Internet Explorer Hacks and Tips

Odd Toolbar Behavior

Did you ever get your Toolbars in IE set just right only to reboot and you lose your settings? Many times when Toolbars are added or removed the Registry entry that controls these settings does not get updated or has become corrupt. You can download a small reg file to reset (to default) and correct this behavior.

• Download: ResetBrowserToolbar .reg [right-click and select: "Save Target As"
  To use: right-click and select: Merge - Ok the prompt and reboot.

Missing Status Bar

The above reg file will correct this behavior, if your status bar disappears when opening a new IE browser window. However make sure that option is selected - right-click the top Toolbar and select: Status Bar. If you are still having problems verify the below Registry entries exist and are correct:

[HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Main]
"Show_StatusBar"="yes"
"Show_URLinStatusBar"="yes"

Opening Internet Explorer Full Size

Ever notice sometimes you right-click on a link and open a new window and it's not full screen? This usually occurs because IE remembers the last window size when closed. Many times a background pop-up will do this too, if it is the last window closed. To resize the window and regain control:

• Close all instances of Internet Explorer except for one.
• Right-click on a link in the page and select: "Open in New Window"
• Close the first browser window using the [ X ] (upper right corner)
• Resize the window manually by dragging the sides to the desired size.
  Note: Do NOT click the Maximize button, you must do it manually.
• Hold down the Ctrl key and click the Close button (upper right)

[Exception]
In some cases the "Remember last window size" info becomes corrupted in the Registry.

[HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Main]
"Window_Placement"=

To reset the "Window_Placement" entry to default. You can download a small reg file to reset (to default) and correct this behavior.

Download: ResetWindowPlacemen t.reg [right-click and select: "Save Target As"]
To use: right-click and select: Merge - Ok the prompt and reboot.

Gain more viewing space

• Right-click the Toolbar and select: "Unlock the Toolbars"
• Left-click the Address Bar button, it changes to a four-way arrow
• Drag the Address Bar into the empty space next to Help in the Toolbar
• Next, right-click on any of the Icon Buttons, and uncheck Text Labels
• Also you can select: Small Icons from the Customize menu.
• Then right-click the Toolbar and select: "Lock the Toolbars"

Resize your IE Cache size

By default IE reserves 10% of your drive space for the Temporary Internet Files. This was fine several years ago but since then the hard drive capacities have increased dramatically. If you happen to have one of these large disks the 10% is truly unnecessary and wasteful.

• Close all instances of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
• Control Panel | Internet Options | General tab
• Click Settings and move the slider to 50 mb, click Ok
• Click Delete Files and also select: "Delete all offline files", click Ok
• Click Clear History, click Ok, Apply\Ok

Note: While viewing Newsgroup messages Outlook Express dumps a series of zero-byte files into the TIF. When Outlook Express is closed it fails to cleanup these files. To delete these zero-byte files you must select the above option "Delete all offline files".

Spell Checker for Internet Explorer

ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes.
Editors Note: has an option to integrate the database from other spell checkers.

Agent Ransack (freeware) File searching software
This is not a replacement to Microsoft's built-in Search Utility, it's just much faster!

Removing Unwanted IE Menu Items

• Scan your system with Ad-Aware or SpyBot
• Run HijackThis! and select the "08/09" items you want removed.

To manually remove from the Registry [Experienced Users]

[HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\MenuExt]

• Click open "+MenuExt" (left pane) Locate the desired Menu Extension (highlight)
  Make a note of the corresponding (htm) file (right pane)
  Right-click the desired key (Menu Extension) select: Delete
  Note: always Export before editing the Registry.
• Close Regedit, Open Windows Explorer
  Locate and delete the "corresponding (htm) file" (if exists)

Repairing your Winsock Connection

If you have suddenly lost your Internet connection after removing a unwanted program (such as NewDotNet, and Commonname) the following steps will help restore your connection.

• Repairs Winsock 2 settings: http://www.cexx. org/lspfix. htm
• WinsockFix.exe (by: Option^Explicit) [ site1] [site2]
• How to Reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP

Fast Printing web pages without images

• Create a one line .css file [example] "NoImages.css", copy the below line to Notepad and Save As: NoImages.css. Open Internet Options | General tab | Accessibility button, place a check in "Format documents using my style sheet", click OK.
  
  IMG { display: none !important;}
  Download: NoImages.css [right-click and select: Save Target As]

The next time you want to print the contents of a web page but don't want to waste the time and ink printing all the ads, banners, etc. just Toggle the above option on\off.

Note: there is no need to restart IE as this trick works on the fly. Also be aware that CWShredder detects any/all .css files as suspect and deletes them. CWShredder is no longer recommended ... avoid using this outdated program.