Internet Explorer 9 users click on the Tools icon in the upper right corner of their browser and select Manage Add-ons from the context menu. This opens the add-on manager that displays all toolbars, extensions and search providers installed in the browser. Switch to search providers to see a list of search engines currently available in the browser.

One of the search providers is listed as the default search engine under Status. If you are lucky enough, the new search provider that you want to use is already in the list. If that is the case select the new provider and click on the Set as default button afterwards to switch the default search engine in Internet Explorer.

It is furthermore possible to select a specific search provider manually for a search query that you enter into Internet Explorer’s address bar.

But what can you do if the search provider is not in the list? Easy; You visit the Internet Explorer add-ons gallery and use the available categories, like travel, search or news, or the built-in search to find the provider you are looking for. Please note that everything is mixed up in the beginning. You can use the pulldown menu at the bottom right to filter for search providers so that all other add-on types are not displayed anymore.

You add a new search provider with a click on the add-ons icon on the add-ons website and the selection of Add to Internet Explorer on the next page.

This opens a small confirmation window. You need to click on Add to install the new search provider. Options are available to make that provider the default search provider of the browser.

The new search provider is available right after it has been added to the web browser.

The option to edit the download folder is built right into Internet Explorer 9. I have personally tested the setting under Internet Explorer 9 RC on Windows 7. It is likely that Windows Vista users will have the same options.

Open Internet Explorer 9 and then the View Downloads window. This can be done by pressing Ctrl-j, or clicking on Tools > View Downloads in the menu bar of the browser.

The View Downloads window displays the recent user initiated downloads along with information where they have been stored. If the download location has never been changed, Downloads is displayed in the Location column referring to the downloads folder of the user profile mentioned above.

A click on Options in the lower left corner of the screen opens another window with options to change that downloads folder to another path.

The default download location is displayed as well as an option to browse the hard drive for a new location.

A click on Browse opens a folder browser to make a new folder the default download folder of the Internet Explorer 9 browser. The only other option in download options is the ability to disable notifications when downloads complete.

Internet Explorer 9 will use the new download location for all future file downloads from that moment on.

The tabbed browsing settings can be accessed in Internet Explorer 9 by clicking on the Tools icon in the header bar of the browser, and selecting Internet Options from the menu. It is alternatively possible to press Alt-x-o to open the Internet Options as well.

Locate the Tabs section under the General tab and click on the Settings button to open the tabbed browsing menu.

tabbed browsing settings

The configuration menu is filled with options:

• Enable or disable Tabbed Browsing
• Display a warning when closing multiple tabs at once
• Always switch to new tabs when they are created
• Show previews of individual tabs in the taskbar
• Enable Quick Tabs
• Enable Tab Groups
• Open each new tab next to the current tab
• Open only the first home page when Internet Explorer starts

This first batch of options contains some that require explanation. Quick Tabs are disabled by default. When enabled, Internet Explorer users have the option to display all open tabs with a thubmnail screenshot of the page contents on one page. Similar to other tab overview features offered by other browsers.

Show previews of individual tabs in the taskbar is a Windows 7 only feature to display thumbnail previews of open tabs in the Windows 7 taskbar.

On to the remaining options:

• When a new tab is opened, open: The new tab page, a blank page, your first home page
• When a pop-up is encountered: Let Internet Explorer decided how pop-ups should open, Always open pop-ups in a new window, Always open pop-ups in a new tab
• Open links from other programs in: A new window, A new tab in the current window, The current tab or window.

The options are fairly self explanatory. A restore defaults button is available to reset all settings to factory defaults. Some changes require a restart of Internet Explorer before they take effect. Those that do are indicated with a star.

To make matters easier, here are all tab shortcuts of IE9.

Open links in a new tab in the background
Ctrl while clicking the link

Open links in a new tab in the foreground
Ctrl+Shift while clicking the link

Open a new tab in the foreground
Ctrl+T or double-click an empty space on the tab row

Open a copy of the current tab in a new tab
Ctrl+K

Switch between tabs
Ctrl+Tab to move forward or Ctrl+Shift+Tab to move backward

Close the current tab (or the current window when there are no open tabs)
Ctrl+W or Alt+F4

Open a new tab in the foreground from the Address bar
Alt+Enter

Switch to a specific tab number
Ctrl+n (where n is a number between 1 and 8)

Switch to the last tab
Ctrl+9

Close all tabs except for the one you’re viewing
Ctrl+Alt+F4

Open Quick Tabs (thumbnail view)
Ctrl+Q

Additional helpful tab related tips:

• How do I save a group of tabs? To save a group of tabs, click the Favorites button, click the arrow next to the Add to Favorites button, and then click Add Current Tabs to Favorites. Give the tab group a name, and then click Add.
• How do I open a group of tabs that I’ve saved?
  Click the Favorites button and then click the folder that you want to open. Click the arrow to the right of the folder name . All of the webpages will open on separate tabs. When you open a group of tabs in this way, Internet Explorer groups those tabs by displaying a color band at the top the tabs.

Want to share your favorite Internet Explorer tab tips? Let us know in the comments.

