Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts for IE5

So you have Internet Explorer 5 on your system, but you're frustrated by odd or unexplained features. Or you'd like to have it, but dread the installation process. If it's any consolation, you're not alone. This collection of our favorite tips will make your IE5 browsing experience smoother. Some deal with installation headaches, a few show you how to customize the program, and others help you speed things up.

Before You Install . . .
Are you running an early version of Windows 95? If so, and you don't have Internet Explorer 4 or you never installed IE4's Windows Desktop Update, this is your last chance to add some nifty new features to your operating system.

The Desktop Update is a set of enhancements that affect the entire OS. (The much-denigrated Active Desktop is just one, optional part of the Desktop Update.) It includes the Quick Launch bar--a set of customizable buttons for launching applications that you can place on your taskbar--and the ability to manually rearrange Start Menu items by dragging and dropping. Windows 95 OSR2, also known as Windows 95B, shipped with the Desktop Update included, but older Windows machines may not have the package. And you can't add it after you install IE5--unless you uninstall IE5, install IE4, and then reinstall IE5, a cumbersome, time-consuming process we're sure you'd like to avoid.

Here's an easy way to tell if you have the Desktop Update installed: Open My Computer and click the View menu. If you see a Folder Options command, you have it. If there is only an Options command, you don't. If you don't have the Desktop Update, here's how to grab it before you install IE5:

If you don't have IE4, download it from FileWorld and install it. http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,3327,00.html

Open an Internet Explorer window and select Help, Product Updates. You'll arrive at a Windows Update page listing the Desktop Update. Select it and click Download. Follow the prompts to install the package.

Once you've got the Desktop Update installed, you are ready to download and install IE5.

Multiple IEs
When Internet Explorer 4 was released, many users--Web authors in particular--complained because it couldn't coexist with a previous IE incarnation. Well, Microsoft heard those complaints: IE5 is happy to live alongside IE4--but you have to select a special option during setup.

Shortly after IE5 Setup begins, you'll be asked what kind of installation you'd like to perform. Select the Minimal or Customized option. When the Component Options dialog box appears, click the Advanced button. Select the Compatibility option in the resulting dialog box to keep IE4 around.

Cure What Ails IE5
IE5 is the first Microsoft app that can fix itself without a complete reinstallation when things go wrong. If the browser is acting strangely, head for the Control Panel (Start, Settings, Control Panel) and open Add/Remove Programs. Select Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools and click Add/Remove (don't worry, you won't uninstall anything). In the next dialog box, click Repair Internet Explorer, then click OK. Follow the prompts to let IE figure out what's gone wrong.

Gain More Screen Space, I
The default setting for Internet Explorer includes the following bars at the top of the browser: the menu bar, the standard toolbar, the Address bar, and the Links bar. All these take up precious screen real estate. To free up some space, put your pointer over the bottom of the lowest bar, and when it turns into a double arrow, drag the bar up as high as you can, until you can't drag anymore. Now all the bars appear as one narrow bar. (Yes, the buttons have lost their labels, but do you really need a label on the Home button?)

To rearrange the order in which these bars appear within the consolidated strip, put your mouse pointer over the vertical line at the left of any bar you want to move, then drag the bar to the left or the right. Continue dragging bars in either direction until you see a configuration that makes sense to you.

Gain More Screen Space, II
To further optimize the newly consolidated toolbar, consider turning off the Links bar, which contains buttons that take you to various Microsoft sites and services. To do so, right-click anywhere on an unpopulated area within the bar, then deselect the Links option in the menu to turn it off.

Gain More Screen Space, III
To get rid of the title bar and give yourself even more space, press F11. This is a toggle key, so pressing it again will restore your previous configuration.

Add/Remove Buttons
If you never use the Mail button or any of the other icons on the toolbar, you can edit the default configuration to get rid of them. Just right-click anywhere within the button bar and select Customize. In the resulting dialog box, click any button in the right pane that you want removed from the toolbar, then click the Remove button. Conversely, if you see a button in the left pane that you want to add to the toolbar, click it and then click the Add button.

Open Already!
Have you ever tried to go to a site by clicking its link on a Web page and nothing happened? That's a common IE "issue" (okay, bug). Most of the time you can overcome the problem by right-clicking the link, then selecting Open in New Window.

Speed Up AutoComplete
One of the nicest additions to IE5 is the drop-down list you get whenever you start typing an address in the Address Bar. Just press your down arrow and scroll down the list until you see the URL you're trying to reach, then press Enter. However, after you've used the browser for several weeks, the AutoComplete feature slows down, because there are too many possible addresses in your Favorites and History lists for it to search. To overcome this sluggishness, select Tools, Internet Options and click the General tab. Reduce the number of days pages are kept in History by changing the number in the History box. You can also click Clear History to erase the entire History listing.

Cleaner Links
Underlines let you know that certain words or phrases are hyperlinks, but some people see them as ugly spots on an otherwise elegant page. If you want to turn them off, select Tools, Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Browsing section, and select Never below Underline Links. Alternately, you can select the Hover option, which will underline your links whenever your pointer passes over them. This is handy for sites that use strange color schemes, making it difficult to tell where the links are.

The Go Button
While you're in the Advanced area (see previous tip), click next to "Show Go button in Address bar" to remove the Go button from the Address bar (it lurks to the right of the current URL). You've just saved yourself even more screen space. This button is there for people who don't know that they need to press Enter after they type a URL--clearly, a waste of real estate.

by Yael Li-Ron and Matthew Newton, PC World May 28, 1999