The I.E. 4.0 Desktop Update makes critical changes to the System and Registry hives. If you try to use repair or restore disk that had been made during installation of I.E. you may encounter the problem of blank desktop. To avoid this run rdisk/s immediately after you update.

If you are using scroll mouse, then you can resize on-screen fonts in I.E. by holding ctrl key and rolling the mouse wheel up and down ( to increase/ decrease the font size).

To trace the route from your internet provider to your location, and show you each and every computer system along the way. Use the program called Trace Route. Open a DOS windows and type tracert. The location name can be any IP address or number such as xyz@abc.ef. This also helps you to locate any breaks in communication such as Error locating server.

If you have installed IE 4.0 or higher than before re-installing Windows uninstall it. As installation of IE changes Windows system files with newer version. Reinstall IE later.

You can browse, explore from the taskbar by using Address bar. Right-click on on Taskbar>, select Taskbars > Address. The address bar will appear on taskbar.

When you surf internet, than many sites leave their files so that they increase the speed when you next visit their site but it can help in keeping track of your password, date and time you visit their website. So it is better to delete cookies from cookies folder in windows directory. Do not forget to delete Temporary Internet Files Folder.

There are a few levels for security which are provided with IE, check these options in Security tab, under, Tools> Internet Options. This will help you in maintaining low level security to high level security.

The history folder keep records of sites where you visited. This is very convinent if you are the only user of the system, but if there are other user, and you do not want to tell them, then you must delete it. You can also set number of days, to keep the pages from Tools>internet Options>Days to keep pages in History.

Generally when you save a web page, a folder is also created and it become difficult to manage, therefore use mht format. This saves your web page as a web archive. Select File> Save as and select option as mht. It creates only one file.

You can select different folders for your folder background. Right Click in any folder, select Customise this folder> Select a background picture press next, select any picture( bmp, jpg, tif) and click next and finish. You can do this to any folder. This requires IE 4.0 or above. Do not work in Windows Xp.

If you have two or more browsers installed and want to select IE as default then open IE andselect, Tools> Internet Options and check option Internet Explorer should always check if its a default browser. Next time you open it, it will prompt you to make IE your default browser, click yes.

If you are fed up seeing debug message box, then select Tools> Internet Options> Advanced tab, look for Browsing and check the option Disable Script Debugging.

If you want to get notify each time when you have script error in the page, then select Tools> Internet Options> Advanced tab, look for Browsing and check the option Display a notification about every script error.

When you visit a site and you want that page to view offline then you add this page to favorites, select Favorites > Add to Favorites. Check the box . You can also view pages in History folder. You can also select the folder in which you want to store pages.

If you want to stop the background music and want to view the page, simply press the Stop button. To start the music again Refresh the page by pressing F5 key.

To remove unwanted URLs from the address bar of the Internet Explorer, open regedit, edit HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs, from the right pane delete the unwanted URLs.

To refresh the page completely, press Ctrl key and then click on refresh button.

To speed up IE, right-click on a shortcut to Internet Explorer (such as the one in the Quicklaunch bar) and add the parameter -nohome to the end of the command line.

In IE, go to Tools > Internet Options > Connections tab > Click on LAN settings > Uncheck the option Use a proxy server for your LAN (These settings will not apply to dial up or VPN connections) > click OK > Apply the settings and click OK.
Proxy settings window will no more irritate you.

By default, IE 7 displays all links as underlined links. Fot different look you can change the settings so that IE, only underlines links when you move your mouse pointer over one. Also you can prevent IE from underlining links altogether. In IE goto Tools > Internet Options. In the Internet Options dialog box, select the Advanced tab, and scroll the list of options for the Underline Links setting under Browsing option. Select the button next to Hover and Internet Explorer will only underline when a link when you move your mouse over it. Click OK to save your changes.

Open IE shortcuts in new window. Reuse windows for launching shortcuts setting is used to determine whether a new or existing instance of Internet Explorer is used when exploring a Web site using following method: Open IE > Goto Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Uncheck 'Reuse windows for launching short cuts' option.

In internet explorer, go to Tools menu > Interent options > Programs tab > check option Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser.> click OK.

In internet explorer, go to Tools menu > Internet options > Advanced tab > Check the option to Empty Temporary Internet Files when browser is closed > click Ok.

Open IE > Tools Menu > Click on Delete Browsing History > Under Form Data click Delete button.

Open IE > Go to Tools menu, click Delete Browsing History > Click appropriate button or click delete all > Click OK.

Create and run shortcut \ProgramFiles\Internet Explorer\iexplore -private. This will open IE in Private Mode.

In IE8, you can get more space to add your links, by customizing the Favorites Bar. Right Click on Favorites Bar, click on Customize Title Widths and select option Icons Only. Options available are Long Titles, Short Titles and Icons Only.

Suggested Sites is one of the new features introduced in Internet Explorer 8. To disable Suggested Site option, open Internet Explorer, goto Tools > Internet Options, Advanced Tab and uncheck Enable Suggested Site option under Browsing.

To enable No Style in IE8, open Internet Explorer, navigate to View > Style > No Style. This will select No Style option. When you are browsing using No Style, the CSS of the web site will not be used. By default, IE uses default Style which in return uses CSS of a website.

For fast browsing in Internet Explorer, you can disable the Add-ons. All Internet Explorer add-ons, such as ActiveX controls or toolbars, will be turned off. Although, browser add-ons can add great new features to your browser, they can also introduce performance issues if written poorly. From Run Windows, type command iexplore -extoff and click on OK button. This will launch Internet Explorer 8 without any add-ons.