SHORTCUT COMMANDS

ACRONYMS
Do you ever feel like you're unwillingly subjected to a never-ending barrage of acronyms that you don't understand? If so, visit The WorldWideWeb Acronym and Abbreviation Server at http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/acronyms/index.html You, too, can speak geek-speak.
Here's a list of the most common acronyms found in newsgroups (and in some e-mail).

AFAIK - As far as I know
BTW - By the way By the way
HTH - Hope this helps Hope this helps
IMO - In my opinion In my opinion
IMHO - In my humble opinion In my humble opinion
IMNSHO - In my not so humble opinion In my not so humble opinion
IOW - In other words In other words
LOL - Laughing out loud (some people seem to use this for "lots of luck") Laughing out loud (some people seem to use this for "lots of luck")
OIC - Oh, I see
ROTFL - Rolling on the floor laughing
BG - Big grin
G - Big grin
g - Grin

GOPHER!
Gopher is a text-only service developed by the University of Minnesota. To check it out type into the Address box Gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu

URL TRACKING
Want to find out what kind of route your system takes to get to a specific site? Try this: While logged on to the Internet, open an MS-DOS prompt and type "Tracert," followed by the URL you want to track, like this: Tracert www.aeverett.btinternet.co.uk/
You'll get a complete report on your signal's route. When you finish with your tracing, type exit at the command prompt to close the MS-DOS window.

URL ADDRESSING
When you see an Internet address on TV (or on those photos coming back from Mars) that you'd like to visit, don't bother typing in the entire address. You can always leave off the http:// part of the address, but you can't always get away with leaving off the www portion.
What happens is that many, but not all, sites will automatically recognize the address and add the www because they've registered both the domains http://www.whatever.com and http://whatever.com. Still other sites will present a page pointing you to the correct site.
So, you can type in microsoft.com or pcworld.com and get to those sites. However, you can't get to all sites this way. If you don't get there on the first try, go back and add the www part of the address.

NEW WINDOW
You know that you can open a new window, then navigate to another site in that window. Here's a way to visit a new link and open a new window at the same time. Hold down Shift while you click a link. Microsoft Internet Explorer will open a new window containing the new site.

INTERNET MAIL
If you use Microsoft Internet mail with your Microsoft Internet Explorer installation, you may find it convenient to put the Internet Mail icon on your desktop. Here's how: Right-click Start and choose Open. Double-click the Programs icon, then locate the Internet Mail icon. Use the right mouse button to drag the icon to the desktop. When you release the mouse button a menu will appear. Choose Copy Here. To close the windows you opened, click the Close button in the Programs window, then click the Start Menu window's Close box.

CASE SENSITIVE
One thing to watch for when surfing the Web is that many servers run Unix and are case-sensitive. This means that `Index' and `index' are not the same. If you get an error message after you manually enter a name in the Address box, check the case.

MAILING LINKS
If you'd like to pass a particular link along to a friend, right-click the link and choose Copy Shortcut. Now create your new e-mail message and right-click in it. Choose Paste. The link will appear in its own space and you can add whatever you want to the message text.
To send a group of links in one e-mail message: First, open Outlook Express and click Compose Message. Enter the recipients and the subject. With Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 running, navigate to the pages that you want to send. Now, double-click the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 title bar to reduce the window size. Place the New Message window (Outlook Express) alongside the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 window. Use the mouse to drag the Address icon (to the left of the URL in the Address Bar) to the New Message window. This will place the link in the new Outlook Express message as an attachment. Navigate to each page that you want to e-mail and repeat the procedure.
After you have all the links inserted in the message, add any explanatory message that you wish and then click Send. Note that the message will be sent the next time you click Send and Receive (unless you have selected to send all messages immediately).

HISTORY FOLDER
Even if you set History to zero, files will still get stored in the History folder. The reason is that Microsoft Internet Explorer must download the Web page and any other files that are needed by the page. If you're a little short of disk space, don't worry,  Microsoft Internet Explorer deletes the history files when you exit Explorer.

LOCAL WEB PAGE
Here's a technique that many Web surfers like to employ. Although Microsoft Internet Explorer offers the Favorites folder that you can always use to navigate to your favorite sites, many people like to build a local home page to use as the start page.
You can build a page on your hard disk that contains whatever graphics, text, and links you want to include. Name your page something like MyPage.html and save it.
Now open Microsoft Internet Explorer and choose View|Options and click on the Navigation tab. In the Address text box, type the path and name of your page. For example, if you placed MyPage.html in a folder named Stuff, you'd type: C:\Stuff\MyPage.html Click on Apply and then click on OK. Now, whenever you start Internet Explorer, it will open with your local page. It will not attempt to connect until you choose a link that isn't on the hard disk.
You don't have to limit yourself to a single page. If you create a main page with a subject menu, you can use the subject links to open other pages that contain links related to that subject.
For example, your main page might consist of a list that includes computer manufacturers. If you click on that link, you could then navigate to a page of computer manufacturer links. Let's say your main page is named MyPage.html. Your computer page is named Computers.html and both are in the Stuff folder. Your computer page link will then be C:\Stuff\Computer.html  When you click on this link, you'll navigate to the page of computer links.
To look at the root folder of your hard disk, you can type c:\ into the Address box and then press Enter. When you reach the folder, take another look at the Address box and you'll see file://c: because Explorer adds the proper protocol for you.
If you'd like to read a text file directly in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can type in the path and name of the file. For example, typing c:\My Documents\MyFile.txt into the Address box and pressing Enter will open the file for viewing. And of course you can also double-click on the folders and files to open them, which means you can drill down to the file you want to view even if you don't know its exact path name.

WEB PAGE LINKS
Don't you just hate it when you're viewing a lengthy Web page and the links are at the bottom? You don't have to scroll through the entire page to get to the links. All you have to do is press the End key. If you want to quickly get to the top of a page, press Home.
You can also use PageDown and PageUp to navigate one page at a time.

