Internet Explorer Index
Internet Explorer 5 used to have a bar at the bottom of the screen showing where a link went to. However; this bar has now disappeared. It's irritating as it used to show the lock when on a secure site. How can I restore this missing bar?
Easy - just make sure that the 'Status Bar' option is ticked in the View menu.
I'm curious about some switches used for the Explorer shortcut on page 238 of the May 2000 issue of PCW, where /n,/e,/select, C:\ is listed. How can I learn more about the different switches available, and how did you find out about them?
This is in a file named tips.txt, which gets copied to your Windows folder when you install Windows 95 or 98.
For no apparent reason, I can no longer start IE5 - when I click on the icon I get a message telling me that I am 'trying to install Internet Explorer version 5.O or earlier on Windows
98. Internet Explorer is already part of the operating system. Installing an earlier version... will not allow the operating system to function properly'. I'm not trying to install anything -I just want to use the version that came with Windows 98 SE, as I have been for several months.This sounds as if something has made a half-baked effort to replace IE5 and has overwritten the shortcut. If you type 'lexplore' into the Start, Run box, you should find that Internet Explorer starts normally and will also mend the damaged shortcut.
I know that an NT administrator can unlock Internet Explorer's AutoComplete field names. I've read various articles in PC Magazine about IE's automatic completion function, but still have one problem: you've stated that the internal field names for which AutoComplete data exists are inaccessible under Windows NT 4.0. However, an administrator can change the security set tings to make the AutoComplete data just as accessible as it is under Windows 9x.
Although the Registry data stored in the Protected Storage System Provider key is protected by default, an administrator can use Windows NT's Regedt32.exe (not Regedit.exe) to change the security settings for that key. The administrator can give full control or read-only access to any or all users of the system. Even so, as under Windows 9x, the actual AutoComplete data remains thoroughly encrypted; only the names of the AutoComplete fields become accessible.
Are you aware of any way you can force Internet Explorer 5 to start up in Full Screen mode? I can't seem to find an option for it in Internet Options. Is it possible?
There are a few options open here. There's a command line switch that'll start Internet Explorer in what's known as Kiosk mode. As you'll discover, this gets you a copy of Internet Explorer that has no toolbars whatsoever, not even a button to close it down. The only way to get rid of Internet Explorer in this mode is to either invoke the Task Manager or use the <Alt-F4> key combination.
The command line to get to Kiosk mode is: iexplore.exe -k
Just type that into the Run-edit box accessed via the Start menu and the Run menu option, and you'll get a kiosk view of Internet Explorer. Interestingly, if you hit the < Ctrl-N > keystroke combination while running Internet Explorer in Kiosk mode, you'll get a new instance of Internet Explorer running in the default mode with all its toolbars, menus and other paraphernalia as well.
To get Internet Explorer to launch in the normal Full Screen mode, simply hit the F11 key when you've launched Internet Explorer. If you then close it down, the next time you start up you'll find it launches in Full Screen mode again, as Internet Explorer stores its last configuration in the Registry and uses that the next time you run it. Obviously, if you have more than one instance of Internet Explorer open at a time, make sure you close down the one that's in Full Screen mode last, otherwise it will change and come back as whatever the last Internet Explorer window you closed down looked like. There is, as you'll no doubt be unsurprised to learn, a Registry switch that controls Full Screen mode in Internet Explorer. You can find it at the following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/ Software /Microsoft/InternetExplorer/Main
If you look at all the Values in the Main key, you'll see one labelled 'FullScreen' and it will either be set to 'yes or 'no'. If yours is set to 'no', change it to 'yes', and when you next launch Internet Explorer it will come up in Full Screen mode.
In this case, however, I can't see the point in meddling with the Registry settings, as its much simpler and safer to launch Internet Explorer, hit F11 and then close it down and launch it again, than it is to start wading through the potential minefield of the Windows Registry. If hitting the F11 key isn't quite your cup of tea then you can add the Full Screen button to the Internet Explorer toolbar and use that instead. To do that, follow these steps:
Fire up Internet Explorer, select the View menu, followed by the Toolbars menu item, and then select the Customise menu item.
Look down the Available toolbar buttons list and click on the one labelled 'Full Screen' to select it.
Click on the Add button.
Position it where you want it on the toolbar using the Move Up and Move Down buttons, and hit the Close button when you're finished.
Now you'l1 have a button you can use rather than the keyboard to switch to Full Screen mode.
For some reason known only to Bill Gates, my online pleasure is being ruined by persistent error messages that close IE 5.5. It is annoyingly random, but it appears to happen when I try to open additional pages. Often it works, but sometimes I get the big screen freeze and can't shut down the application properly (even when using the task list) and suffer the BSOD. Interestingly, I know of two other people who are suffering similar fates. The last error messages read:
IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module CRS32.DLL at 0167:014886b2.
IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module JIT.DLL at 0167:7c31gda9.
Incidentally, I run that increasingly popular type of PC -the 'bought all the bits and made it myself variety.
What makes you think Bill Gates knows the answer? Quite a few people have been suffering from invalid page faults and other messages since installing IE5.5, though others find it runs fine. This is nothing new: IE5 had plenty of errors, most of which were fixed with the 5.01 release. Perhaps it depends on the other software you have installed. Anyway I see no compelling reason to upgrade to 5.5 until these bugs are worked out to make it easier on yourself, I'd start by making sure you have plenty of disk space for the swapfile. You have two 1.2Gb drives compressed with DriveSpace? Well I hope you have plenty of uncompressed drive space for the Windows swapfile at least. Even so, performance is going to be terrible. Newer hard disks are not only much larger but also much faster and compression really messes up performance. Second, make sure you have updated your system with all the bug fix releases for the operating system, major applications and the Microsoft Libraries Update. Update your graphics drivers with the latest versions.
Most problems tend to be caused by all the crappy software that users load on to their computers. Run Msconfig to see what's being loaded and try eliminating some of it. It seems that you, like so many other users, have tried software from Gratisware, which takes applications from other companies and then gives them away, bundled with their own software which displays adverts on the computer. Even after uninstalling the Gratisware application software some parts including CRS.EXE and CRS32.DLL - are left behind and are known to cause crashes in IE5.5. You must hunt and destroy any CRS modules. Gratisware has provided a removal tool at www.gratisware.com/Gratisware.nsf/htm/media/opt-out/htm/, but after running it I would check to see if any CRS files remain and, if so, delete them manually.
The error message involving JIT.DLL refers to IE's internal 'Just in time' Java compiler. It seems that this has compatibility problems with certain Java code. If these problems continue, you can disable it under Tools, Internet Options, Advanced. In case that does not work, attempt the following procedure:
Update the video drivers, DirectX, operating system patches and updates, and the MS Libraries update.
Temporarily remove all except the most essential programs that run on startup; Windows 98 and Me provide the Msconfig tool that will allow you to select which applications are run.
Further investigate the video driver issues. Turn off Active Desktop by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting Properties and then Web. Then turn off hardware acceleration by right-clicking on My Computer, Properties, Performance and -if that doesn't work -changing to a standard display driver.
Look for hardware issues by going into the Bios and selecting the slowest compatible defaults. These are often confusingly labelled but will turn off all caching. This will slow down your computer tremendously but if it cures the problem you probably have a hardware problem.
Whenever I used to exit from Explorer, a window used to open in the middle of the screen giving me the choices to either 'Stay connected' or 'Disconnect'. For some reason I don't get this window any more, and now every time I exit back to my Desktop I remain connected to the Internet. If I'm not careful, I could remain connected for hours without noticing it. I don't mind not having to select from this window, as long as the system disconnects automatically when I exit. I have tried to find, through Options, a way to reinstate this window, but was unsuccessful.
With regard to your other problem, do the following.
1 Go to the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, select the Internet Options menu item and when the dialog comes up, click on the Connections tab.
2 Select the connection you use from the Dial-up settings list and then click on the Properties button.
3 Look for the Dial-Up settings frame and click on the Advanced button.
4 Make sure that both checkboxes are enabled, and set a reasonable time for disconnection in the Disconnect if Idle window.
Sometimes, when you save a site using Internet Explorer's Add to Favourites, you get a fancy icon with the link. After a while, however, the icon disappears. How can I make the icons stay?
A site can provide a fancy Favourites icon by placing a file named Favicon.ico in its root folder. Clearing your temporary Internet files will wipe out these icons, which is probably what happened to you. To make an icon permanent, first download a local copy of the icon. In Internet Explorer, click Favourites, locate the item and right-click it. Next choose Properties from the pop-up menu, then click on the Web document tab. Click Change icon Select your local copy of the icon. Now this favourite will never lose its icon.
Readers have wanted to know how to get multiple columns in the Favourites menu. You can get multiple columns by placing a shortcut to your Favourites folder in the Start menu. Then simply click Start/Favourites.
This tip will indeed display your Favourites in multiple columns-but not as a menu. The Favourites folder will appear in Windows Explorer, with sub folders corresponding to submenus and links corresponding to menu items. If you choose List from the View menu, you'll get a multicolumn list of items.
To implement this, launch Windows Explorer and locate the Favourites folder contained in C:\Windows. Right-drag it to the desktop and choose Create Shortcut(s). Right-click the Start button and choose Explore from the pop-up menu; this opens the Start menu folder. Right-drag it into this folder and choose Move Here. Edit the shortcut's name to Favourites. It will appear in the Start menu above the Programs item.
