Internet Explorer Tweaking

[Bold_Fortune]

(I know, I know, "Use Firefox." lol. But for now, let's just keep this thread about tweaking Internet Explorer.)

These are some of the tweaks I use, maybe you have some you'd like to share.

Better Browsing Tweaks:

This is my favorite IE tweak of all time. A very special thank you to pete for creating this tweak for me:

Remove ActiveX Bar In IE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 

;Remove  ActiveX Bar In IE
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer] 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main] 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl] 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_SECURITYBAND] 
"(Reserved)"="0" 
"explorer.exe"="0" 
"iexplore.exe"="0" 
"wmplayer.exe"="0"

Stop IE from going to MSN search on incorrect URL

Go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced Tab > scroll down to 
"Search from the Address bar" and check "Do not search from the 
Address bar"

Speed Up Network Browsing By Removing Network Scheduled Tasks

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 

;Speed Up Network Browsing By Removing Network Scheduled Tasks
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}]

Disable Image Toolbar in IE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Disable Image Toolbar in IE
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Enable_MyPics_Hoverbar"="no"

Disable SP2 Security Center

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 

;Disable SP2 Security Center
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center]
"AntiVirusDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
"AntiVirusOverride"=dword:00000001
"FirewallDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
"FirewallOverride"=dword:00000001
"FirstRunDisabled"=dword:00000001
"UpdatesDisableNotify"=dword:00000001

Removes dialog box pop up asking if you want to browse the web when trying an open a file with an unknown extension. It will now go directly to the Open With menu

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Removes dialog box pop up asking if you want to browse the web when trying an open a file with an unknown extension. It will now go directly to the Open With menu
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"NoInternetOpenWith"=dword:00000001

Open In New Window Right-Click Option

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Open In New Window Right-Click Option
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\Open_with]
@="Open new"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\Open_with\command]
@="rundll32.exe shdocvw.dll,OpenURL %1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\Open_with\ddeexec\Application]
@="shdocvw"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\shell\Open_with\ddeexec\Topic]
@="System"

RemoveScriptDebugger

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;RemoveScriptDebugger
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]

"Disable Script Debugger"="yes"

Set IE Homepage

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 

;Set IE Homepage
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"StartPage"="http://www.yahoo.com/"

Appearance Tweaks

Remove IE Help Menu Items

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Remove IE Help Menu Items
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions]
"NoHelpItemNetscapeHelp"=dword:00000001
"NoHelpItemSendFeedback"=dword:00000001
"NoHelpItemTipOfTheDay"=dword:00000001

Remove Throbber In IE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Remove Throbber In IE
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]
"LinksFolderName"="Links"
"ShowDiscussionButton"="Yes"
"Theater"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,18,00,00,00,1b,00,00,00,5c,  00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,05,00,00,00,22,00,00,00,26,00,  00,00,02,00,00,00,21,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,  00,03,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\ShellBrowser]
"ITBarLayout"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,1a,00,00,00,10,00,00,00,  17,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,6a,00,00,00,26,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,56,  00,00,00,02,00,00,00,29,00,00,00,57,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,a8,00,00,00,00,00,  00,00,04,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,55,01,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\Explorer]
"ITBarLayout"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,1a,00,00,00,13,00,00,00,  33,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,6a,00,00,00,26,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e1,00,00,00,df,  01,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,bd,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,20,00,00,00,8d,01,  00,00,03,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,b8,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser]
"ITBarLayout"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,1a,00,00,00,10,00,00,00,  17,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,6a,00,00,00,26,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,e0,  01,00,00,02,00,00,00,29,00,00,00,44,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,33,00,  00,00,03,00,00,00,09,00,00,00,42,00,00,00

Security Tweaks:

Get rid of Tracking Cookies

You'll never again pickup another tracking cookie...or that bugger, Doubleclick Cookie.  (Boy, that thing used to really annoy me.)

