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Select from the tips below:
Make Google Your Default Search Engine
Cannot Connect to Secure Web Sites
Remove the branding from Internet Explorer
How to create a shortcut/desktop icon that opens a web page in a different Browser
Full Screen
Favicon
Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 7 again!
Web Links open in small window
Internet Explorer 7 Printing
Internet Explorer 7 Menu Bar
How to save your Favorites
Internet Explorer 7 Problems
Cannot enter text
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Make Google Your Default Search Engine
When you click on the “Search” button in Internet Explorer it defaults to using MSN search. I wonder why?
To change this to Google, go to http://www.google.com/options/defaults.html and scroll down to “Make Google Your Default Search Engine”
This page also gives instructions for other browsers and operating systems.
An even better option is to use Firefox (from: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/) where you can choose your search engine from within the search box and even add more to the list of engines if you want.
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Internet Explorer Cannot Connect to Secure Web Sites
There are a number of possible causes, which in turn have a number of suggested fixes.
1. Verify that the Date and Time Settings on Your Computer Are Correct:
Because SSL certificates have an expiry date, if the date on your computer isn't correct, it may prevent you from connecting to secure sites. To verify that your computer is configured with the correct date and time settings:
Click Start > click Control Panel
Click Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options, and then click Date and Time
Select the Date & Time tab
Check to make sure that the date and time settings are the current date and time, and then click OK
2. Check Firewall/Network Configuration
Check that only one Firewall is running.
Make sure that the SSL port (port 443) is open on your network/firewall (if you have any). There are many different Firewall/Network products, so I can't give set-by-step instructions. Check the documentation or help file of the product you use.
Briefly disable the Firewall and see if that enables you to connect to a secure site - if it does you know that the problem is with the Firewall.
3. Check that Cryptographic Services are running
Click on Start, Run, type "services.msc" and click OK. Look for Cryptographic Services in the list as "Started". If not, click on it to get to its Properties and check the Startup type is shown as Automatic. Click on Start Service.
4. Try Firefox
If you can access secure sites with Firefox then the problem is with Internet Explorer and you can try the following steps:
5. Verify that Internet Explorer Is Using 128-Bit Encryption
To check:
In Internet Explorer, on the Help menu, click About Internet Explorer
The level of encryption on your computer appears next to the words Cipher Strength. Verify that the Cipher Strength value appears as 128-bit
If the Cipher Strength is anything less then 128-bit, download the Internet "Explorer High Encryption Pack" to your computer's hard disk, and then install it.
6. Delete Temporary Internet Files
There's a possibility of some corrupted files in your Temporary Internet Files (TIF) storage. To clear these:
In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and select the General tab
Under Temporary Internet files, click Delete Files, and click OK when you are prompted to confirm the deletion. Also Delete Cookies.
7. Configure Internet Explorer Security, Content, and Advanced Settings
a. Configure Security settings for the Trusted sites zone in Internet Explorer:
In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and select the Security tab
Select Trusted sites, and then click Default Level
Add the secure Web site you are trying to access to the Trusted sites zone. To do so, click Sites, type the address (URL) of the site in the Add this Web site to the zone box, click Add, click OK, and then click Apply
b. Clear the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) slate and AutoComplete history:
In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and select the Content tab
Under Certificates, click Clear SSL State
Click OK when you receive the message that the SSL cache was successfully cleared
Under Personal information, click AutoComplete
Under Clear AutoComplete history, click Clear Forms. Click OK when you are prompted to confirm the operation.
c. Verify that Internet Explorer is configured to use SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0:
In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and select the Advanced tab
In the Settings box, under the Security header, click to select the Use SSL 2.0 and Use SSL 3.0 check boxes (if they are not already selected), and then click OK
8. Check the file integrity of the IE and Outlook:
Start>Run>cmd>OK then at the command prompt sfc /scannow
(It might ask for the Windows CD to upload the corrupted files)
9. Re-register certain DLL (dynamic link library) files:
Start>Run>cmd>OK then at the command prompt type:
regsvr32 softpub.dll
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
regsvr32 initpki.dll
regsvr32 dssenh.dll
regsvr32 rsaenh.dll
regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll
regsvr32 sccbase.dll
regsvr32 slbcsp.dll
regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll
and wait for the OK message in each case
10. Try another User
The problem may also be caused by a corrupted user profile in the Registry. Log in as a different user (create one if necessary) and see if you can access secure sites from there.
If that is the problem, set up a new profile and copy data from your old profile.
Delete the old profile (System Properties, Advanced, User Profiles, Settings).
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Remove the branding from Internet Explorer
Are you annoyed by the Title at the top of Internet Explorer saying “Microsoft Internet Explorer provided by some ISP that you don’t use any more”?
