this out, run Explorer 4
and choose File, Page Setup. When the Page Setup dialog box opens,
click in the Header entry box and clear the current contents. Now type
&b&p
and click OK. When you choose File, Print and press Enter, Explorer
will print the page number at the right side of the header.
Here are a few rules. If you enter &b only once, the text to the
left of &b prints at the left side and the text to the right of &b
prints at the right side. So &p&b&p would print the page number at
both the left and right sides of the header. If you want to center an
item, use this form: &p&b&p&b. This will print the page number at the
left, in the center, and at the right.
"If you would like to preview your Favorites without actually
linking to them to take a look, why not get Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4 to show you previews?
"To do this, choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. With Organize
Favorites open, double-click the folder you want to view. Now
right-click inside the folder and choose View, Thumbnails.
"Note that only the thumbnails in your cache will appear. If the
system needs to fetch a picture from the Internet, it will dial and
connect."
"I read somewhere that there is an easy and quick way to open the
Quick Launch window. The only way I can find to do this is to run
Windows Explorer and go to C:\Windows\Application
Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\. Is there a better
way?"
You can right-click a blank area in the Quick Launch toolbar and
choose Open. This will open the Quick Launch window. The trick here is
to make sure you right-click a blank spot, which isn't always easy to
do. To make this easier, run the mouse pointer over the dividing line
between Quick Launch and the Windows toolbar. When the pointer becomes
a double arrow, drag to the right. This will leave you some blank
space in the Quick Launch toolbar.
"If you want to go to a new Web page and keep the current page
open, just open the new page in a new window. To do this, simply hold
down the Shift key while you click a link. The selected link will open
in a new window, and your original window will remain open."
You can also right-click a link and choose Open In New Window.
"I use Windows 98 with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. I would like
to use some of the Windows 98 upgrades, but I want to keep using
Explorer 4. Is there some way to get the security upgrades, bug fixes,
and so forth without upgrading to Explorer 5? As you know, if you
click Start, Windows Update, Microsoft forces you to upgrade to
Explorer 5 just to get the Windows 98 updates. I find this very
offensive and hope you can help me get around this requirement."
You are not alone in believing that Microsoft forces you to update
to Explorer 5. We have had several comments on this topic recently.
This is nothing more than a rumor--you do not have to upgrade to
Explorer 5 to update your Windows 98 software. Click Start, Windows
Update. When you get there, you will find that it doesn't force you to
upgrade anything you don't want to upgrade.
"I recently installed a second hard disk in my computer. The old
disk is still drive C: and it's only 4.0GB. The new drive is drive D:
and it is 30GB. I would like to move my Internet cache files to a
folder on drive D: since it has so much space. Is there a way to do
this? Will it require that I use RegEdit?"
Good news--you won't need RegEdit for this one. First create a new
folder for your cache files on drive D:. Next, run MSIE 4 and choose
View, Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens,
click the General tab. Now click Settings. This opens the Settings
dialog box, where you can click Move Folder. You'll get a warning
dialog box at this point. Click Yes if this is what you want to do,
then locate your new folder in the Browse for Folder dialog box.
After you select the folder, click OK. You'll get another dialog
box saying that you need to restart your computer for the changes to
take effect. Click OK and then close your open programs and restart
the computer.
"I have placed many of my most often used URLs into the Links bar.
To do this, I choose Favorites, Add To Favorites, then select Create
In and choose Links. However, I have found no way to organize the
links the way I want them. It appears that no matter what order I
create in the Links folder, the URLs in the Links bar don't change
position. Is there some way I can set the order in the Links bar?"
To set the URL order in the Links bar, just use the mouse to drag
the URLs to the desired location. If you should need to delete a URL
in the Links bar, just right-click it and choose Delete.
Since we're on the subject of cookies and how to deal with them,
here's another cookie tidbit--we recently happened across what we
think is the best cookie-handling program around. It's a Ziff-Davis
freeware utility called CookieCop Plus. This proxy resides between
your browser and the Internet. You can decide which cookies you want
and don't want.
