Internet Explorer 7 'Tips and Tricks'

This document is designed to help IT administrators and developers evaluating Internet Explorer 7 understand some of the common issues seen with application compatibility. The examples provided in this document will help IT administrators and developers understand the issues involved, why they occur and how to workaround them with Internet Explorer 7 in your environment.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

IE fails with a download in PHP (seen when generating a CSV file)

Instead of prompting me with a dialog box to determine if I wanted to open the file or save, IE simply came back and indicated that it couldn’t save the file and presented with me with one option, ‘OK’. Of course ‘OK’ isn’t really ‘OK’, because it terminated the download and dropped me back into the website.

Very strange issue that happens on some systems but not others. The above blog post offers the most comprehensive discussion of this issue.

Link:
http://.../making-ie-accept-file-downloads/

Get a free PC safety scan

Windows Live OneCare safety scanner is a free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC.

• Check for and remove viruses
• Get rid of junk on your hard disk
• Improve your PC's performance

Ran a full scan in a Virtual PC and it mainly found registry problems. Ran the fixes and really can't tell anything - which I expect from the registry problems tools like this find.

Link:
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Give IE8 a test drive

Whats New:

• Activities
• WebSlices
• Favorites Bar
• Automatic Crash Recovery
• Improved Phishing Filter

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/...

Can code this simple cause an IE script error?

I have some code that when run on a webpage and the user attempts to print will cause a script error. The page has no scripting and only a DIV tag with a class name of tags

Test page with only enough code to be a valid page:
http://www.veign.com/sandbox/tag/

Does this cause a script error when you choose File -> Print in IE6?

Its be confirmed on by a fellow MS MVP. IE6 can't handle a class name called tags - causes a script error when printing.

IE7 JavaScript library

IE7 is a JavaScript library to make Microsoft Internet Explorer behave like a standards-compliant browser. It fixes many HTML and CSS issues and makes transparent PNG work correctly under IE5 and IE6.

Link:
http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/

See it in action:
http://ie7-js.googlecode.com/svn/test/index.html

And it only took 8 tries

As a team, we’ve spent the last year heads down working hard on IE8. Last week, we achieved an important milestone that should interest web developers. IE8 now renders the “Acid2 Face” correctly in IE8 standards mode.

Link:
http://.../internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx

Internet Explorer and Firefox Vulnerability Analysis Report

For most people, their web browser is central to their interaction with the Internet, connecting to global web sites and helping them consume online services providing everything from booking flights to banking services to online shopping. This reality makes browsers a key tool when evaluating the security experience of users as the browser interprets Web content and programs delivered from around the world.

Over the past few years, there has been much discussion of the need for improvements in browser security, but few hard data studies performed to support assertions concerning the security of available browsers.

This report documents the results of my analysis of Internet Explorer and Firefox vulnerabilities over the past few years since Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP2 became available and Mozilla launched Firefox.

Link:
http://.../download-internet-explorer-and-firefox-vulnerability-analysis

IE Automatic Component Activation (Changes to IE ActiveX Update)

Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded controls used on some webpages. Some sites required users to “click to activate” before they could interact with the control. Microsoft has now licensed the technologies from Eolas, removing the “click to activate” requirement in Internet Explorer. Because of this, we're removing the “click to activate” behavior from Internet Explorer!

It’s important (and cool) to note that this change will require no modifications to existing webpages, and no new actions for developers creating new pages. We are simply reverting to the old behavior. Once Internet Explorer is updated, all pages that currently require “click to activate” will no longer require the control to be activated. They’ll just work.

Link:
http://.../changes-to-ie-activex-update

Pause Animated GIFS in Firefox and IE

Have you ever been on a page with a ton of animated GIF’s, and all you’re trying to do is read the content? It can get quite distracting, but if you’re using Firefox or Internet Explorer just hit the ESC key. Doing so will immediately pause all of the animated GIF images on the page.

Never knew that. Wish I knew this a long time ago.

Link:
http://.../pause-animated-gifs-in-firefox-and-ie/

Mozilla Admits Firefox Exploit Caused by Firefox Bug, Not IE

Mozilla Admits Firefox Exploit Caused by Firefox Bug, Not IE: "On July 10, engineers at Secunia issued a security advisory, rated 'Highly Critical,' warning Firefox users that their browser could be tricked into executing arbitrary JavaScript code. Soon afterward, Mozilla developers issued a statement saying the problem was caused by Internet Explorer, which could trick Firefox into executing that code. This morning, Mozilla security chief Window Snyder had to issue a retraction, stating Firefox could just as easily trick Firefox into doing the same thing"

Link:
http://.../Mozilla_Admits_Firefox_Exploit_Caused_by_Firefox...