You can keep an eye on the Cookies that get dropped on your computer in this folder C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Cookies

Go into Internet Options.  

Click on the Privacy tab.  

Then click on Advanced.

In Advanced Privacy Settings...  

Put a check in "Override automatic cookie handling".  

Under "First-party Cookies", put a check in Accept.  

Under "Third-party Cookies", put a check in Block.  

Put a Check in "Always allow cookie sessions".

Disables Error Reporting, but notifies when critical errors occur

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;Disables Error Reporting, but notifies when critical errors occur
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting]
"DoReport"=dword:00000000

DO NOT PERSIST!

Courtesy of Terry (tblount2@flash.net), Crack Talk Newsletter editor:

"MS Internet Explorer 5.5 Advanced Security Privacy Beta manages cookies and maintains a higher degree of security and privacy never attained before.

Now you can configure your browser settings to differentiate between cookies that originate from a web server you're intentionally visiting, and cookies that originate from other web sites which provide advertising or services. A new Help menu item provides an overview section and important links to information about Internet Explorer's security and privacy features.

It is gracious of Microsoft to improve cookie control, but another process (used in the past on Microsoft's own Web sites) can track visitors even better than cookies. The feature called "User Data Persistence" (UDP) appeared in MS IE 5.0 and is not as well known or as easily managed as cookies, but unfortunately can accomplish the same thing.

There is no warning flag that can be toggled to tell you when Data Persistence is being used on a web site to store information from your system, but it can be turned off:

open IE -> from the File menu click Tools -> Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level -> Miscellaneous -> disable "User Data persistence".

The purpose Data Persistence was developed for was to offer the ability to "persist" information, which also lets you retain style and state beyond a single web page. Preserving style and state helps make it easy to produce web applications that use DHTML, such as an expensive report that automatically configures itself based on a user's personalized settings.

A few lines of client-side script can accomplish what once required server-side programming and complicated scripts. The user data persistence behavior makes it easy to save information entered into a text field. Rather than query a server-side CGI script, the persisted information is saved to the CLIENT using two JScript-based functions and the persistent object, the data need never go to the server.

This is an excellent example of how UDP was originally designed to be used.

More info:

IE 5.0: User Data Persistence.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0: The Inside Story.

MSN Cookie & GUID tracking techniques.

[This link courtesy of Ojatex@aol.com!]"

Hidden Yahoo Option:

Per Presto:

As you all know, Yahoo! upgraded its features and the capacities of the mail accounts have grown to 250 MB. That's good for sure, but the "monitoring" methods that we all have been far too familiar with in the last couple of years have been renewed with this move also. Yahoo! is now keeping track of which sites its members that are getting into groups or using Yahoo! services are visiting and storing this data with a method called "Web Beacons". The aim is to give these statistics to the partner companies arranged by agreement and to improve the "advertisement guiding" function.

However, those who are bothered by this and do not want to be kept track of have still a choice. Yahoo! has hidden this option way deep inside somewhere but I'm declaring it here in case there are people who want it anyway:

1. Go to the address http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy and click the "Cookies" link under the "Special Topics" column.

2. Click the "Web Beacons" link under the "Reference Links" Column.

3. On this page, click the "click here to opt out" link toward the end of the third paragraph under the "Outside the Yahoo! Network" title.

4. After a while, a page that says you have been out of the monitoring program will load. Without doing anything, close that page or continue your usual surfing by typing another address in the address bar. (Do NOT click the "Cancel Opt-out" button, your action will be cancelled!)

5. You're done! Now Yahoo! will not record what you're doing during surfing.

You can let your friends that might be interested know about this; since no matter how "innocent" it may seem, it's still a violation of privacy.

You may also find this thread interesting...

http://www.bold-fortune.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=209

[maxXPsoft]

Bold_Fortune

for those of us do use it occasionally. I'm not limited to just one browser cause the new 7.0 looks to be promising when they get the bugs out of it

Edited December 12, 2005 by maxXPsoft