Can you please tell me if there's a way to get rid of the Links folder in the Favourites pane?
You can't delete, move or rename the Links folder permanently; it reappears every time. What you must do is leave it in place, but hide it. Open the Favourites menu, right-click the Links submenu, then choose Properties. In the dialog that appears, check the Hidden box and click on OK. Close IE and reopen it.
Links that display in Internet Explorer's (IE) status bar are too long and look like complete gibberish. Is there any way to make the URLs more readable?
You certainly can make the URLs shorter. Click on the Tools menu in IE to open the Internet Options dialog box, then under the Advanced tab check the Browsing option called Show friendly URLs. To see the difference, go to www.pcmag.co.uk, say, with friendly URLs turned off the Labs Reviews link shows as http://www.zdnet.co.uk/pcmag/labs With the option on, the status bar reads Shortcut to labs.
Since I upgraded to Internet Explorer 5.5, I've experienced a lot of error messages while surfing the Net. So I decided to go back to version 5: big mistake. I used the uninstall/rollback utility comes with version 5.5 to restore Internet Explorer to its previous version, and the machine froze halfway. I pressed < Ctrl-Alt-Del >, but to no avail. So I reset my machine and was horrified to discover I couldn't boot at all, even in Safe Mode. All I got was a message about Explorer causing an invalid page fault in SHDOCVWW .DLL, and I had to shut down. If I brought up the Close Program window, it showed that no program was running. It's the same in Safe Mode but I can use the boot disk to boot up. Do I have to re-install Windows? I'm using Windows 98 SE, I think.
You probably don't have to re-install Windows, although you have a little work to do. The cause of your problem is that SHDOCVW.DLL is missing, damaged or the wrong version (I suspect the latter will probably be the case). I think you might find the solution to your problem in article Q175930 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, and that you might have to re-install IE 5 after you've finished, as you might find yourself rolled back to IE 4. However, that will probably depend on what version of Windows 98 you actually have.
We've acquired several new laptops and desktops recently that are running Windows 98 SE. Some connect to our LAN and some access our network via dialup. The problem were having is that Internet Explorer keeps losing the proxy settings. I've tried both the IP address and the proxy server name in the settings box, all to no avail. I've done a search on the Microsoft Web site, but was unable to find any useful information.
This is actually a problem that afflicted Windows 3.x and Internet Explorer 3.x and 4.x, but also made it over to Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 5. The cure is quite simple, but irritating, as you're going to have to struggle with giant dialogs in Safe Mode at 640 x 480 resolution. This is because while Windows 98 and Internet Explorer happily dump proxy information following a reboot, setting the proxy details in Safe Mode should leave them still there on rebooting the system. There are a number of different ways to get Windows 98 to start in Safe Mode that I'm sure you already know, but for the benefit of those who might not, here they are.
The sneakiest way is to slip a non-bootable floppy disk into the floppy drive when your system starts up. Eventually, your system will decided it can't start, and you'l1get the error message about a 'non-system disk or disk error, replace it and strike any key when ready'. Rather than hitting any old key, hit the F8 key twice and you'll be rewarded with the Startup menu.
Alternatively, let the system boot, and then hold down the Ctrl key until the Startup menu puts in an appearance, unless you're using a tool by EZ-Drive that is, in which case use the F8 key instead.
Another way to do it is via these steps:
1 From the Start menu select Programs, then Accessories, followed by System Tools and finally System Information.
2 Go to the Tools menu and select the System Configuration Utility menu item.
3 When that opens, click on Advanced and look for a checkbox labelled Enable Startup Menu, before hitting the OK button a few times to get rid of the dialogs.
When you next restart your system it will load the Startup menu automatically, and you can choose your boot mode from the available options.
There are also a number of items that can be placed in the [Options] section of the MSDOS.SYS file.
BootFailSafe = 0 or 1 (default is 0, of course) forces the system to start in Safe Mode all the time.
BootMenu = 0 or 1 (default 0) is the item you enable when you use the last method I mentioned of starting Windows 98 so that you had easy access to the Startup menu.
BootMenuDefault = < n > where < n > by default is 3 for a system with no networking, and 4 for one that connects to a network.
BootMenuDelay = < n > where < n > is the number of seconds before the default Startup menu item is activated. The default is 30 seconds.
Finally, you can also use a rather handy utility supplied with Windows 98 called the System Configuration Editor: from the Start menu select Run and then type 'msconfig' (without the quotes).
When it starts up, make sure you're on the General tab and click on the Advanced button. Click to enable the checkbox by the Settings list entry labelled 'Enable Startup Menu' and you should get a Startup menu each time you load Windows 98. This is a handy utility, but potentially dangerous, so if you use it be very careful what settings you change and only manipulate those you fully understand.