You can also use CookieCop Plus to block access to sites you don't
wish to use again. Read all about CookieCop Plus and download it at
"In reference to the double IE dilemma, there is a fix. If you
install a program called Magic Folders, the current directory in which
IE 4 resides is not seen when IE 5.5 is installed. I had to use this
program when I had Netscape 4.07 installed and my new ISP wanted to
install 4.05 just to make the initial connection. Hiding the newer
version, installing 4.05, and configuring my ISP connection, then
removing 4.05, did the job. You can get Magic Folders at
Here is what they say about their program: 'Your invisible folders
and files can't be deleted, viewed, modified, or run. For all
practical purposes they don't exist. Use Magic Folders to protect your
finances, taxes, business and personal documents. Others won't know
these files exist and they won't be able to accidentally delete or
modify them either. With Magic Folders you can turn your computer over
to your children or coworkers without worrying if they'll delete,
modify or view important files.'
"You can test Magic Folders for 30 days. After that the
registration is $29 plus $1 shipping and handling."
"I am upgrading to a new computer with a good sound system. Is it
possible to listen to a CD while I use the Internet? Can I still hear
the sounds some Web pages use? Will listening to a CD while other
sounds play damage my sound system?"
Yes, you can listen to a CD while you use the Internet. And yes,
you can still hear the other sounds. However, if you play the CD at a
high volume, you may miss some of the Internet sounds. The way to deal
with this is to set the volume of each sound type.
To do this, start a CD, then go to an Internet site that has some
sound. Next, double-click the small speaker icon in your taskbar. When
the Volume Control Panel opens, try adjusting your CD volume along
with the WAV or MIDI volumes until you reach a balance of sound that
works for you. Click the Close box (the X in the upper-right corner of
the window) to close the Volume Control Panel.
"I like to have a good indication of what is happening when I move
the mouse pointer over a link. So I decided to have Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4 turn the link color a nice glowing pink.
"To do this, run MSIE and choose View, Internet Options. When the
dialog box opens, select the General tab, then click Colors (at the
bottom left of the dialog box).
"When the Colors dialog box opens, select the checkbox labeled Use
Hover Color. Now click the colored button to the right of Hover and
select a color. Click OK to close the Color dialog box. Back in
Options, click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new color
selection."
With Webster installed, you can select a phrase in any article on a
Web page, then right-click the selection and choose Encyclopedia
Lookup. This will take you to the Merriam-Webster site, where you will
find a considerable amount of information on your selected topic.
If all you want is the definition of a specific word, just select
the word, right-click it, and choose Define.
"I really appreciate the information you send us. Most of the time
this newbie even understands a lot of it. But today I felt like I was
reading ancient runes. If one doesn't know what an FTP is, one gets
lost from the very first sentence.
"I know a lot of your subscribers are sophisticated users, but
please think about those of us who are taking our first steps into
this wonderful world. When you write, please define or explain
acronyms or terms that novices would find unfamiliar."
We'd like to thank this reader for pointing out to us how easy it
is to forget to explain terms many of us spiel off without a thought.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. One common use for an FTP
program is to upload and download material for your own Web site. When
you create a Web site, you need a host for that site. A company with a
huge amount of disk space and throughput usually provides the host
site. You use the FTP program to send your HTML page and other files
to that remote computer, where others can access it on the Internet.
We will try to remember to explain all terms and acronyms. If we
should forget, please remind us again!
"I just recently put up my own Web page. I have been testing the
hit counter on my new page and noticed that it doesn't increment when
I press F5 to refresh the page. Is this a problem with my Web page or
with MSIE 4?"
This isn't really a problem at all. What you need to do to get many
Web page counters to increment is hold down the Ctrl key while you
press F5. Give this a try. It should work for you.
"If you would like to have two home page buttons--say, one for your
ISP and another for MSN.com--everything you need is already available.
All you have to do is set the Home button in the toolbar to the ISP
site, then click the Microsoft emblem in the upper-right corner of the
MSIE 4 window to navigate to MSN.com."
To do this, run MSIE 4 and go to your ISP site. Now choose View,
Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens, click
the General tab and select Use Current. Click OK to close the dialog
box and save your selection. As Mark says, you can now simply click
Home to go to your ISP's site, and the Microsoft icon to go to MSN.com.
"I have been using Windows 95 with IE 4. I set up my system so that
all the desktop icons are hidden--I have all I need in the taskbar. I
am in the process of getting a new computer that will run Windows NT
4.0 Workstation (I'll be running Windows 2000 later on). My question
is, can I still hide the desktop icons in Windows NT 4.0 as long as I
run IE 4?"
