In early versions of Windows, Internet Explorer had a special icon right on the Desktop. It was not just a shortcut, but an ActiveX object which provided access to various IE settings and features by right clicking it. For instance, you could open Internet Options directly from its context menu or start a private browsing session. Such an icon can still be added to the Desktop in Windows 10.
Tag: Internet Explorer
Change the download location in IE, Chrome, Firefox and Opera
In this article I would like to show you how to change the default download location in popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Most of the mainstream browsers keep downloaded files in the user's Downloads folder, located at C:\Users\<Your User name>\Downloads. If you would like to set some other location for downloaded files, i.e. change it to the Desktop folder for faster access, then read the rest of this article.
How to set the Favorites bar to show only icons or full text in Internet Explorer
The Favorites bar in Internet Explorer is a very useful way to visit your favorite websites with one click. It is a toolbar located below the address bar. The user is able to add sites to the Favorites bar by dragging the URL from the address bar or clicking the 'Add to Favorites bar' button. Additionally, RSS feeds which have been added to the Favorites bar can be checked with one click. In this article, we will see how to customize the appearance of the Favorites bar and switch its view between icons, short titles and long titles.
How to run Internet Explorer without addons
Addons are an important part of any modern browser. Using addons, it is possible to extend and modify features of the browser. In Internet Explorer, addons are implemented as special applications with start with IE and provide toolbars, buttons and handlers for various multimedia content. Some common add-ons are Adobe Flash, QuickTime, and Silverlight. Another example is the Classic IE addon, which is part of Classic Shell, which restores the caption to the title bar, and page loading progress indicator bar and security zone to IE's status bar. If you have many addons installed, it can affect the browser's performance and also cause stability issues. If your IE is crashing or slowing down, it is useful to run the browser in the addons-free mode to troubleshoot and fix problems with addons.
How to run Internet Explorer directly in the InPrivate mode
InPrivate browsing mode is special privacy-focused mode of Internet Explorer. When you open an IE window with InPrivate Browsing enabled, Internet Explorer does not retain cookies, temporary internet files, history, and other data related to your browsing activities. When the InPrivate Browsing session window is closed, this data is cleared. Also, InPrivate Browsing mode does not allow toolbars and extensions to be loaded by default. InPrivate Browsing mode can be activated by clicking on the Settings icon - Safety - Start InPrivate browsing or using the keyboard by pressing Ctrl + Shift + P shortcut keys. There are also a button on the IE command bar (toolbar) to start InPrivate browsing. However, all of these methods require a regular IE window to be opened first. In this article, we will see how to start InPrivate Browsing directly, saving you a number of unnecessary clicks.
How to use IE pinned sites on Taskbar without disabling addons
Internet Explorer 9 introduced a nifty feature to pin a website by dragging it from the address bar and dropping it onto the Taskbar. It is present in IE10 and IE11 too. While the Quick Launch also allowed creating shortcuts to websites, pinning allowed users to use a large icon for the site shortcut. However, the problem with pinned sites is that all IE addons are disabled when you open a pinned site. If this is a deal-breaker for you, you will be pleased to know that there is a way to pin websites to the Taskbar without disabling addons.
How to reset Internet Explorer settings to default
Over a period of time, Internet Explorer can become slow and tabs may become unresponsive. If you installed many toolbars, add-ons or plugins, they will affect the browser performance and also stability. Badly written add-ons are the most common cause of crashes. Additionally, you might have changed your browser settings and don't remember the default settings. If you face any of these issues, you should try resetting Internet Explorer. It comes with useful "Reset" feature which can restore the defaults and disable third-party addons with one click.
How to copy website addresses (URLs) of all open tabs in Internet Explorer
If you use Internet Explorer, you have many tabs open at one time. There is always a risk of your saved IE browser session getting corrupted or lost. In that case, it's a good idea to copy the website URLs of all your open tabs in IE to a text file so even if your session gets corrupted or lost, you can restore the tabs. Thankfully, IE allows doing this without manually going to each tab and copying its web address.
How to add Windows XP-like Internet Explorer icon to Desktop
In early versions of Windows, Internet Explorer had a special icon right on the Desktop. It was not just a shortcut, but an ActiveX object which provided access to various IE settings and features by right clicking it. However, in Windows XP SP3, Microsoft decided to remove the icon completely from the Desktop. You were still able to create a regular shortcut to IE, but the ActiveX icon wasn't accessible any more. Let's see how to restore that useful icon on your Desktop. Just follow this simple tutorial.
Add custom searches to Internet Explorer’s address bar to save your time
Recently we posted a detailed tutorial on how you can add custom keywords in Google Chrome to perform searches from its address bar faster. Today, we should like to show you how to do the same for Internet Explorer. IE does not come with any options in its UI to configure these searches, but we will try to make it simple. Using the custom searches feature, you can save a lot of time and speed up your daily search-related tasks for Internet Explorer.
