A user of the DSL Reports forum has converted the Adblock Plus list of blocked advertisement into an XML format that can be imported into Internet Explorer 8. All that needs to be done is to download the xml file from the website and import it into Internet Explorer 8 so that all of the ads and ad providers on that list are blocked automatically in Internet Explorer 8. The file has a size of more than eight Kilobytes and can be imported into Internet Explorer the following way after downloading and unpacking it.

Open Internet Explorer 8. Access Tools > InPrivate Filtering Settings from the toolbar menu.

A click on the Advanced Settings link in the lower half will open a new window that can be used to import filters in xml format.

The xml list can be imported easily by clicking on the Import button and selecting the xml file from the local hard drive. A message should appear notifying the user that the list was successfully imported. The main window should be filled with blocking rules after clicking ok.

The ads will now be automatically blocked in Internet Explorer. The only problems with this approach are that there is no way of automatically updating the list in regular intervals. There is also no option to enable the list globally but disable it on selected websites.

Many users fail to notice this and wonder why the Runonce page instead of their homepage is always showing up when they start Microsoft Internet Explorer. The reason for this is simply. Internet Explorer keeps a record if the form on the runonce page has been filled by the user. If that is not the case it will be displayed again which can be very annoying especially if you do not realize that you have to fill the form.

The Runonce page will also be displayed after resetting Internet Explorer settings. Some users encountered an even bigger problem as the Runonce page was not displayed correctly on their systems. This made it impossible to fill out the form so that the page would not be displayed the next time they would start Internet Explorer.

There are various options how the Runonce page can be disabled. The easiest for most users is to run the software IE7 Runonce Remover which is a small application that can remove the Runonce page.

Users who prefer the manual way can change two Registry settings for the same effect. To do that they would press [Windows R], type [regedit] and hit [enter].

Locate the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main and change the values of the Registry keys RunOnceHasShown and RunOnceComplete to 1.

Windows XP users on the other hand have access to Internet Explorer 6 by default and can upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 by downloading it from the official Microsoft Internet Explorer website. Internet Explorer 7 is available in many language versions as well, a huge page with 30 or so languages is provided on that website as well.

Microsoft is currently working on Internet Explorer 8; A beta version of that browser is available for download as well. The easiest way to download that Internet Explorer version would be to head for the Internet Explorer 8 site at Microsoft and download it from there.

Older versions of Internet Explorer are not available for download officially but a tool called IE Tester is available that gives access to previous versions of Internet Explorer.

The tool provides a clean interface after starting it up. Changes can be made to the Search Bar, the Menu Bar and the Command Bar which means it basically a tool to tweak toolbars in Internet Explorer 7. The search bar can be set to hidden which would have the effect that it would disappear in Internet Explorer 7.

The same is true for the Command Bar which can also be hidden. The Command Bar is a set if icons that sit directly below the search form starting with a link to the homepage and ending with the Tools menu.

The Menu on the other hand can be hidden as well or forced to the top which is an interesting option. You might remember that the menu in Internet Explorer is below the search bar. If you want it the other way round you can apply the tweak.

The reason for this behavior is that the system would revert back to an older version of Internet Explorer 6 that would not contain the patches applied by the Service Pack. The Windows XP Service Pack 3 updates the version of Internet Explorer installed on the system during installation of the Service Pack.

The only possible way to uninstall Internet Explorer 7 that has been installed before installing Service Pack 3 is to uninstall the Service Pack first and then Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft suggests that users of IE6 should update their system with Service Pack 3 first and install IE7 afterwards. This would ensure that the browser could be uninstalled normally.

I’m sure that not many users will run into this problem but some surely will. An alternative would be to switch to another browser like Opera or Firefox if you do not feel like uninstalling the Service Pack to uninstall IE7 is worth it.

Internet Explorer 7 Standalone (IE7 Standalone) comes in handy if you are still running Internet Explorer 6 on your system but want to install Internet Explorer 7 as well to be able to use both browsers on your system. It’s basically a script that downloads Internet Explorer 7 directly from Microsoft and installs it as a standalone application on your computer. This means that it does not mess with Internet Explorer 6 in any way and that it is possible to load either one of them.

This method does have some shortcomings though. Some features that require Registry keys that are still occupied by Internet Explorer 6 are broken and will not work in Internet Explorer 7 standalone. The developer is listing several features that seem to be broken although most do not explain the aspect that is not working.

This is a great way to run both Internet Explorer 6 and 7 on the same system. A quick test did not reveal any difficulties so far.

You can take a look for yourself if you load runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx in Internet Explorer 7. But it’s only once, not a big deal Martin ? That’s right for most users. Some however have experienced that the runonce script is running all the time when they start Internet Explorer 7 which reminds me just a little bit of the bug that made users activate their Windows after every system start.