We just gave it a quick test here, and the answer is...drum roll,
please... yes.
For those of you who haven't tried this but might like to do so,
right-click the desktop and choose Active Desktop. If no check mark
appears next to View As Web Page, select that command. Now you can
open My Computer and choose View, Folder Options. Click the View tab
and select the check box labeled Hide Icon When Desktop Is Viewed As A
Web Page. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your selection.
This works fine in Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. We
can't comment on Windows 2000 Professional, which runs IE 5.0, so
you're on your own there.
"Many users don't realize that any folder window can become an FTP
client when you have Internet Explorer 4 installed. All you have to do
is type an FTP address into the Address toolbar and press Enter.
"You can't drag files from the FTP site to your local system, so
you need to double-click the file. You'll get a Save To Disk dialog
box, which you can use to select a location for your new file."
Keep in mind that the technique works only when you access
anonymous FTP sites. You can't access a site that requires a password.
"Did you know that you can open Organize Favorites in an Explorer
type of window? All you have to do is run Internet Explorer 4, then
hold down the Shift key while you choose Favorites, Organize
Favorites."
Give this a try and see if you prefer the Explorer type of view.
It's somewhat easier to work with if you need to move URLs around.
"Sometimes when I try to get to a Web site, I get an error message
telling me that the page can't display. If I try the page again,
occasionally it will open. However, most of the time, I just get the
error message again. How do I tell Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 to
stop giving me the error message when the page is really available?"
You get this error message when the page is unavailable or fails to
respond quickly enough. In the latter case, trying again will often
open the page. There is nothing you can do to prevent this message
from appearing. The problem is that Explorer can't find the requested
site, and is telling you so. It is not an Explorer problem.
"I already knew you could enter a partial URL in the form of
www.whatever.com, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 would handle the
http:// part for you. I recently discovered you don't even have to
enter that much. If you simply enter, say, microsoft and press
Ctrl-Enter, MSIE 4 will fill in the rest for you and take you to
http://www.microsoft.com."
This only works for .com sites. If you want to go to whatever.net,
you'll have to type in the whole name (www.whatever.net). If you enter
whatever.net and press Ctrl-Enter, MSIE will look for whatever.net.com.
Last month we stated that one can't run Internet Explorer 4 and 5
on the same Windows 98 installation.
"IE 4 and 5 can run on the same machine. These are the only two
versions of IE that can coexist. When installing IE 5x, you choose
Custom Installation and then click the Advanced tab. There it will
give you the choice to keep version 4x and still install 5x. It's a
bit hidden, but it's there."
DUAL MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORERS--PART 2 OF 2
Here is some additional information on simultaneously running
Internet Explorer 4 and 5:
"The words that follow come from the Help app that ships with
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5: "If you need to be able to run both
Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Explorer 4 on this computer, select
the Compatibility check box. You will be able to run Internet Explorer
5.5 as you typically do. You will also find your previous version in
the Internet Explorer group: click the Start menu, point to Programs,
point to Accessories, point to Internet Tools, and then click Previous
Internet Explorer Ver. 4.
"'Note: Running Internet Explorer 4 in compatibility mode is for
testing and evaluation purposes only. You should not use the
compatibility mode for your regular browsing. You also should not use
Internet Explorer 4 in compatibility mode to get product updates,
because Internet Explorer 4 updates could damage your Internet
Explorer 5.5 installation.'"
"It may be that everyone else has known this for years, but I
recently found you can set your home page by just dragging a current
URL to the Home button. For example, if you are viewing http://www.yahoo.com
and would like to make it your home page, just grab the icon to the
left of http://www.yahoo.com and drag it to the Home button. When you
release the mouse button, you'll get a dialog box asking if you want
to make this your start page. Click Yes, and you now have a new home
page."
"I do not recall if you have covered this point previously. For no
apparent reason, my Internet Explorer window has started to open in
full-page view. I do not like this as a default. How can I make it
open so I can see how the Web page is opening at the bottom of the
screen?"
We don't know why your setup has changed, but to set the opening
screen, run Internet Explorer and choose View, Internet Options. When
the Options dialog box opens, click the Advanced tab. Locate the check
box labeled Launch Browser In Full Screen Window and deselect it.
Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your selection. Now close
MSIE 4 and run it again. This time it should open in the normal view.
"Is there a way to delete the additional addresses listed in the
address bar when you click the down arrow on the right side of the
Address Bar in Internet Explorer 4? My kids have typed in a whole
bunch of addresses, and I want to get rid of them."
You can do this by editing the Registry. Be very careful when you
do this, though. Click Start, Run. Type
In the right pane, you'll see all your URLs. They appear in the
form url1=, url2=, and so on. Click any of the URLs you want to delete
and press the Delete key.
When you finish, choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit.
"I would like to delete files in my Temporary Internet Files
folder, but when I select all the files and press the delete button on
the keyboard, some files still remain. These files won't go away
regardless of how many times I try to delete them. How can I delete
these files?"
You usually can't delete the index files. Some of the other files
just come back again after you delete them. Suppose you always use the
same home page, and that page places files in the Temporary Internet
Files folder. Even though you delete those files, they will return the
next time you run Microsoft Internet Explorer.
This doesn't mean you should never delete the contents of your
\Windows\Temporary Internet Files folder--you should do so
periodically to clean out those files you no longer need. Just don't
be surprised to see some of the files return.
"Is there a way to delete the addresses that appear when you click
the down arrow on the right side of the Address Bar in Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4? I now have a bunch of addresses listed, and I'd
like to get rid of them."
The easy way to do this is to clear the History folder. To do this,
choose View, Internet Options. When the dialog box opens, click the
General tab (if necessary), then click Clear History. When finished,
click OK to close the dialog box.
If you want to clear the addresses without clearing History, you
can do it with a Registry Edit. If you decide on this course, be
careful. You should have no problem if you follow the instructions
closely.
Click Start, Run, type in
regedit
and press Enter. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\TypedURLs. In the right pane, you'll see all your URLs. They
will appear in the forms url1=, url2=, and so on. Click any of the
URLs you want to delete, then press the Delete key. When you finish,
choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit.
"If you want to clean up your \Windows\Temporary Internet Files
folder, but don't want to delete the cookies that determine your
preferences, try this. Run Windows Explorer and go to
\Windows\Temporary Internet Files. Choose View, Arrange Icons, By
Name. This will group all the HTML and other like files together.
"Locate the first HTML file and click it. Now hold down the
spacebar and scroll to the last HTML file in the list. Click that
file, then press Delete. If you also have GIF and JPG files to delete,
do the same with them."
"It seems to me you have never mentioned the fact that we are not
stuck with the contents of the Links bar as created by Microsoft. All
you have to do is run MSIE 4 and choose Favorites, Organize Favorites.
When the Organize Favorites window opens, double-click the Links
folder and delete whatever you want. Just click to select it, then
press Delete."
There's an even easier way to delete Links items--just right-click
the link you don't want and choose Delete.
"There must surely be some way to remove the addresses from the
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 Address Bar drop-down list other than
deleting your entire History folder. Could you please cover this
topic?"
This is a very frequent question. The answer is that Microsoft
didn't provide a way to delete the addresses other than by deleting
your History folder contents. But since we get so many questions about
this, we wrote a REG file that will do the job. As we always say, be
careful about running REG files--they do modify the Registry. We can't
guarantee that a REG file will do what you expect, so you're on your
own.
To create the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following as
shown here. Where you see the words BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press
Enter--don't type BLANK LINE GOES HERE.
"I use a new Microsoft mouse with the wheel in the middle. For
someone who uses the Internet a lot, this mouse is perfect. You can
scroll around in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 by just moving the
wheel. I discovered only a few weeks ago that you can also hold down
Ctrl and use the wheel to change the font size. I don't know how I
ever got along without the wheel."
Do you sometimes worry about cookies? Did you perhaps just see the
evening news do a real scare job on the Internet in general and
cookies in particular? Well, cookies are worth worrying about these
days. In the beginning, cookies were benign little files that simply
stored your personal settings on your computer. Most cookies are still
benign, but some are not.
Even when the cookies are benign, it now appears that some
unscrupulous people can get information from them--information about
you. If cookies do worry you, download Cookie Crusher from The Limit
Software and try it out for 30 days. You can tell Cookie Crusher which
cookies you want to accept and which you want to crush without mercy.