Then this is for you:
Warning, this tip uses the Registry editor - only change what I say below. If you change anything else you could wreck Windows. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Start, Run, regedit, OK
Edit, Find "Window Title" (one space between words), Find Next (wait whilst it searches)
Right click "Window Title", Select Modify
Change Value Data to whatever you want,
Click OK
Use F3 to find and change any more until you reach the end.
Return to the top of the Registry
Exit regedit
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Full Screen
Have you got so many toolbars at the top of your browser that you seem to only have half the screen left for browsing?
Left click on View, then on Toolbars and untick (deselect) the ones that you never use. That will give you more browser space, but...
To switch to Full Screen browsing, hit the F11 key. And before you panic, the way out is to hit the F11 key again - it toggles between the ordinary browser and full screen.
Just out of interest, Full Screen mode is also known as Kiosk mode. Browsers working in public places are permanently set into Kiosk mode so that the users can’t make any changes to the way that they are set up. (unless they know what key combinations to press)
This tip applies to Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.
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Favicon
A favicon (short for "favorites icon") is the small (16 by 16 pixels) icon displayed before a web site's name in a browser's address bar and in the favorites list.
If you drag the favicon from the address bar to your desktop you will create a shortcut to that web page and the favicon is enlarged (to 32 by 32) to become the desktop icon for that shortcut.
The web site designer creates the favicon, puts it on the website and all modern graphical web browsers can display it.
Mine looks like this: 
- but is actually this  size!
Normally a favicon comes from a file called favicon.ico in the root directory of a web site (mine does). However, most modern browsers support any appropriately sized (16×16 pixels or larger) image and some browsers also support animated GIF and PNG image formats (see www.radiotimes.com for an example).
A common problem with Internet Explorer is that the favicons disappear eventually because they are stored in the browser's cache. This gets cleared out after time, and IE doesn’t think to renew the favicons, even when your revisit the site.
To put the favicons back in Internet Explorer and ensure that they don’t disappear again use a small free utility called FavOrg from PC Magazine.
Get it from: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,25471,00.asp
If Firefox loses a favicon it will find it again the next time that it visits the web site.
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Internet Explorer 7
IE7 has now been released and owners of PCs with Automatic Updates set to “Automatically download and install” will find that they have got it any day now.
Those of us set to “download but choose” or “Notify but don’t download” will be able to choose if and when we want to install it.
Personally, I’m going to wait a while until either it seems safe to install or they issue an update or upgrade to correct any problems. Microsoft have a poor record for bugs in new programs but IE7 has been subjected to more beta testing than anything before, so it should be OK, but I’m still going to wait.
But as I only ever use IE to view non “standards compliant” sites (like microsoft.com!), I’m not really bothered. I find Firefox works just fine for the vast majority of sites that are standards compliant. And I feel so much safer whilst using it.
One of my clients was an early adopter of IE7 and subsequently reinstalled Windows, vowing never to install IE7 again. He wants to set Automatic Updates to “Automatically download and install” but knows that if he does he will get IE7 again.
Microsoft have issued a tool to block IE7 called IE70Blocker. But the tool and its instructions are complicated by options to install on networked machines and use Group Policies. This just frightens the ordinary user into giving in and letting IE7 install itself.
So a company called IntelliAdmin.com have produced a “user friendly” version of the Microsoft program which is available from http://www.intelliadmin.com/IE7BlockingTool_Free.exe
I must emphasise that this is the simple version of the tool for use on a single machine from an Administrative account. There is a more complicated version at http://www.intelliadmin.com/IE7RemoteBlockingTool.exe but that is really for a company IT department to use.
If you are confident to use Regedit, the simplest thing is to make the change directly into the Registry - that’s all that the blocker programs do.
Create Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0 with Key value name: DoNotAllowIE70 and set the value to 1 to block (and 0 to unblock).
Of course this will only work for version 7.0 - not for any subsequent versions.
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Internet Explorer 7 again!
As I say above, I am waiting before I install IE7, but a friend called me today to report problems with his PC. From his description I quickly realised that they were due to the “Automatic update” that is IE7.
I popped in to see him and his wife on my way back from a job today and my observations are as follows:
1. They had received IE7 through the automatic update service, but were not told before or after the installation that IE was going to be updated. The only initial indication was the change of icon.
2. After the change IE7 was set to “work offline” so naturally my friends thought that their broadband connection had failed!
3. IE7 started up with the default search engine “Live Search” - better known as MSN search. Now I wonder why? It did offer a way of changing that to another search engine but it was made difficult for a layman to understand so most would just accept the default. I wonder why?
4. Outlook Express no longer appeared as the default E-mail option at the top of the Start menu. The entry was blank and when clicked went to Internet Options. When I tried to set it back to OE (right click Start, left click Properties, then Customize, General tab, E-mail box at the bottom) there was no option to change to OE. The only options were Outlook and Windows Live Mail. I wonder why?
I wonder whether the above applies to all IE7 installations or were my friends just unlucky?