Users who experience the runonce configuration all the time can either change the browser or edit the Registry and change the value of it manually so that Windows believes it already has shown the message to you.

Press Windows R, type regedit and hit enter. Now navigate to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main and change the value of the Registry string RunOnceHasShown to 1.

Setting this key to 1 means that runonce has already shown on your system and that it will not be shown again, hopefully. Restart Internet Explorer 7 to test if this has worked.

The Online Tech Tips blog has two more ways to get rid of the Runonce setup screen, one is a freeware called Runonce Remover, the other is by editing the Group Policies.

IE Surfgear to the rescue. The tiny program adds three functions accessible through buttons to the Microsoft Internet Explorer. Each button resolves on of the problems mentioned above. The first button automatically changes the font size of tiny text (and only of it, normal sized text will remain untouched) on a website to an average one, the next removes background colors of text on a website and the last removes background textures (including colors) that make text hardly readable.

The author was so nice to add a live demonstration on his website where you can try the buttons and see what they do. The buttons should be available right away after installing IE Surfgear, if they are not you have to customize the Internet Explorer toolbar to add them (or only some of them) to it.

Click on Tools > Toolbars > Customize to add the buttons to your toolbar if they are not displayed after installation.

Funny side note. I did find the link to the program at Shell Extension City which is in my opinion a hard to read website with their black background and grey text. Take a look at the before and after (using the buttons) screenshots of the website.

That’s a visible difference, don’t you think ?

If you are on a fast connection you might not want to use a download manager anymore for the purpose of downloading relative small files from the Internet. A better way would be to boost the number of simultaneous downloads in Internet Explorer 7 from 2 to a higher number. As always the setting is hidden deep inside the registry. To start the registry press Windows + R, type regedit and hit enter.

Navigate to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Internet Settings and create the following two DWord (32 bit) keys by right-clicking in the right pane. Name the first MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server and set it to a number greater than 2. This is the amount of simultaneous downloads from now on.

Create a second registry entry called MaxConnectionsPerServer and give it the same value that you have selected above. Close everything and restart your computer. I would suggest you test the settings with large enough files to see if this brought the desired effect. If you encounter problems you could reduce the number that you entered in both registry keys.

found: arsgeek

IE7 pro is one of those add-ons that everyone can download for free from its own website or the Windows Marketplace. It adds six new features to Internet Explorer 7, those are: Ad Filter, Super Drag and Drop, Mouse Gestures, Save Page to Image, Quick Switch Proxy and Enhanced Tabbed Browsing Capabilities. Save Page to Image is a very interesting add-on. It makes it possible to save the page as an image and choose from various image formats including jpg and png.

The Ad Filter should be useful for all Internet Explorer 7 users as well and Enhanced Tabbed Browsing Capabilities add eight new functions to it like hiding the search bar, enabling crash recovery and opening new tabs from the address bar.

I never used Mouse Gestures and think that this is a pretty useless feature but some guys seem to like it. Super Drag and Drop is very much like Super Drag and Go, the Firefox add-on. The only difference is that the Internet Explorer 7 add-on can’t save images by dragging them some inches.

Internet Explorer 7 users should take a look at IE7 pro and test it for a while. It is a free add-on and can be uninstalled without problems if you feel that you do not need the functionality.

All of the passwords are encrypted and possibly hidden in the registry and Pass View automatically scans and displays all the information that it can find in the registry. Internet Explorer passwords are shown next to the url and the username which is all the information one needs to access the site again.

Please note that only the passwords of the user who is currently logged into the system are revealed in this manner. Click here to download protected storage pass view and ie pass view.

The beginning is simple, you just download the latest version of Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. But once you have these three installed you still have two to go, which isn’t as simple as it seems.

For Firefox you can simply get the Firefox Portable version, which can be found here (if that links stops working you can go directly to the project following this link)
Once you have unpacked the file you can then navigate to the map, and open the FirefoxPortable file (make sure you don’t have 2.x open tho)

Internet Explorer is a different story. Once you have installed Internet Explorer you’ll have to search for a Internet Explorer “portable” version. Thanks to the people at evolt.org there is an Internet Explorer 6 standalone version.

The downside to this is that (unlike with the Firefox portable version) the system still thinks the browser is Internet Explorer 7, so if you are using Conditional comments you’ll temporarly have to change the comment to Internet Explorer 7 instead of 6.