SETTING CACHE
When you navigate to an Internet page, by default Microsoft Internet Explorer checks to see if that page is in your cache. How your installation deals with the cache is up to you.
To set up your cache parameters, choose View Options and click on the Advanced tab. Now click on Settings. Now you can select the appropriate radio button to tell Explorer to check for newer versions every time you visit a page, to check every time you start Explorer, or to never check.
Never is the fastest option, but your cached pages won't get updated. However, you can click on Refresh to update pages that contain variable information (weather reports, for example).
The slowest option is Every Visit To The Page because the pages always get updated. The default of Every Time You Start Explorer is a good compromise. Make your choice and click on OK. Then click on OK again.

MODIFYING LINKS
Microsoft Internet Explorer comes with some predefined Quick Links. If you like, you can redefine the Quick Links to suit your own surfing habits. If your Quick Links aren't visible, move the mouse pointer over the bottom edge of the toolbar until it turns into a double arrow. Now use the mouse to drag downward and the Quick Links bar will appear.
To add your own URL to a Quick Link, choose View Options and click on the Navigation tab. Now click the down arrow at the right side of the Page list box to expand the list. Select (for example) Quick Link #1. Give it a name and type in the complete URL. Click on OK.

ADDRESS BOOK
When you click on the New Message button in Microsoft Internet Mail, the window opens with the cursor placed at the To: entry box. To select an address from the Address book, you can choose File Address Book.
You can also open the Address Book by simply double-clicking on the To: icon.

STYLE SHEETS
Many Web page designers use style sheets to specify fonts, font sizes, and margins in their pages. To view one of these pages as the designer intended, you need to tell Microsoft Internet Explorer to use style sheets.
To get Explorer to use style sheets, choose View Options and click on the Advanced tab. Select the Use Style Sheets check box and click on OK.

REMOTE PRINTING
There you are, sitting on a beach in Scunthorpe connected to the Internet with your laptop computer. You run across a Web page you'd like to print, but you don't have access to a printer.
You can save the Web page by choosing File Save As. You can also print the page to a file and then print the file when you get back home.
Before you can print out your file, you'll need to have your print settings configured properly. You may want to do this part while you're still at home, because you'll need the Windows 95 CD to complete the printer installation. To set file printing, click on Start Settings Printers and then double-click on New Printer. Follow the Wizard, choosing the type of printer you'll be using. When you get to the part that asks which port to use, choose File (creates a file on disk) and click on Next. When it asks if you want to print a test page, tell it No. There's not much point in printing a test file.
To print your Web page as a file, choose File Print and then choose your new printer. Click on OK in the Print dialog box and then give the file a name. When you get back home, transfer the file to your home computer (or hook up the printer to the laptop) and go to the MS-DOS prompt. At the prompt, type copy myfile.prn lpt1: and press Enter. When the file finishes printing, type exit and press Enter to exit the MS-DOS window.

FILE TYPES
You can choose File Open to open a file in Microsoft Internet Explorer, but what kind of file can you open? Explorer will open text files (TXT), graphics files (JPEG, GIF), sound files (WAV, AU, AIFF), and movie files (AVI, MPEG, and MOV).
So when you need to look at one of the file types listed here, you don't have to minimize Explorer and look for the correct program. All you have to do is choose File Open and then click on Browse to locate and open the file. You can also open a file by pressing Ctrl-O.

EXPLORER SHORTCUT
Want to call up Explorer quickly? Assign a shortcut key sequence to it. Right-click on the Start button and then choose Open. Now double-click on the Programs icon. You should see the Explorer shortcut now.
Right-click on the Explorer shortcut icon and choose Properties. Next, click on the Shortcut tab and then click in the Shortcut key text entry box. Type E and click on OK. Close the Programs box.
Now, all you have to do to run Microsoft Internet Explorer is press Ctrl-Alt-E (it doesn't have to be uppercase). If you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, just hold down the Windows key and press E to open Internet Explorer.

BACKUP ADDRESS BOOK
When you're backing up your Mail files, don't forget the address book. If you don't know where the address book is located, you can search for the file using Windows' Find File feature. The file will have a .WAB extension.
Once you've located the file, open Windows Explorer and copy the file to a floppy disk. You can usually copy it to the same floppy that you use to back up your Mail directory. It depends on how much mail you have to save and how many addresses you have in the address book.

PRINTING FRAMES
If you're like most of us, you've probably printed the wrong frame in a multiframe site. In the old days (a few months ago), you could just click on Print and get a printout of the entire Web page. In a multiframe site, you have to first click on the frame you want to print and then click on Print.

SENDING TEXT FILES
There are two ways to add text files to an Internet Mail message: You can insert it, or you can attach it. Which should you do? The answer depends on the file. If the file is very short, it may be easier for the recipient to read an inserted text file.
To insert a file, create your message, choose Insert, Text File, and then select the file you want inserted. If the file is longer, you may find it easier to attach the file to your message. In this case, choose Insert, Attachment and select the file to attach.

PICTURE FILES
Here's a trick for travelers: If you find yourself working with a computer that doesn't have any kind of picture file viewer installed, see if it has Internet Explorer. If so, you can use Explorer to view .JPG, .GIF, .AVI, MPEG, and .MOV files. Just choose File, Open and locate the file you want to view. You can also listen to .WAV, .AU, and AIFF sound files with Internet Explorer.

FRAME NAVIGATION
When viewing multiframe Web sites, you can move between frames by clicking in the frame that you want to make active. You can also move to a new frame by pressing Ctrl-Tab.

TEMPORARY FOLDER
If you'd like to have your temporary folder more readily available to you for inspection, you can place it in your Start menu, or you can put the temporary files into a different folder.
To place the Temporary folder in the Start menu, run Windows Explorer and locate the Windows folder. Expand Windows and locate the Temporary Internet Files folder. Use the mouse to drag the folder's icon to the Start button. When the icon is over the Start button, release the mouse button. Your Temporary folder is now easily accessible from the Start menu.
If you'd prefer to have the temporary Internet files stored in a different folder, first pick (or create) a folder. Now run Microsoft Internet Explorer and choose View, Options and click on the Advanced tab. Now click on Settings and then click on Move Folder. Choose the new folder and click on OK. When you get back to Options, click on OK to close the dialog box. You'll have to restart the computer for your new folder choice to take effect.