If you decide to use Cookie Cutter after the 30-day trial period,
you can register for $15. Big Brother is watching...do your part to
stay safe.
"I run Active Desktop. What I need to know is whether it is
possible to change the background in one folder without changing all
the others. Can I use a different background in each folder? Also, can
I get rid of the icon and folder name that appears in each folder?"
The answer to both of your questions is...drum roll, please...yes.
To create a new background for a folder, open the folder and choose
View, Customize This Folder. When the Customize This Folder dialog box
opens, select the radio button labeled Choose A Background Picture and
click Next. Now select a background from the list. If you select a
dark background, you may want to click the Text button and choose a
lighter text color. After you make all your selections, click Next.
Click Finish to save your settings and close the dialog box.
For the second question--to turn off the folder name and icon, open
the folder and choose View, As Web Page. This is a toggle command. If
you have it on currently, selecting it will turn it off. And if it is
off, you can turn it on by selecting As Web Page.
"I would like to copy a Web page to Paint. I press Ctrl-A to select
everything on the page, then I choose Edit, Copy. I then run Paint and
choose Edit, only to find that Paste is grayed out and will not work.
I tried this more than once, so I am sure I didn't do anything wrong.
Can you tell me what might be the problem?"
When you select the page as you did, then copy it to the Clipboard,
you are copying only the text on that page. That is why you can't
paste in Paint. If you copy a Web page and then run Notepad, you will
find that the Paste command is available and will work.
If you want to copy a Web page as a picture, click Full Screen (to
maximize the portion of the page that appears in the Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4 window), then press Print Screen to copy the
entire screen to the Clipboard. Now you can run Paint and paste in the
picture. To get what you want, you may need to do some editing or even
make more than one picture and then paste them together.
"I have noticed in several of your tips references to
cookie-removing software. Why can't I simply go into the cookie or one
of the temporary folders and delete any stored there? Are cookie
droppers getting sneaky and hiding them?"
You can delete them manually if you wish. You'll find cookies at
two locations-- \Windows\Cookies and \Windows\Temporary Internet
Files. Keep in mind, though, that you may want to retain cookies from
sites that use them to personalize a Web page for you.
We get a lot of questions from people who want to know how to
convert Netscape bookmarks to Internet Explorer 4 Favorites and vice
versa. We just ran across a program that does the job for you, and it
can convert to and from Opera as well.
If you'd like to check out this freeware program (actually
Donationware--read about it at the Web site), go to
exactly as shown here. We suggest that you copy this line and then
paste it into the new folder's name. The new Control Panel folder now
appears on your desktop. Use the right mouse button to drag the folder
to the Quick Launch bar. When you release the mouse button, a menu
will open. From this menu, choose Move Here."
You could also open the Quick Launch window as described in the
previous tip and work there to save an extra step or so. Right-click a
blank spot in the Quick Launch toolbar and choose Open. Right-click in
the Quick Launch window and choose New, Folder. Name it as described
above and then choose File, Close to close the Quick Launch window.
"Everyone knows you can select a new start page if you go to the
desired page, choose View, Internet Options, and click the General
tab. Next, you just click Use Current to make the current selection
your start page. Click OK to close the dialog box, and you're all set
to go.
"There is an even quicker way to change your start page. Navigate
to the page you want to use, then grab the page's icon in the Address
Bar. Drag the icon to the Home button and release the mouse button.
You'll get a dialog box asking if you want to make the selection your
current page. Click Yes, and you're finished."
"If you're working in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and need to get
to something on your hard disk, all you have to do is click in the
Address Bar and type
file:///c:\
to get to the drive C: root folder. You can use the same structure
to get to any other folder. For example, I sometimes need to access my
c:\data folder. All I have to do is enter
file:///c:\data
in the Address Bar, and I'm there."
Actually, MSIE 4 makes this even easier--all you have to do is type
"I recently got a new HTML editor (DreamWeaver). How can I make all
HTML files open in DreamWeaver instead of in Microsoft Internet
Explorer 4?"
