Internet Explorer 7 Tips
Well at last Microsoft have updated their much criticized browser and released IE7 as a windows update to all registered XP users. Like most of you I was sent the download, and expected great things.
Again like a lot of you, what I found was an almost unusable browser. IE7 was painfully slow to open (Taking up to a minute from clicking the icon until the browser page opened) and even after that another 20 seconds or so "Connecting" even although my homepage is set at "Blank". After getting online page refreshing was poor, again very slow, It was like going from Cable broadband back to a dial up modem.
The User interface is quite nice, but I did like my old IE6 Tools Bar at the top of the page, unfortunatly it is now stuck well over on the right hand side. If you wish to "View" the source of a webpage you now have to click the Page button (Again situated top right).
Another odd problem was that after the install, hyperlinks in Outlook Express stopped working.
Really it was so bad that after a day, I decided to go back to using IE6, fortunatly this was rather easy. Start/Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs. Selecting delete Internet explorer returns you nicely to IE6.
Now I know a lot of people hold up their hands and scream "OPERA" or "FIREFOX" ...Don`t use Internet Explorer. However it would take Superman to uninstall Internet explorer from Windows ... and as I have had little problems with IE, Why should I use extra disk space by downloading another browser?
I am not a person who like to be defeated so I decided to downloaded IE7 again, but this time try to solve some of my dislikes. Namely:
(a) Get IE7 to load quicker.
(b) Get IE7 to browse quicker.
(c) Get the Tool bar back on top of the Browser.
(d) Get the Hyperlinks working again.
The following tips have worked for me and IE7 works superbly. However certain actions like editing the registery should not be attempted by the faint hearted. Editing the registery can cause problems and perhaps cause your computer to fail. If you decide to follow my tips, be sure to do exactly what is written in the tip.
(a) Get IE7 to load quicker.
To achieve faster loading of IE7 try to launch without add-ons. It’s much faster without add-ons. You can launch IE7 without add-ons by:
(a) right click IE icon on desktop and select Start without add-ons.
(b) go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)
(b) Get IE7 to browse quicker.
With the installation of IE7 .. it turns one the Phishing filter. Be brave, turn it of and browsing will be much quicker.
Note: As most of my computing is done via my Favorites, I am viewing pages I know are genuine. Should you ramble willie nillie throughout the internet, I would suggest you turn it back on.
(c) Get the Tool bar back on top of the Browser.
It is possible to have the menu bar back at the top of IE7's window using a simple registry hack:
Start the Registry Editor (Start/run .. type in "regedit" without the quotes)
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Toolbar \ WebBrowser
Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
Name the new value ITBar7Position
Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as it's Value data
Close the registry editor
Restart IE7 for the changes to take effect
If you want to display the menu permanently, right-click an empty space on the menu, and lock Menu Bar. You can revert back to the default by deleting the ITBar7Position value you created above.
(d) Get the Hyperlinks working again.
I did all the "Normal" setting for this, and hyperlinks would work, but closing and restarting IE7 .. the links would not work again. If you are suffering this problem, this is a possible fix :
Click Start, click Run, type the following command in the Run dialog box, and then click OK: regsvr32 urlmon.dll
Repeat step 1 for each of the following commands:
regsvr32 mshtml.dll
regsvr32 shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 browseui.dll
regsvr32 msjava.dll
Hopefully your hyperlinks will not stay active.