NAVIGATION FORWARD AND BACKWARD
An easy way to navigate between Web pages is to press Alt-Left Arrow to move to the previous page and Alt-Right Arrow to move to the next page (assuming there is a next page in your History folder).

AUTOMATIC DIALING
If you'd like to click on the Microsoft Internet Explorer icon and have the dialing take place with no intervention from you, double-click on My Computer and then double-click on Dial-Up Networking to open it. Now choose Connections, Settings and then select the radio button labelled Don't Prompt to Use Dial-Up Networking. Now click on OK. The next time you run Internet Explorer, it will dial the ISP number without any prompting.

CLEARING THE ADDRESS BAR
The good news is that you can clear the Address bar of no-longer-needed addresses. The bad news is that you will also clear your History folder. The problem is that the Address bar provides those addresses by getting them from the History folder.
To clear the bar, choose View, Options and click on the Navigation tab. Now click on Clear History, confirm your choice by clicking on Yes when prompted, and click on OK. When you get back to your Web page, you'll find that the Address bar is empty. Of course, so is your History folder.

CHANGING FONTS
Before you change fonts in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3, note the original settings. There's no way to put them back except by going through the procedure again. To change fonts, choose View, Fonts and then pick the font size you prefer.
Note that you can't change the font size on all Web pages, because some pages override the option. They do this to make sure the page displays the way they want it to.

PICTURES
If you visit a site that has some graphics you'd like to copy, you can right-click on the graphic and choose Save Picture As to save it. But what if you neglected to save the picture while you were visiting the page?
Let's suppose you've already signed off the Internet when you decide you should have saved a special picture. Should you get back on the Internet and navigate to the page again? It probably isn't necessary. All you have to do is open Windows Explorer and locate the Temporary Internet Files folder. Find the file you want (this can pose a problem, because the file names are often somewhat cryptic), then drag it to another folder.

FRIENDLY SITES
In Microsoft Internet Explorer, when you click on a URL you'll see the site to which you're navigating in the status bar. You'll see the site name only if you've told Internet Explorer to show "friendly" sites. If you only see some weird numbers in the status bar, choose View, Options, and click on the Advanced tab. Select Show Friendly URLs, click on Apply, and click on OK. Now you'll see those Status bar addresses in plain language.

URL NAVIGATION
You can get anywhere on a Web page without using the mouse. All you have to do is use the Tab key. Each time you press Tab, you'll move to the next URL. If the page you're viewing has more than one frame, pressing Tab will move through all the URLs in the current frame and then switch you to the next frame.
To navigate to a selected URL, just press Enter. Of course, you can use the Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, and Arrow keys to navigate through a page that's longer than one screen.

NEW BROWSER
If you're in a hurry and hate to sit around drinking coffee while you download a long file, just press Ctrl-N to open a new browser window. Now you can surf to your heart's content while the download proceeds. Oh sure, you'll slow the download somewhat, but it beats sitting around drinking coffee, doesn't it?
Alternatively, you can continue to navigate the Web while a download is in progress by simply clicking on a favourite or typing a URL into the Address box. It's just that it might be easier to keep track of what's happening if you open a new window.

START OFF WITH A SEARCH PAGES
Many of the search sites have now added news and links to other sites. With all the information now available on search pages, it isn't unreasonable to use one as your start page. This is a real advantage if your Internet usage consists primarily of extensive searches.
To make a search page your start page, navigate to the page and then choose View, Options and click on Navigation. Now click on Use Current. Click on Apply and then OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.
OR
If you look closely at the Address Bar, you'll see a little E icon next to the address of the site you are currently viewing. Click the icon and drag it to the Home icon on the toolbar. A dialog box will appear, asking if you want to make this page your start page. Click Yes, and you now have a new start page.

DEFAULT BROWSER
The first time you open Microsoft Internet Explorer, it asks if you want to make it your default browser. So you do. Then you load other software, and sometimes this other software loads a different browser. Now you get the question again.
This happens because the other browser has made itself the default. Just click on Yes when asked and go ahead with your work. Check into the other software. Perhaps you can use Microsoft Internet Explorer rather than the browser that shipped with the program. If so, you can uninstall the other browser and go back to normal. If you can't designate Microsoft Internet Explorer as a permanent default for whatever reason, just keep insisting it's the default when asked.

INTERNET SHORTCUT
If you're working with a program and realise that you need to find something on the Internet, you can double-click the Internet Explorer icon to open Explorer. Then you can navigate to a search site and begin looking.
There's a quicker way, though. What if you put the search engine URL into one of your folders--or on the desktop? Or even in the Start menu, where you can always get to it? Run Internet Explorer and navigate to your favourite search engine. Now choose Favorites, Add to Favorites and click OK. At this point, you can close Internet Explorer.
The next thing you need to do is locate your Favorites folder on your hard disk. Because the location can vary somewhat, click the desktop, then press F3. This will open Find. In the Named text entry box, type Favorites. Now click the arrow at the right side of the Look In list box to expand it. Select your C: drive (or whatever it's called). Make sure Include Subfolders is selected and click Find Now.
When you locate the Favorites folder, double-click it (yes, right there in Find). When it opens, drag the Search URL to Start. When you release the mouse button, the Search URL will appear in the Start menu. All you have to do now is click Start and choose the URL, and Microsoft Internet Explorer will open, dial the ISP, and navigate to the search site.

ICON LINKS
As we've mentioned in the past, you can add whatever you want to the Links folder. All you have to do is choose Favorites, Organize Favorites and then drag whatever you want into the Links folder.
You can add a Web page by choosing Favorites, Add to Favorites. Next, click Create in and select the Links folder. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your addition. Now that you know how to add links to Links, let's look at how to change a new link's icon.
Right-click the link you want to change and choose Properties. When the Link Properties dialog box opens, click the Internet Shortcut dialog box. Now click Change Icon and then click Browse to search for a new icon. When you locate an icon, select it and click OK. Back in the Properties dialog box, click OK to close the box and save your change.
Alternatively, if you know where the icon is located, you can type in its path and name. Click OK to save the change and close the dialog box.  The new icon will not appear until you close Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and then run it again.