We have a suggestion. Why not let HTML files open in MSIE 4 when
you double-click and offer the editor when you right-click? This way
you don't lose anything. To tell Windows 9x what you want, open My
Computer and choose View, Folder Options. When the Folder Options
dialog box opens, click the File Types tab and locate HyperText
Template. Select it and then click Edit. Next, click New and type
edit
in the Action text-entry box. Now press Tab to move to the
Application Used To Perform Action entry box and click Browse. Locate
your editor's EXE file and double-click it. Back in the Edit File Type
dialog box, click Close, then click Close again in the Folder Options
dialog box to dismiss the box and save your changes.
To check out your new setting, right-click an HTML file and choose
Edit In DreamWeaver. The file will open in DreamWeaver or whatever
editor you specify.
"I am fairly new to the Internet and Internet Explorer 4, and I
have a question. I clicked a URL to visit another site recently. When
I tried to get back to my original site, I couldn't. Is this a common
thing? Is there something I can do in IE 4 to get back to my original
site when I get trapped like this?"
You're not alone. This does happen often. You can click the arrow
at the right side of the Back button and select the previous site.
While we're on the subject of backups, here is how to make a backup
of your Internet Explorer 4 and Outlook Express accounts.
Click Start, Run, type
regedit
and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Account Manager\Accounts. Click Accounts and choose Registry, Export
Registry File. Give your file a name (we used Accounts) and locate a
folder for it. Click Save to close the Save As dialog box and save
your REG file.
To restore your accounts, just double-click the Accounts.reg icon.
"One tip I have never seen is that you can use an old MS-DOS
command to move to the previous page in Internet Explorer 4. If you
click in the Address Bar, then type two periods (..) and press Enter,
IE 4 will go back to the previous page. This tip probably isn't
especially useful, I just thought it was interesting."
We have seen this one before. You're right, it is rather
interesting.
"Here is an IE 4 feature I have never seen mentioned in any tip.
Let's say you click in the Address Bar and type
www.m
Press and hold Ctrl, then click the arrow at the right side of the
Address Bar to expand the list. The trick is that, as long as you use
Ctrl when you click the arrow, you will see only the URLs in your list
that begin with the letter M."
"I would like to organize my Favorites in alphabetical order in
Internet Explorer 4. I know you have touched on this before for IE 5,
but that method doesn't work for version 4."
The Favorites are in alphabetical order by default. Of course, if
you've moved them around, they may not be in order. You can order them
as you wish if you choose Favorites to open the menu, then grab the
folders (or URLs) with the mouse and move them to a new spot.
To start with an alphabetized Favorites menu, you can use a simple
Registry edit. Remember to exercise caution when modifying the
Registry.
To proceed, click Start, Run, type
regedit
and press Enter. Now navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites\Menu.
In the RegEdit right pane, you'll see a key named Order.
Right-click this key and choose Delete. Click Yes to confirm the
deletion, then choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit. After you
restart the computer, you'll find that your Favorites are all in order
again, just the way you like them.
"I have seen tips that say you can press Ctrl-D to place a page
into the Favorites folder. These tips always point out that the new
Favorite goes into the root of the Favorites folder. However, you can
also choose the folder in which you want to place a URL using
keystrokes. If you press Alt-A and then press A again (by itself),
Internet Explorer opens the Add Favorite dialog box, which allows you
to select a folder for the new URL.
"Also, you can scroll down through a Web page by pressing the
spacebar. To scroll up through a page, press Shift-spacebar."
"There is a really easy way to add a Web page to Favorites in
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. All you have to do is grab the URL in
the Address Bar and drag it to the Favorites on the menu bar. When you
release the mouse button, the Favorites list will expand and you can
save the URL in the folder of your choice."
If you want the URL to go into the Favorites root folder, you can
drag the URL to the Favorites button.
"Some time ago, you published a tip on how to add divider icons to
the Quick Launch bar. I have reinstalled my system and would like to
re-create the dividers, but I don't remember how. Could you run
through this again?"
No problem. Create the icon using Paint (or an icon editor). To use
Paint, run the program and choose Image, Attributes. Set both Width
and Height to 32 pixels and click OK. Now choose View, Zoom, Large
Size. Draw the icon and choose File, Save As. When the Save As dialog
box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Save As Type list
box and select 256 Color Bitmap (*.bmp;*.dib). Name your icon Divide
and navigate to \Windows. Click Save to save your new icon and close
the dialog box.
Right-click an empty spot in the Quick Launch bar and choose Open.
