Most people get their computer with
Internet Explorer already installed and set to all the default settings. The default
settings are what Microsoft calls “recommended settings”. These settings are not
always the best for your usage. One size does not always fit all. But how do you change
the settings and what do they all mean? I’m glad you asked...
In this article I am going to take you step by step through
these settings to explain them to you. Open a new browser window before you start, so you
can follow these steps as you read the article. At the top of your new browser window,
click on “tools” then “Internet Options”.
The first tab you will see is the “general” tab.
The very first option you have is where to set your home page. Type in
http://forum.dugancom.com/. I’m just kidding. That is my website. Pick a website that
you want your browser to open to every time you go online. If you have a favorite search
engine, put it there. If you have a home page enter that. Hit apply when you have done
this and that will be your home page from now on. Anytime you hit the home button at the
top of your browser it will automatically go to that page.
The next option you have is to “delete cookies”.
There is a lot said about how to manage cookies and what they are for on the Internet. But
for the purposes of this article I will just tell you that cookies store information like
websites where you want to be automatically logged in rather than having to type in a
username and password every time. There are other cookie uses and hopefully I will have
time to write about that in another article. If you delete the cookies, you will have to
login to websites you use often and it won’t remember your username etc.
The next button says “delete files”. These are
the temporary files Internet Explorer stores on your hard drive so if you go back to them
they will load faster because the images and other files are already downloaded. Later we
will get to another area with a setting that will help you manage this. You can go ahead
and delete these files if you want to and every now and then you should.
The next button is called “settings”. Click on
that button now. It says, “Check for newer versions of stored pages... “ then
gives you several options. Clicking “every visit to the page” will cause pages
to load slower because rather than going into the temporary Internet files for cached
files, it queries the server for the newest version of any files on that page.
“Every time I open Internet Explorer” means that
the first time you visit that website, “this session”, it will check for a newer
version of the page. After that, it will refer to the cached page on your hard drive.
“Automatically” means you let Internet Explorer manage this for you and that is
the recommended setting. “Never” means it will always use the cached version on
your hard drive rather than check for newer versions.
I recommend either auto or never, because if you want to
check for newer versions of a page all you have to do is push shift and hit the refresh
button on your browser tool bar.
The next option in settings is how much space to allow for
temporary Internet files. Five to Twenty megabytes is plenty. Internet Explorer tends to
override your choice here anyway. Bill knows best I guess.
The next button is “move folder”. Don’t
click that. Back away slowly and do not touch that button. It sends nuclear missiles at
several minor countries. Seriously, moving the location of your temporary Internet files
is not a good idea. The next button, “view files” is pretty boring stuff and you
don’t need to do anything here. The same can be said for “view objects”.
Those three can all be left alone.
Go ahead and click ok so we can go back to the general tab.
You will see the next option is about computer history. Now this is a personal choice. You
know how links you have clicked on before are a different color than those that you have
not clicked on? Well history remembers that for you so you know which pages you have or
have not visited. It also records the history of all the websites you or anyone else on
your computer has visited. In your address bar, the drop down arrow that shows you all the
websites you have been to is put there by the “history” option. It is also used
if you have auto-complete enabled for web addresses you are typing into your address bar.
You can set this for the number of days you want to save
history for. If you have kids, you can access these files to see where they are going on
the Internet as well. If you are using a computer at work you might want to set this to 1
day. To the right of where you enter the number of days is the button to erase history
now. Computer experts can still find your history. This is not absolute.
Next button is “colors”. The best setting is
“use windows colors, but experiment if you want to. Next button is “fonts”
and if you click on that, it’s pretty self-explanatory. This is not where you choose
font size. That is in the “view” part of your browser rather than the
“tools” area we are in now. “Languages” is also self-explanatory.
“Accessibility” is where you can alter settings if you have special needs.
Ok, now let’s move on to the “Security” tab.
“Medium” is the best setting for most users and probably is already set there.