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Web Links open in small window
“For some reason when I click on a web site link (shortcut) on my desktop the web page has started opening in a small window, I do not know why as prior to this it always opened in the maximised view (full screen).
How do I change it back? I have looked everywhere?”
This one really used to annoy me until I worked out how the warped minds in Microsoft had programmed Internet Explorer links.
Ordinary logic says that a link should remember exactly how you had it set the last time you used it and then open it like that the next time.
But not in Microsoft logic.....
A link NEVER opens Maximised - even if that's how you had it when you closed it.
It always opens in the "Restored down" window.
If, on opening a link, you get a very small window, then people like you and I just click on the Maximise button and get on with life. But we haven't actually changed the size of the restored down window. So next time it opens it ignores that we want it maximised and opens in the little window again.
So the trick is, when you get a little window, don't hit the maximise button, but drag the top, bottom and sides of the window to the very edge of the screen so that the restored down window is near enough the same as a maximised window. Then close it like that and next time it will open like that.
But in true Microsoft fashion the proper Internet Explorer icon itself behaves differently - if you close it maximised then it WILL open maximised........ unless you open an IE link in-between times and don't maximise that window, in which case it will open in the restored down window. AAAARGH!
Now some pop-ups or pop-unders can actually change the restored down window size - so if they are the last IE window that you close then that will be the window size of the next link that you open. That's probably the original cause of your frustration.
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Internet Explorer 7 Printing
Previous incarnations of Internet Explorer have made a right mess of printing some web pages - a slice was usually cut off at the side or bottom and what you thought would be a single printed page turns out to be 4 pages, 3 of which you didn’t really want.
IE7 addresses this with a “shrink to fit” option which is selected by default. But this can also lead to problems because the shrinking of some pages can render them illegible.
To change the printing size, left click on the arrow next to the Printer icon on the toolbar and select the Print Preview option. Left click on the drop-down list button next to Shrink to Fit and select a fixed percentage (or use the Custom option). Experiment with different settings until you get a legible result.
You are back to printing more pages, but at least you have better control of the split between pages.
As with IE6, changing from portrait to landscape usually produces more acceptable prints on less pages.
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Internet Explorer 7 Menu Bar
All Windows programs have a menu bar just below the title with the familiar File, Edit, View, etc. options. Right?
Wrong - Internet Explorer 7 does not. And it certainly confuses my elderly customers!
You can switch it on by left clicking on Tools and selecting Menu Bar, but whilst that’s pretty trivial to do once you are told, it’s not something that most people would think to look for.
Why did Microsoft have to mess about with the standard layout that they themselves established?
I even had a customer who made me reinstate IE6 because IE7 did not show the Mail button by default!
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How to save your Favorites
To save "Favorites" in Internet Explorer:
Open Internet Explorer,
Left click through: File, Import and Export..., Next, Export Favorites, Next, Next, Next, Finish
The saved file will be C:\Documents and Settings\ Username\My Documents\bookmark.htm
Copy and save the above file to somewhere safe (CD, Floppy, USB drive, etc.).
It is a standard web page that you can open with any browser (even a Mac one!) and then click on the links.
If you are changing to another computer then you can import your favorites into the new computer’s Internet Explorer:
Left click through: File, Import and Export..., Next, Import Favorites, Next
Browse to the location of your saved Bookmark.htm file, then:
Left click through: Next, Next, Finish.
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Internet Explorer 7 Problems
If you are having IE7 problems like crashing, closing down, etc., then you might like to try resetting it.
The option to reset IE7 is hidden away:
Left click your way through: Start, (Settings), Control Panel, Internet Options and then the Advanced tab. At the bottom you will find the Reset button (it wasn’t there before IE7).
Left clicking the reset button will take away all of the changes that have been made to IE7 since it was installed, but that is probably no bad thing. Perhaps it is one of those changes that is creating the problem.
Before you try IE7 again I suggest that you restart the PC. Hopefully this will have solved your problem - but no guarantees!
It would be nice to be able to uninstall IE7 and then reinstall it, but that is not an option for Windows Vista users. Windows XP users can uninstall IE7 (and go back to IE6) and they could then download and install IE7 again from the Microsoft website.
An even better solution is to use Firefox from www.mozilla.com !
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Cannot enter text
The unusual symptom of this problem is that you cannot type text into a webmail or similar box. When you click to start typing in the box the text cursor (I-bar) does not appear either.
If you have the option to change from HTML to plain text (as in Google mail) and the plain text option works then that confirms the cause of this problem.
A Dynamic Link Library file (dll) called mshtmled.dll (Microsoft HTML Editor?) has become “unregistered” in the Windows registry. Hopefully all that you need to do is to register it again.
Left click Start then Run... then type “cmd” (without the speech marks) and left click the OK button.
A command box will open. Type “regsvr32 mshtml.dll”(without the speech marks and with a single space after the 2) and hit the Enter key. Left click the OK button in the confirmation box and then close the command box.
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