Every other web browser in existence including Internet Explorer 7 and earlier have been displaying the main command buttons on the left side of the address bar. While usability tests might have shown that this is the best display for the buttons it will confuse many users who are used to the standard display of address bar buttons.

Microsoft has thankfully included an option to move the Stop and Refresh buttons from the right side of the address bar to Internet Explorer’s left. This is done by right-clicking free space on the Internet Explorer 8 toolbar,e.g. on the right side of Help, and selecting Customize from the menu.

This will immediately display a menu with the option to show the stop and refresh buttons before the address bar. The two buttons will be moved immediately to the left side of the Internet Explorer 8 address bar.

Internet Explorer 8 Address Bar Before:

Internet Explorer 8 Address Bar After:

There is however no obvious way to move other buttons in the Internet Explorer 8 address bar at this point.

Most web browsers use a different display of toolbars with the menu bar on top and the address bar below which is also the default display in all windows and applications in the Windows operating system. There is however no option to customize Internet Explorer toolbars in the browser itself.

The only way to change the location of the Internet Explorer Toolbar is to edit the Windows Registry. To do that press [Windows R], type [regedit] and hit [enter].

Before:

After:

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser

Add a new DWord by right-clicking in the left panel of the Registry and selecting New > DWord Value. Name the new Registry key ITBar7Position. Double-click it afterwards and give it the value 1.

Restart Internet Explorer afterwards and you should see that the Internet Explorer Toolbars have been exchanged. The menu toolbar should now be on top and the address toolbar below.

A few software programs are available to view and delete the contents of index.dat files. We have mentioned some of them earlier here at Ghacks like the index.dat viewer or the index.dat suite. Another tool for the purpose is the index.dat analyzer which can display and clean the contents of index.dat files as well.

If you want to prevent that Windows is writing data to those files in future sessions you need to set the file attribute to read-only. Another possibility would be to run CCleaner regularly (this can be automated) to clean the index.dat files.

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.

If a user accesses the Internet with multiple computers he might want to use the same security zone settings on all of them. The easiest way to do that would be to export the security zones on one computer and export them to all others instead of adding sites to the zones manually on all computers.

Internet Explorer is storing the security zone information in the Windows Registry. To export the settings of the currently logged in user one would have to open the Registry with [Windows R], typing [regedit] and hitting [Enter].

The Registry key is located at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains

A left click on Domains will select that key. The next step would be to open the File Menu and select Export. Enter a name and save the data as a file on the computer.

The newly created file has to be transferred to another computer. A right-click on the file at the new computer will open a context menu. The entry Merge will add the data to the correct Registry key so that the zone information of the first computer will be added to it as well.

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.

A button to launch the email or ftp client, messenger or statistics tool could come in handy. The application accepts executables in exe, com or bat format. A text for the button, an icon and a status bar and tools menu text can be selected during creation. The button should be visible immediately on the toolbar.

Internet Explorer should be closed during the creation to avoid complications. If the button does not appear in the toolbar it needs to be added manually using the Customize menu of Internet Explorer.

Buttons that have been created previously can be edited and deleted at anytime. I received an error on my system during first start which told me that the file COMDLG32.OCX was not registered on my system. I quickly found a website that offered the file for download and explained how to register it.

Internet Explorer 6 crashes when opening websites after upgrading Windows with the security update 942615 which was part of the December patch update of Microsoft. My personal suggestion would be to make the switch to Internet Explorer 7, Firefox or Opera and forget about this problem and be more secure at the same time.

If that is not wanted or possible at the moment you can fix the bug the following way, props to Bink for posting the solution.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
4. Type FEATURE_PROTECT_DECOMPRESSION_FILTER_FROM_ABORT_KB942367, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click FEATURE_PROTECT_DECOMPRESSION_FILTER_FROM_ABORT_KB942367, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
6. Type an asterisk (*), and then press ENTER.

Note The asterisk (*) represents any process name that uses the Urlmon.dll file. If you want to make this change for an individual application that uses the Urlmon.dll file, use the name of that application instead of the asterisk. For example, use Appname.exe.
7. Right-click the asterisk, and then click Modify.
8. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
9. Exit Registry Editor.

If you run Internet Explorer 7 you will be asked if you want to allow Internet Explorer access to your clipboard, if you run a previous version you will not be asked at all. If you say yes or use a previous version the contents of your clipboard are displayed on the website.

This means that a website can read (and thus store) information of your clipboard. It gets better. Stay on that website and copy another text into your clipboard. You will see that the new text will appear as well on the demonstration website.

You can bet that webmasters with malicious intents are not so nice to display the contents of your clipboard all the time, they will try to use that information again you.

Your only choice ? Upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 if you are using an older version or switch to Opera and Firefox. You could also disable Javascript in Internet Explorer but a lot of websites use Javascript and they could stop working as well.

The Internet Explorer does not have a password manager equivalent which means that you are left to guess what the password behind those asterisks is. You might need the password if you want to create a pop3 account for Gmail in your favorite mail software which requires the Gmail password.

AsterWin is a small software by one of my favorite developers Nirsoft. The utility will scan all open Internet Explorer windows and reveal the password behind the asterisks. This works if the password is stored on the computer and displayed once you visit the site or enter the username.