FAVOURITE LINKS
Is your Favorites folder getting really full? As you add files and subfolders to Favorites, it becomes unwieldy. Why not add more favourites to the Links folder? Here's how.
Choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. Now double-click the Links folder to open it. Right-click in the folder and choose New, Folder. Name the new folder More Favorites. At this point you're ready to add some links to the new folder. Just to get started, drag a few URLs into the new More Favorites folder and then click Close.
Now when you click the More Favorites folder in Links, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 opens a drop-down menu from which you can select an address.

TOOLBARS
If you like to use the Toolbar and the Address Box and the Links and the Status Bar, you're taking up quite a bit of Microsoft Internet Explorer window space that's not available for Web page viewing. But if you've been using IE for a while now, you may prefer to see more of the Web pages and less of the Toolbar.
To see how you like the maximised window, choose View, Toolbar. Since this command (View, Toolbar) is a toggle, choosing it turns it off. The next time you choose View, Toolbar, the toolbar reappears.
Although the remaining menu takes up a minimal amount of window space, all the commands you need are still available to you. To go back to the previous page, you can press Alt-left arrow (or Backspace). To go forward, press Alt-right arrow (or Shift-Backspace). To read your e-mail, choose Go, Read Mail. It's all there except the Address Box and the Links.

INFORMATION
Want to know what's going on in Antarctica? How about Europe, Asia, or South America? No problem. All you have to do is navigate to the CIA's World Factbook. You'll find it at http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/wfb-all.htm
ACTIVE DESKTOP ANIMATION
If you're using the Active Desktop, you can spruce up your desktop with some animated GIF files. Right-click the desktop and choose Active Desktop, Customize my Desktop. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click the Web tab (if necessary). Click New. This will open a dialog box asking if you want to download some files. Click No.
When the New Active Desktop Item dialog box opens, click Browse and locate the file you want to place on the desktop and double-click it. Back at the New Active Desktop Item dialog box, click OK. This will take you back to the Display Properties dialog box. Click OK to record your selection and close the dialog box.
At this point, the animated GIF (or whatever you chose) will appear on your desktop. You can place the picture wherever you want. Just move the mouse pointer over the picture to display its window. When the window appears, use the mouse to grab the title bar and drag the picture to a new location.
Note that this tip works only when Active Desktop is in effect. If you didn't load Active Desktop, this procedure won't work.

SAVING PICTURES
If you periodically like to save a picture that you find on the Internet, you right-click the picture and then choose Save Picture As. This opens the Save As dialog box. You need to add a name and select a location for the picture.
Very often, you can determine what type of graphics file to save it as. To see what's offered, click the arrow at the right side of the Save As Type list box. In many cases, you'll see that you can save the picture as a GIF file or a BMP file. Which should you choose? It depends on what you want to do with the picture.
If the picture is animated, you have to save it as a GIF file. Otherwise, you'll lose the animation. On the other hand, if you want to use the picture as wallpaper, you should save it as a BMP file.
Note: We're not suggesting that you grab copyrighted pictures from the Internet and then use them in your own pages. If you copy a picture and decide you'd like to use it, you need to first find out who it belongs to and what restrictions might be placed on its use.

SHORTCUT KEYS
When you compose a message in Internet Mail and News, you'll find that the usual Windows shortcut keys apply. Ctrl-X will cut selected text, Ctrl-C will copy it, and Ctrl-V will paste it. Ctrl-Z will undo the last operation.
You can also copy text from a document other than an Internet Mail and News message and paste it into a message. Conversely, you can select and copy text from an e-mail or News message and paste it into another Windows document.

GRAPHIC PICTURES
As you know, you can open pictures stored on your hard drive using Microsoft Internet Explorer 3. This works for any picture file with the extension GIF or JPG. To open a picture in Microsoft Internet Explorer, choose File, Open. When the dialog box appears, click Browse. This will launch the standard Open dialog box. In this dialog box, click the arrow at the right side of the Files of Type list box and select All Files. Now locate and select the file you want to view and click Open. Next, click OK to view the selected file.
Note that you have no control over picture size in the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. The browser will only display the file in its actual size, you can't zoom in or out.

PASTE OPTION
Although you can't paste files into the History, Subscriptions, Tasks, or Downloaded Program Files folders, you should be able to Paste into Favorites.
This is a bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. When you upgrade to Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01, the problem will go away.

MONOGRAM IT
To put your own name or company name into the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 title bar you'll have to dig into the Registry, and you know that you need to be very careful when modifying the Registry.
Make sure IE 4 is not running and click Start, Run. Type in regedit and press Enter (or click OK if the mouse is handy). When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. Right-click in a blank area of RegEdit's right pane and choose New, String Value. Name the new string Window Title exactly as shown here and press Enter. Now double-click the new string's icon and, when the dialog box opens, type in your new title as you want it to appear in the title bar. Click OK to save your change. Close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and run IE 4. Your new title should appear in the title bar.

SWITCHES
The basic syntax is Explorer [/n][/e][,/root,(object)][[,/select],(sub object)]
/n opens a new single-paned window.
/e opens Explorer in the standard view at the current folder.
/root,(object) opens at the specified root level.
/Select, Folder tells Explorer which folder gets the focus.
/select,(filename) tells Explorer which file gets the focus.
If you want to open Explorer in desktop view, right-click the Windows NT Explorer shortcut and choose Properties. Now click the Shortcut tab and enter %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/root, into the Target text entry box and click OK.
Let's suppose that you'd like Explorer to open in your data folder. Right-click the Explorer icon and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and enter %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /select, c:\data and click OK. To open Explorer in the data folder, enter %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e /select, c:\data and click OK.

You can even have Explorer select a specific file for you. For example, if you'd like to select the Calculator when Explorer opens, you'd right-click the Explorer icon, choose Properties, click the Shortcut tab, and enter %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /select,c:\winnt\system32\calc.exe If your installation isn't on Drive C, enter the drive letter that you use.