Be careful when changing security options that you do not understand. Click “custom
level”. Scroll through. If there are things you are absolutely sure about and want to
change, then do so. But if you are not sure, don’t change it.
You will see that when we first came to the tab the
“Internet” icon was selected in the window at the top. You can also click on
“Local Internet” and do the same for your settings there. This is for your local
network if you have one. The next icons are, “trusted sites” and
“restricted sites”. You can add websites to either area that you wish to allow
or disallow no matter what other settings are on your computer. This is one way to block
your child from visiting a particular website.
Go to the next tab at the top called “privacy”.
Now this is another area where you need to be careful and understand what you are changing
before doing so. This is probably already set to “medium” which is fine for most
users. The “import” button probably doesn’t apply to you. Click the
“advanced” button. Everything here is probably grayed out except the option to
check override cookie handling.
Automatic settings mean that you accept both first party
and third party cookies. That means you accept cookies from the website you are visiting
and from any other websites that the website you are visiting has chosen to set cookies on
your hard drive like their advertisers or others who want to track user’s habits.
Click ‘override automatic cookie handling”, then
check “block” for the third party cookies and you will block some spyware or
adware being placed on your system. If you want to block cookies from a particular website
or you want to only allow cookies from specific websites, this is where you add those
websites.
Next, we go to the “Content” tab. Again, this is
an area that you need to know what you are changing before you change anything. You can
click “enable” for content advisor. The first slider bar can be changed to block
different types of content. First you can start with types of language you wish to block,
then nudity, sex, and violence by clicking the icons in the window and using the slider
bar. The “more info” button will help you understand this more.
The “approved sites” tab at the top will let you
enter websites that you want to access regardless of the settings you just made with the
slider bar. On the “general” tab, you should click allow websites that have no
rating because not all websites are rated. You can also check the box that says a
supervisor, you, can use a password to access restricted websites.
If you share your computer with your children, this is an
option where you can visit restricted websites but they cannot. Be careful when setting
this password. If you forget it, you will not be able to make changes to these settings
later. If you lose this password, you have to know how to go into the registry to get it
removed. Unless you know about rating systems, you don’t need to worry about the two
buttons at the bottom of this tab or the “advanced tab”.
Click ok to make any changes you made and to enter a
password if you decided you wanted one. If you understand about “certificates”
and “publishers” then you don’t need my help here. If you don’t
understand them, leave those buttons alone.
Click the “autocomplete” button. This is pretty
easy to understand. Autocomplete works to help you not have to type the same information
on forms and in your Internet Explorer address bar. You can also clear any previous
information here. Click prompt me to save passwords and it will ask you each time you
enter a password if you want Internet Explorer to remember your password for this website
so you don’t have to type it in every time. I don’t recommend you allow it to
remember banking and financial passwords.
“My Profile” is where you can enter information
about yourself and use that whenever asked for your profile on a website or it can be
automatically accessed by some applications saving you time.
Now, click the “connections” tab. If you are
currently connected to the web and reading this article, then it is safe to assume your
settings here are correct and you should leave them alone.
Click the “programs” tab at the top. There are
drop down menus to help you set the default program for each of the tasks. This is a
personal choice that will let you set your default web browser, html editor, and email
program.
Now we reach the “advanced” tab at the top. Scary
hunh? No, this area is mostly personal choices and your choices don’t have near the
serious consequences of your settings in “content”, “privacy”, and
“security”.
Most of the choices should be left where they are as the
default settings. I will only talk here about the ones you may want to change. Do not
check notification for EVERY script error unless you want to be annoyed a lot. Not every
script in every webpage is error-free and there will be a lot of popups about them if you
check that box.
Notify me when downloads complete if checked will give you
a sound when a download is done. Underline links is a personal choice. I leave it set on
always so I know when I see a link. The next ones again are a choice of whether you want
to use Autocomplete.
You can scroll through the rest of the choices and change
the ones you understand. Likely if you don’t understand an option you don’t need
to change it anyway. I hope this article has been helpful to you and has helped you
personalize your settings rather than have Bill Gates do it for you. |