One handy feature is the Backup button on the General tab that lets you back up system files and quite a bit more besides well worth investigating.
I write to you in desperation. I have wasted several hours trying to get the right support from the Microsoft site, which is far from friendly.
I recently purchased a new AMD Athlon 600 Fujitsu/Siemens Xpert computer at Sainsbury's. Windows 98 version 2 was preinstalled with Internet Explorer 5.01. This is my second purchased computer, as I have owned a Packard Bell Pentium 166MHz for nearly three years. I have been a subscriber for some time and have, I hope, a reasonable grasp of computer matters. There are two problems.
The first I noted after transferring data from my previous system and installing all the software that came with the new computer. I found that when using Internet Explorer there was a high incidence of
'illegal operation' warnings and crashes. I tried various things to correct it, then went to the Microsoft site and downloaded the new 5.5 version in the hope of overcoming the problem. I may have taken off IE 5.O1 by this time as I recall some problem in doing this.The problem still persists. I find when I launch update reminders, or IE without going first to my ISP Blueyonder, the 'illegal operation' warning often appears and the desktop browser goes off. The details are: 'Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module OLE32.DLL at 0167:7ff33822.'
It will be hard now to determine exactly what caused your problem; unfortunately this error can have many possible causes. The most likely causes, however, are as follows. The computer name in the Network Properties Identification tab contains an illegal character or space - the only valid characters are letters, numbers and a hyphen. When you copied files from your old system you accidentally copied old versions of certain system library files, particularly OLE components. You may have overwritten a file, or it may be that there is an older version in another folder, which is getting loaded by mistake.
To troubleshoot file conflicts, I'd first suggest running the Windows 98 System File Checker SFC - from Start Menu, choose Run and type SFC. It should then offer to check that system files have not become corrupted and, if it finds any changes, restore them from the original CD.
Second, from the Find Files command (Search in Windows 2000 or Me), look for *.dII in all folders of your hard disk. There will be a lot of them but you need to scan for duplicate filenames with different sizes or version numbers. In particular, watch for dII files in the Windows folder that are already in the Windows System folder - although there are a few files that need to be installed in Windows, most dII files should be either in the Windows System folder or in an application's own folder. If they are found in both Windows and Windows System the copy in Windows will be loaded, although there may be a later copy in the Windows System folder. Occasionally an application needs a particular version of a dII file and in those cases it can load a version from its own private folder. However, the trouble with this is that dII files are shared - if another program loads and needs a particular dII file and there is already a copy running, it will use that instead of loading another copy. So one application loading its own older version of a dII file, especially if it is an application that loads at startup, can cause other applications (which expect the latest version) to crash.
To be on the safe side, rename or delete all duplicate dII files, leaving only the latest version in the Windows System folder. Beware, though: file dates may have been altered, making an old version appear newer than it is. So, before deleting them, check which really is the latest version by right-clicking on each file, choosing Properties, then going to the 'Version' tab.
I've been following the various columns in PC Pro with interest, notably your one in the January 2001 edition (issue 75), where it talks about finding a list of all the pages you've ever visited on the Net. How do I do this in Windows 98? There were some pages I found ages ago in my initial 'Gosh, wow' frenzy on the Net and I'd love to go back.
I'd be quite surprised if there were, although its always worth a look in your History folder, which you can access via the History button on the toolbar, by pressing the <Ctrl-H > key combination or via the slightly convoluted menu route View - Explorer Bar - History. If its been quite some time, however, you'l1 almost certainly have lost those URLs, as they're only kept in History for as long as is specified in your Internet Explorer options. To see what that says, head for the Tools menu, click on it, select the Options menu item and have a look at the bottom frame, labelled History.
You'll see a figure there for the number of days items are kept History, which I believe, defaults to 20 days. If the URLs you wanted are gone, you might be able to find them by searching in the Files area.
Go to the frame above History, click on the Settings button and then on the View Files button. If you have a lot of items in there, it will take some time to load. In there you'll find hundreds, indeed thousands, of entries for all the items you've seen on Web pages as you've browsed them. You might find a search through there to be fruitful, albeit somewhat long-winded, even given the sorting capabilities available.
I just ran Microsoft Backup for the first time, as I was curious to see how it performed on my new Windows ME box. When it had finished, there were error messages in the Status area that said that three INDEX.DAT files couldn't be backed up, as they were busy. These files were located in the Cookies, History and Temporary Internet Files folders. Going by the folder locations, I presume these are Internet Explorer files. Do I need to worry about them not getting backed up?
No, there's nothing to worry about as far as those particular files are concerned. If you deleted them, they'd only get recreated when Internet Explorer next started up. The files are busy because they're in use, which will always be true under Windows ME or 98 for that matter. This is because Internet Explorer is part of the OS and is thus always running even if you don't have the browser itself open.