FRAMES TRAP
Have you ever been happily surfing the Net when, almost without warning, you find yourself caught in a frame trap? You keep on browsing the Web, but everywhere you go, the pages remain in the frame. So, while you're browsing, the advertising is blinking, flashing, and perhaps even yelling at you.
Don't close the connection just to escape the frame. Instead, right-click the URL you'd like to visit (minus the frame, that is) and choose Open in New Window.
Or right-click on the web page and click Properties. In the Properties dialog box, triple-click the address to select it. Then, right-click the selected address and choose Copy. Click in the Address Bar and press Ctrl-V to paste in the copied address. At this point, press Enter to navigate to the web page (without the frame trap).

FULL SCREEN THE WAY YOU WANT IT
Many people like the Full Screen mode. The problem is that you get stuck with one-line toolbar mode. In the Preview release, you could resize the toolbar. However, in the later releases, this capability doesn't exist. But there is a solution to the problem.
Since the Registry edit required can get rather complicated, we decided to write a REG file to do the job for you. The file shown here adds the Address Bar, all the icons, and the menu to the Full Screen view. Note that we cannot guarantee that this file will do what you want, nor can we guarantee that running the file won't damage your Windows 95 installation. We strongly suggest that you make copies of the System.dat and User.dat files (you'll find them in the Windows folder) before you proceed.
To generate the REG file, run NotePad and enter the following exactly as shown here.

Choose File, Save As and name the file ToolBar.reg. Save it in a convenient folder. Now, locate your new file and double-click it. The file will insert the necessary information into the Registry to modify the toolbar.

PRINT DATE & TIME
A good way to keep track of your printed Web pages is to include date and time information in the header and footer. To do this, run Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 and choose File, Page Setup. When the Page Setup dialog box opens, click Headers/Footers. Now you can enter the information codes that you want to use in the upper-left, upper-right, lower-left, and lower-right entry boxes. After you enter the codes, click OK. Back in the original dialog box, click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

ADD TO FAVORITES
When you want to add a site to your Favorites folder, you can choose Favorites, Add to Favorites. This is what you should do when you plan to place the new favourite in a particular spot in your Favorites hierarchy. But if you're in the middle of a search (or otherwise preoccupied) and don't mind having favourites go into the main Favorites folder, just press Ctrl-D to add the page to your Favorites folder. No further input is required.

EXPLORER LOGO
To assign a new URL to the Internet Explorer logo (often called the "E-Thing"), choose View, Options and click the Navigation tab. Now click the arrow on the right side of the Page list box to expand the list. Select Quick Link #5 from the list. Click in the Address entry box and type the new address. Be sure to type the entire address. For example, you might enter http://www.tipworld.com Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

GET RID OF FAVORITES
One way to eliminate the Favorites folder requires you to edit the Registry, though. If you decide to eliminate the Favorites folder from the Start menu.
First run Windows Explorer and locate System.dat and User.dat in the Windows folder. Copy both files to some other folder so you'll have backup copies.
Click Start, Run, type regedit and press Enter (or click OK). When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Right-click in the right pane. When the menu opens, choose New, Binary Value. Name the new value NoFavoritesMenu and press Enter twice. When the Edit Binary Value dialog box opens, enter 01 00 00 00 and click OK. Now close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer. After you restart, you'll have no Favorites folder in the Start menu.
If you decide you want the Favorites folder back, navigate to the key you created and double-click it. Change the value to 00 00 00 00 and click OK. Close RegEdit and restart the computer to get the Favorites folder back into the Start menu.

CUSTOMIZING INTERNET EXPLORER
Would you like to put your own name or your company name into the Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 title bar? You can do this with a REG file that we just happen to have written. As always, we can't guarantee that running this REG file won't cause you problems, so run it at your own risk.
Open Notepad and enter the following text into the new Notepad document exactly as shown here (except for the actual title, of course). This is very important--you must enter the code exactly as shown and make sure the title is between the quotation marks.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Window Title"="Your title goes here"
Now choose File, Save As and name the new file Title.reg. Locate a folder in which to save the file and then click Save.
To enter your new title, make sure IE 3 isn't running and double-click Title.reg. You should get a message telling you that the Registry has been modified. When you next run IE 3, the new title will appear in the title bar.

HISTORY SORT
You may find it helpful to change the way the History folder sorts the URLs. In the window, you'll notice that each column has a name (this is true of all Windows 95 windows). By default, the History window is sorted alphabetically, in ascending order, by Title. This may not be the most helpful arrangement when you're looking for a URL. Click the Last Visited column heading. When you do, the History folder will sort by date, in ascending order.
Click any column name to sort using that criteria. The URLs will then appear in ascending order. However, if you click the same column a second time, the contents will be sorted in descending order.

DEFAULT FONT
To change the font size permanently, choose View, Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens, click the General tab (if necessary), then click Fonts. In the Fonts dialog box, make your selection in the Font size pull-down menu and click OK. Back in the Internet Properties dialog box, click OK to close the box and save your changes.

MACRO CODES
A good way to keep track of your printed Web pages is to include date and time information in the header and footer. To do this, choose File, Page Setup. When the Page Setup dialog box opens, you can enter the information codes that you want to use in the Header and Footer entry boxes.
Let's say you want the date and time in the footer. Click the Footer entry box and type &t &d Use at least two spaces between &t and &d to separate the time and date on the printout.
After you enter the codes, click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes. These changes will remain in effect until you change them again.
So, what are all these codes? Here's a list.

Code/Prints
&p Page Number
&P Total Number of Pages
&d Date
&t Time (AM/PM)
&T Time (24 Hour Format)
&w Window Title
&u URL (Page Address)

DEFAULT DOWNLOAD
The default folder is always the last folder specified. For instance, if you choose to download a file to folder c:\Downloads, the next time you download a file, c:\Downloads will be the default download folder.
There is a way to set the default to a specified folder, but you have to modify the Registry. You knew we'd work a Registry edit in somewhere, didn't you? Well, let's not go through a Registry edit; let's use a REG file instead.
The same cautions apply to REG files as to Registry edits--be careful, and we can't guarantee that a REG file will work as expected on your system.
With all this in mind, let's go ahead with the REG file. To generate the file, run NotePad and enter the following text exactly as shown, except that Downloads should be replaced by your folder's name--unless you want to use Downloads as your folder name.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer]
"Download Directory"="C:\\Download"
Be sure to use the quotation marks and the double slash (\\) as shown above.
Now, choose File, Save As and choose a location for your new file. After you locate a folder, type in a name for the file. You can name the file almost anything, but you must use the REG extension. We named our file Down.reg. To modify the Registry with this REG file, close Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 if it's running. Double-click the Down.reg icon to merge its contents with the Registry. You'll get a dialog box asking if you're sure you want to do a thing like this. Tell it Yes. You'll get another dialog box telling you the deed was done--click OK to get rid of it.
Your default download folder is now c:\Downloads. But if you choose another folder later, the default will still change. No big deal--just run Down.reg again.