Internet Explorer 8 Alpha screenshots

A person at leneros.com has posted some of the images saying that the images actually are that of Internet Explorer 8 Alpha.

Judge for yourself if it is or if it's just a theme or some hack. Me thinks its a fake.

Link:
http://.../internet-explorer-8-alpha-screenshots/

Browser are not quite secured, yet

Polish hacker Michal Zalewski has ratcheted up his ongoing assault on Web browser security models, releasing details on serious flaws in fully patched versions of IE 6, IE 7 and Firefox 2.0.

Read the whole story:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=254

See one of the IE security holes:
http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/ierace/

Get users to switch to Firefox and earn money

First, from the website:

Get this tool for switching people from IE to Firefox.
For each person you switch, Google gives you $1, Microsoft loses marketshare, and an angel gets its wings.

Now, the bad news. You will p*ss off so many people by having a script like that running that you will basically be shooting yourself in the foot. If you are thinking about using this script, and I hope you don't, at least leave it off your company or business website.

Link:
http://explorerdestroyer.com/

Surfulator saves webpage content as you browse

With Surfulater you can permanently save anything you find on the web, in other applications and on your hard drive, and organize it in ways you haven't dreamt of yet. For starters you can categorize, cross reference and do full text searches. Plus annotate and edit whatever you have saved to make it all the more valuable. And of course you can find anything in a flash.

I much rather have a good bookmark manager, whether local on my system or online, to handle information I come across. I'm even getting away from bookmarks as I find myself much faster searching in Google and relying on Google results for the most relevant website. Maybe that's what's needed: A Google Search organizer. Is it better to bookmark a single site or bookmark a Google search string that returns many results?

Link:
http://www.surfulater.com/

Clear the Internet Explorer Typed Address History

Did you know that in Internet Explorer the URL you type into the address bar are stored in the registry. Even if you clean your history these URL's will remain active in the IE address bar history.

How to clean:

1. Start menu -> Run -> Regedit
2. Navigate to the key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs]
3. With the key highlighted in the left view pane you can see the typed in URLs in the right view pane
4. Delete values as required or remove the entire key (IE will recreate the key when needed)
   

I know there are tools that will automatically clean this history for you but I don't want a whole application for something I clean only every few months or so. What I did was create a registry hack that will delete the typed in URL key in the registry (it will be recreated by IE when you need it). Download it and double-click it the .reg file and your history will be cleaned.

Link to reg hack:
http://www.veign.com/registry-hacks.php

IE6 allows webpages to access your clipboard, IE7 does not

Just in case you're running some sort of content management system that uses the extremely popular FCKEditor and you want it to have access to your clipboard (so it could perform its Word pasting cleanup) here's a good article on the matter.

Link:
http://...clipboard-pop-up-warning-message-in-ie7/

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image: "VPC Hard Disk Image for testing websites on IE on Windows XP SP2"

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Fully trick out IE7 with IE7Pro

Since I don't use IE7, or IE for that matter, I really haven't been able to test it but from what I hear this is the shiznit (word thrown in to connect with the younger, more hip readers).

Some of its offerings:

• Easier Tab Management
• AD Blocker
• Super Drag and Drop
• Mouse Gesture
• Save Page to Image
• Proxy Switcher
• Crash Recovery
• Tab History Browser

If the product is anything like the design of their website then it must be impressive - nice website guys...

Link:
http://www.ie7pro.com/

Relocate the menu bar in IE7 to the top of the window

Would you rather have the menu bar in IE7 to be more like IE6 in the sense that it will appear at the very top of the window? A simple reg hack will get that going for you.

1) Copy the bold text below into a text file (between the lines)
-----------------------------------------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser\]
"ITBar7Position"=dword:00000001
-----------------------------------------------------------
2) Save the text file with a REG extension (like toolbar.reg)
3) Double click the file and allow it to update your registry
4) Shut down IE7 (if open) and restart it.

or download this pre-made file

Before the change:

After the change:

Make Firefox look like IE

Who knows why but if this gets you to switch.

Link:
http://.../jh/mozilla/firefox_internet_explorer/