I hope this is useful to some of you, seeing how web design can already be a nightmare with all the different browsers (more specific, the mess that is called IE ;))

Many users that use Firefox or Opera do not care about the new Internet Explorer 7 – which means they probably want to get rid of this message altogether. Blocking windows update from automatic updating to IE7 can be done by changing one registry key in the registry. All you need to do is create a new registry file and import it to the registry

Create a new textfile, paste the following lines of code into it and save it with the extension .reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0]
"DoNotAllowIE70"=dword:00000001

This creates a new registry key that blocks the automatic update to IE7, you will not see the annoying windows that popups again. Simply change the registry key from 1 to 0 if you want to see the window again to update to the new IE7.

If you run into troubles you should check out the release notes contains a big list of information about common troubles you could run into. They also address problems with third party tools on this page, really helpful. Would I recommend to switch to IE 7 ? Yes I would. Even though I’am not using it a lot of third party tools rely heavily on some IE core modules. It is better to have everything up to date because of this.

To move the menu bar on top do the following: (thanks to index1489 from digg)

1. Click Start, Run, and then enter regedit into the runbox
2. Press ENTER or click OK
3. Browse to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerToolbarWebBrowser

4. Click the Edit menu in regedit
5. Select New and then DWORD value
6. The name should be highlighted in the right column. Just type over this to name it:
ITBar7Position
7. Double click your new entry in the right column.
8. Change the value to 1.
9. Close regedit and open IE7 to see the change.

For those registry gurus… here’s the process in one swoop:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerToolbarWebBrowser]
“ITBar7Position”=dword:00000001

You might want to disable your antivirus software prior to installing Internet Explorer, read below for a full explanation:

A few people have asked why we recommend temporarily disabling anti-virus or anti-spyware applications (which I’ll refer to together as anti-malware) prior to installing IE7, so here’s a little insight to the situation.

Along with copying IE7 files to your system, IE7’s setup writes a large number of registry keys. A common way anti-malware applications protect your computer is by preventing writes to certain registry keys used by IE. Any registry key write that fails during setup will cause setup to fail and rollback changes. We work around the problem in most instances by checking permissions at the beginning of setup, but many anti-malware programs monitor the key rather than change permissions. Therefore, setup thinks it has access when it starts, but then fails when it later attempts to write the key.

The majority of users likely haven’t seen any such problems even with anti-malware enabled because we work with third-party vendors to identify IE7 setup as ‘safe’ based on something like digital signatures or file hashes. While this could lead us to remove the recommendation to disable anti-malware apps, we’ve decided to leave it in setup because a number of factors may still cause some customers to have this problem. Specifically:

[*]With all the anti-malware apps available, we don’t want to assume all of them work just because we haven’t heard of a problem yet.
[*]Even anti-malware apps we’ve tested sometimes require the latest definition updates. If a user doesn’t have the latest definitions, he or she may still hit a problem even though we consider the issue resolved.
[*]Failed installation is an awful user experience so we take every step to reduce the chances of setup failing.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

Create a file called ie7.bat and copy the code below into it. After that run ie7.bat and ie7 will start and you have every chance to test it on your system. Make sure you don´t close the dos box, if you do it will close ie7 as well.

@ECHO OFF
TITLE IE7 Launcher 1.4
ECHO IE7 STANDALONE LAUNCHER 1.4
ECHO Updated for IE7 Beta 2 Preview
ECHO.
ECHO Do not close this window or it will not clean up after itself properly.
ECHO You can pass a URL into this batch file, like this:
ECHO ie7.bat www.microsoft.com
ECHO.
ECHO More info here: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2005/12/28/434132.aspx
ECHO.
ECHO When you close IE7, this will remove the registry key and shut itself down.
ECHO.
ECHO Setting up IE7 for standalone mode...
PUSHD %~dp0
ECHO Removing IE7 registry key and set the version vector to "7.0000".
> %TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO REGEDIT4
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO.
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{C90250F3-4D7D-4991-9B69-A5C5BC1C2AE6}]
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTInterface{000214E5-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerVersion Vector]
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO "IE"="7.0000"
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO.
:: Merge the REG file to delete the IE7 standalone entry
REGEDIT /S %TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg
REN SHLWAPI.DLL SHLWAPI.DLL.BAK
TYPE NUL > IEXPLORE.exe.local
ECHO Running IE7...
iexplore.exe "%1"
:: Merge the REG file to delete the IE7 standalone entry
REGEDIT /S %TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg
:: Delete the temporary REG file
DEL %TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg
ECHO Removing IE7 standalone files...
REN SHLWAPI.DLL.BAK SHLWAPI.DLL
DEL IEXPLORE.exe.local
:: Set the old version vector "6.0000".
> %TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO REGEDIT4
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO.
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerVersion Vector]
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO "IE"="6.0000"
>>%TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg ECHO.
REGEDIT /S %TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg
DEL %TEMP%.IE7Fix.reg
POPD
ECHO Complete, closing...

source: googlesystem