ALWAYS MAXIMIZED
Here's an idea you can try so that Explorer opens maximised. The Internet Explorer icon in the Quick Launch menu is a shortcut. Right-click this icon and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Now, click the arrow at the right side of the Run list box and select Maximized. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

SELECTIVE SEARCH
In most search engines, you can use the minus (-) sign to prevent the search from including a certain word. For example, if you want to locate information on pies, but you don't want to find lemon pies in the search, you can enter pie-lemon On the other hand, if you do want information on lemon pie, you should enter pie+lemon
If you want to find information about the phrase "over the hill." and enter over the hill you may find that you get quite a few hits that you don't need. But if you use quotes and enter "over the hill" you'll get only hits that contain that exact phrase.
Note that not all search engines use the same rules.

PRINT THE FAVORITES
Want to print the contents of the Favorites folder? Here's a batch file that will allow you to print the contents of the Favorites folder. To generate the batch file, run Notepad and type in the following exactly as shown--don't forget the quotation marks.
dir "c:\windows\favorites" /s /b /l > c:\tmp.tmp
Notepad /p c:\tmp.tmp
del c:\tmp.tmp

Now, choose File, Save As and name the file PrintFav.bat. Save the file in a folder of your choice. Now all you have to do to print the entire contents of the Favorites folder is double-click the PrintFav.bat icon. You might want to create a shortcut to the new file on your desktop where you can access it easily.
Note that the batch file shown here will print your URLs in short file name format. However, names assigned to the URLs will print in standard fomat.

WEB ASSIGNED KEYS
Want to assign keys to a Web site? The trick is to assign a key combination to one of the sites in your Favorites folder. Choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. When the Organize Favorites window opens, locate the URL to which you want to assign keys and right-click it. Choose Properties and then click the Internet Shortcut tab when the dialog box opens. Click in the entry box labelled Shortcut Key. Type in the letter you'd like to use as your keystroke. Note that you need only enter the letter of choice--the program will complete the keystrokes by adding Ctrl-Alt. So, if you type A, the entry will become Ctrl-Alt-A. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.
Now you can simply press Ctrl-Alt-A to navigate to the selected site. If you're not connected when you press Ctrl-Alt-A, Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 will open, dial the ISP, and navigate to the site.

FAVORITE MAIL
You can put e-mail addresses into the Favorites folder, but, you have to do it manually. Run Windows Explorer and navigate to \Windows\Favorites. Right-click in the right pane and choose New, Shortcut. This will open the Create Shortcut dialog box. Type in the e-mail address you want in the Favorites folder. This must be in the form mailto:recipient@whoknows.com
After you type in the address as shown here, click Next to continue, then enter the recipient's name and click Finish. All you have to do now is choose Favorites and select the name to open the Outlook Express New Message dialog box.
If you'd like to keep all your mail in one place, you can navigate to \Windows\Favorites and right-click in the right pane. This time, choose New, Folder and name the new folder Mail. You can now move your new mailto link into the Mail folder. When you create a new link, just open \Windows\Favorites\Mail and create your new shortcut there.

ADDRESS BAR
Several months ago, we wrote a .REG file that you can use for this purpose. Before you ruin this REG file (or any REG file) you should first make copies of your system files. To do this, run Windows Explorer and locate the Windows folder. In the Windows folder, locate User.dat and System.dat and copy them to another folder for safekeeping.
To create the REG file, type the following into NotePad exactly as shown here. You might find it convenient to copy the text and then paste it into a NotePad document.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs]
"url1"=""
"url2"=""
"url3"=""
"url4"=""
"url5"=""

Choose File, Save As. Choose a folder to store the file in, name it Addr.reg, and click Save. Make sure Internet Explorer isn't running and double-click the Addr.reg icon to run the file. Addr.reg will remove up to 5 current addresses from the Registry.
To increase the number of URL's Addr.reg will delete, just add url lines (eg "url6="" etc).

WEBSITE KEYS
It is possible to assign keys to a Web site. The trick is to assign a key combination to one of the sites in your Favorites folder. Choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. When the Organize Favorites window opens, locate the URL to which you want to assign keys and right-click it. Choose Properties and then click the Internet Shortcut tab when the dialog box opens. Click in the entry box labeled Shortcut Key. Type in the letter you'd like to use as your keystroke. Note that you need only enter the letter of choice--the program will complete the keystrokes by adding Ctrl-Alt. So, if you type A, the entry will become Ctrl-Alt-A. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.
Now you can simply press Ctrl-Alt-A to navigate to the selected site. If you're not connected when you press Ctrl-Alt-A, Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 will open, dial the ISP, and navigate to the site.

FONT COLOR
Q: I've changed my Microsoft Mail default font to dark blue. The problem is that people I send mail to don't see the blue font--all they see is the standard (dull) black font
When you changed the default font colour, you most likely changed the font colour for composing messages. Let's go through the steps. Run Mail and choose Mail, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Fonts tab. You'll see a block marked "Use this colour for composing messages." If you click this box, a palette of colours will open and you can choose a new colour for composing your new messages. The colour selected here applies only to the new messages that you compose--there is no effect at all for the recipient.
If you now click Change to open the Font dialog box, you can click the arrow at the right side of the Colour list box to expand the list. When this palette of colours opens, you can choose a new one and click OK. This selection applies only to the messages sent to you. All your in-box messages will now appear in the new colour. Once again, this has no effect on how your recipients see the message.
The only way to specify what the recipient views is to click the Send tab in the Options dialog box and then select HTML under Mail Sending Format. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your new setting.
Back in Mail, click New Message. When the New Message window opens, you'll see a new icon named Font Colour (its icon is a painter's palette). Click this button and select a font colour. This selection will be sent to your recipients and will override their default selections.
The only possible problem with this is that some of your recipients may use mail programs that will fail to read the HTML format.