Right-click the Open window and choose New, Text File. In the text
file, enter
[Shell]
IconFile=c:\windows\divide.bmp
Choose File, Save As, and name the file Div.scf. The icon will now
appear in your Quick Launch bar. You can right-click it and choose
Create Shortcut(s) Here to create as many divider icons as you need.
"A few months ago, you recommended a program called AdsOff. I
loaded this program, and now the photo on the opening MSN page doesn't
display. Is there another program that will disallow ads and still let
me see the photos?"
There are a number of programs available. Some eliminate ads,
others only get rid of pop-ups, and some take care of both. However,
you might first try reconfiguring AdsOff.
To reconfigure AdsOff, click Start, Programs, AdsOff, AddsOff
Options. When the dialog box opens, select the radio button labeled
Only Large Banners, then click Save, Close. Try this setting for a
while and see if it works for you. If not, you can try setting the
Filter Strength to Weak.
Any time you use an ad or pop-up eliminator, you're potentially
going to lose some information you might like to see.
"I have noticed that everyone suggests clicking in the Address Bar
when you want to highlight the current contents so you can type a
replacement. This is fine if you happen to be near there with the
mouse pointer anyway. But the quickest way to highlight the Address
Bar contents is to press Alt-D and start typing."
"In response to a recent Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 tip, I
wanted to add that there is a way to enter a user name and password to
access an FTP site in MSIE. The syntax is as follows."
"If you would like to hide all your desktop icons, you can place
everything you need into the Quick Launch toolbar. To do this, run
Windows Explorer and navigate to \Windows\Application
Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch. Next, open your Desktop
folder (in Windows Explorer) and press Ctrl-A to select all the
desktop objects. Now use the right mouse button to drag the selected
files to \Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Quick\Launch. When you release the mouse button, choose
Create Shortcut(s) Here from the pop-up menu.
"Still in Windows Explorer, choose View, Folder Options and click
the View tab. Select the check box labeled Hide Icons When Desktop
Viewed As Web Page. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your
changes. You should now have a completely clear desktop, and all the
desktop objects should appear in the Quick Launch toolbar."
"If you don't want to deal with the slowdown caused by image
display, you can download PowerToys from Microsoft. One of the
PowerToys utilities lets you Toggle Images on or off. PowerToys places
a button on the Links bar, and you only need to click it once to
toggle images on and click again to toggle images off.
"If I right-click a picture in IE 4 and then choose 'Save
Picture As,' the Save Picture dialog box opens. It looks like I can
only save the picture in GIF format. I would prefer to save files as
BMP. Is there a way to get IE 4 to save in BMP format?"
When the Save dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side
of the 'Save as type' list box, you'll find that you can select BMP.
IE 4 offers two options--the original file format (usually GIF or
JPG), and BMP.
"I sometimes need to print a web page to get a hard copy of its
contents. I often end up printing a full page or even more just to get
a print out of two or three paragraphs. Is there some way to get IE 4
to print only a paragraph? I tried selecting a paragraph before
printing, but that didn't do anything."
Select the text you want to print, then right-click it and choose
Print. When the Print dialog box opens, select the radio button
labeled 'Selection,' then click Print to continue.
"I sometimes like to use full screen mode in IE 4, but I don't want
to stay in it all the time. I know you can click the Full screen
button in the toolbar to switch back and forth between normal and
full, but a friend said she thinks there is a simple keystroke that
will switch. We tried all kinds of key combinations, but never found
one that works. Is there a keystroke to switch between full screen and
normal screen?"
Yes, there is. Press F11 to switch between full screen and normal
screen.
"I recently installed MSN and the MSN icon replaced the e-thing
icon in the upper right corner of the IE 4 window. I would like to get
the e-thing icon back. Is there a way?"
You need to locate the MSN icon files and rename them. To do this,
click the desktop, then press F3 to open Find. Search the hard disk
for Smmbrand.bmp and Msnbrand.bmp. When you locate these two files,
change their extensions to OLD (or any three letters other than BMP).
When you restart the computer, your original icon should reappear in
IE 4.
"Here is one I'll bet you've never seen before--you can find out
when the current web page was last modified just by typing an
instruction into the Address Bar. Just click in the Address Bar, type
javascript:alert(document.lastModified)
and then press Enter. IE 4 will now show you the date and time of
the current page's last modification."
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