DOUBLE CLICK - Active Desktop
Many new Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 users are under the impression that they're stuck with the single-click feature if they use Active Desktop--this is definitely not the case. If you'd like to keep the features of the Active Desktop but still double-click your desktop icons, open any folder and then choose View, Folder Options. When the Folder Options dialog box opens, click the General tab. Now select the Custom, Based On Settings You Choose radio button. Next, click Settings and under Active Desktop, select Enable All Web-related Content On My Desktop.
Now, navigate to Click Items As Follows and select Double-click to open an item (single-click to select). Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. Now your desktop will handle all the web-related stuff you can throw at it, but you'll still need to double-click an icon to open a file or folder.

ASSIGNING KEYS TO A WEB SITE
Choose Favorites, Organize Favorites. When the Organize Favorites window opens, locate the URL to which you want to assign keys and right-click it. Choose Properties and then click the Internet Shortcut tab when the dialog box opens. Click in the entry box labeled Shortcut Key. Type in the letter you'd like to use as your keystroke. Note that you need only enter the letter of choice--the program will complete the keystrokes by adding Ctrl-Alt. So, if you type A, the entry will become Ctrl-Alt-A. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. Now you can simply press Ctrl-Alt-A to navigate to the selected site. If you're not connected when you press Ctrl-Alt-A, Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 will open, dial the ISP, and navigate to the site.

WEB DOWNLOADING.
If you find that downloading all the graphics on a particular Web page is taking too much time, you can press the spacebar to stop downloading the pictures and display only the text. Pressing the spacebar doesn't keep the pictures from downloading--it just makes the text display first. The pictures then continue to download, but you can read the text portion of the page while they do.

PRINT WEB BACKGROUNDS.
If you need to print Web page backgrounds, run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and choose View, Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens, click the Advanced tab. Scroll down through the list and you'll find a check box labelled Print Background Colours and Images. Select this check box and click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes. Now, when you select Print, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 will print it all.
Now that you know how to get Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 to print backgrounds, you might want to keep this feature turned off most of the time. This is especially true if you use a black and white printer. The problem is that some backgrounds will print very darkly and obscure your text. This usually isn't as much of a problem if you use a colour printer.

CONTROL PANEL.
If you want to put Control Panel into Quick Launch for quick and easy use, right-click the desktop and choose New, Folder. When the new folder opens, name it ControlPanel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
You must enter the name exactly as shown. You may find it easiest to copy the name from this message and then paste it into the folder name. To do this, select the name from this message and right-click it. Choose Copy from the menu. Now, click the new folder name once, then wait a second or so and click it again. When the name is highlighted, press Ctrl-V.
The new Control Panel folder is now on your desktop. Use the right mouse button to drag the folder to the Quick Launch bar. When you release the mouse button, choose Move Here from the menu that opens.

REMOVING FAVORITES.
Want to remove the Favorites folder from the Start menu?
There sure is a way--you need to edit the Registry but, to make things easier for you, we're going to provide a REG file to do the job. Don't forget that running a REG file is still editing the Registry--and editing the Registry is potentially dangerous.
To generate the REG file, open Notepad and type the following exactly as shown minus the lines labelled BLANK LINE GOES HERE. Where you see BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter to insert a blank line. These blank lines are a necessary part of creating a working REG file.

Now, choose File, Save As and name the file Favorites.reg. Locate a folder for the new file and click Save.
To run the file, double-click its icon. When you get a dialog box asking if you really want to do this thing, click Yes. The next dialog box tells you the job is done. Click OK.
The next time you start the computer, you won't have Favorites in the Start menu.

MY HISTORY.
Add the History folder to the Start menu.
Right-click Start and choose Open. Now, right-click in the Start menu window and choose New, Folder. When the new folder appears, delete the name New Folder, type Internet History.{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000} and press Enter. Note that you must enter this line exactly as shown. You might find it easier to simply copy the name from this message and then paste it into the folder name. With the History folder in place, you can click Start, Internet History to view, or use, all of your current history files.

BACKWARD AND FORWARD SHORTCUTS
To quickly jump forward and backward to pages you visit don't reach for the Back and Forward buttons on the toolbar. With hands placed firmly on the keyboard, press the Alt key and then press the left arrow key to jump back (or just press the Backspace key.) To go forward, press Alt and press the right arrow key.

COLLAPSE FULLY EXPANDED EXPLORER FOLDER
In our last tip, we showed you how to expand every branch of a double-paned Explorer window: Select the folder, then press the asterisk key on your numeric keypad. When you're finished, and you'd like all those folders to fall in again, your first instinct might be to click the minus sign next to the top folder. Doing so will seem to collapse the branch, but the next time you click that plus sign, it will appear fully expanded again. To put all those branches back where they belong, permanently, click the minus sign next to the top branch, then press F5.

VIEW PAGES OFFLINE.
Offline viewing can save you time and bandwidth. You tell Internet Explorer 5 what pages to save to your hard drive, and the program does the rest. You can even specify how many pages to download and when, all through a handy wizard. Here's how:
To mark the page you're currently browsing for offline viewing, select Favorites, Add To Favorites. Then, select Make Available Offline. To set options for offline viewing, click the Customize button and follow the instructions presented by the Offline Favorite Wizard. When you're done, click the Finish button. To update the page, select Tools, Synchronize.

DESKTOP.
Need quicker access to all of the items on your desktop? To make an Explorer folder that shows all the icons on your desktop, create a new shortcut named Desktop and enter c:\winnt\explorer.exe /root , on the command line (don't forget the comma). Use c:\winnt\explorer.exe/e,/root , for a two-pane view. Place the resulting shortcut on your Start menu, and you'll have easy access to your desktop files and applications.

IE5 ICONS.
When adding a site to your Favorites, you may have noticed that the site displays its own icon. As an example, you could bookmark the following site: http://www.nlsearch.com Just surf to the site, then press Ctrl-D to add it to your Favourites. You'll see a sailboat icon (the Northern Light Search logo) in your Favorites menu.
This new feature of Internet Explorer 5 displays the site's icon when you download an ICO file from the Web site you are viewing to a folder on your hard drive. If you object to this small bit of advertising on your browser, here's a way to remove it. Right-click the icon and choose Properties. Select the Web Document tab, then the Change Icon button from the dialog box that appears. Select a new icon and click OK twice to save your changes.

ESCAPE KEY.
No matter how slow your connection, when you accidentally start to open a page, it's always just fast enough to start loading before you can click the stop button. Many people don't realise how important the Esc button is--it does the same thing as the Stop button on the Standard toolbar.
Also when a page is loading but appears to stall, the first thing you should do is halt the page transfer and try the page again. Click the Esc button, then reload the page. Restarting the transfer downloads the page more quickly. In some cases, the problem may result from network traffic or a slow or overburdened Web server. In these cases, there's not much you can do. But restarting the transfer will often get you where you're going more quickly.

RADIO MYSTERY.
You may have noticed that your Radio toolbar has mysteriously disappeared. The Radio toolbar is a handy way to play streaming media files, including RealAudio files (version 5.0 and earlier). If for some reason you no longer see the bar, select View, Toolbars, Radio. If that doesn't work, you may need to reinstall the Windows Media Player, which you can download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download

CLEAR THE CACHE.
Sometimes when you add a site to your Favorites list, you may notice that the site displays its own icon. For instance, if you click Ctrl-D while viewing the following site, its logo will appear in Favorites. To get rid of this icon or any others, you need to clear the cache. Click Tools, Internet Options. Select the General tab. Click the Delete Files button. Click the OK button to finish up.

FASTER 128-BIT ENCRYPTION.
Some secure services, such as online banking, may require you to use a browser with 128-bit encryption to view your account information. Or an online broker may require 128-bit encryption to make stock trades.
To find Internet Explorer 5 with encryption, Click Help, About Internet Explorer, then click the Update Information link in the About Internet Explorer dialog box. This takes you to Microsoft site, where you can download the update for your browser. Save the file to your hard drive. Once it downloads, double-click it and follow the directions to install it.

RUN A SEARCH.
You can quickly run a keyword search right from Internet Explorer 5's Address bar. Just type a question mark, followed by the word you are searching for, like so: ? blacksmith Then press the Enter key. If your search contains more than one word, you do not need to type an extra question mark. For example, just type: ? job opportunities The results appear in the main browsing window.

DEALING WITH A FORGOTTEN CONTENT PASSWORD.
To recover from a forgotten password and give you a fresh start.
Note that we don't guarantee any REG file will do exactly what you expect, your installation COULD suffer some damage.
If you want to generate the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following as shown below. Where you see BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter. Do not type in BLANK LINE GOES HERE.

Now choose File, Save As and name the file content.reg. Locate a folder in which to store your new file, or accept the default. Click Save to save content.reg and close the Save As dialog box. Use Windows Explorer to locate content.reg, then double-click its icon. You'll get a dialog box asking if you really want to do this. Click Yes. Now you'll get another dialog box telling you the job is done. Click OK to continue
Finally, run Internet Explorer and choose View, Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialog box opens, click the Content tab. Click Disable. When the password dialog box opens, just leave both lines blank (the REG file deleted the password), and click OK.

REMOVE RADIO LIST.
You can clear the radio station list, but the only way we know how is to do a Registry edit. To start the Registry Editor, select Start, Run. Type regedit and press Enter. Navigate to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Radio\MRUList . Right-click Radio_Station_Count and choose Modify from the pop-up list that appears.
Type 0 in the Value Data text box. Select OK and close the Registry Editor.

ANIMATED GIFS BEGONE.
Animated GIFs can hamper and distract your surfing experience when you're trying to read pages. You'll see an increase in browsing speed if you turn them off. Choose Tools, Internet Options. Then press the Advanced tab. Under Multimedia, deselect Play Animations. Click OK to save your changes.

WHICH VERSION.
To find out what version of IE 5 you're using, choose Help, and select About Internet Explorer. You'll see a version number. Here are some common version numbers and their translations:
5.00.2014.0216 Internet Explorer 5
5.00.2314.1003 Internet Explorer 5 (Office 2000)
5.00.2614.3500 Internet Explorer 5 (Windows 98 Second Edition)
5.00.2919.6307 Internet Explorer 5.01
5.50.3825.1300 Internet Explorer 5.5 Developer Preview (Beta)
5.50.4030.2400 Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Tools Beta 

MAKE FAVORITES AVAILABLE OFFLINE.
If you browse by laptop or simply need to browse offline occasionally (say, in a multisurfer household), try making a Favourite available even when you aren't connected to the Net. Click the Favorites menu item on the menu bar, then right-click the favourite you want to make available offline. Select Make Available Offline and follow the instructions in the wizard menu that appears. When you finish, the wizard will save the page to your hard drive (along with linked pages, if you choose this option from the wizard).

SPEED UP BROWSING.
If you use a cable modem or DSL, you can quickly speed up your browsing by making changes to two Registry settings called MTU (Maximum Transmission Units). Or you can download a patch that will change the Registry settings for you. You can find the patches to download (for Windows 95/98) at http://www.speedguide.net/Cable_modems/cable_patches.shtml

MSIE 5 REPAIR TOOL MISSING.
So you've been reading up on Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, and you hear about this handy tool that will repair MSIE 5. The tool looks for corrupt files and reinstalls them if necessary. Trouble is, if you installed Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), the tool does not appear. You'll only find the tool if you install a version of MSIE 5, 5.01, or 5.5 after installing Windows 98 SE. If you have installed a version of MSIE 5 over Windows 98 SE, you'll find the repair tool by opening the Add/Remove Programs control panel, selecting Internet Explorer 5, then clicking the Add/Remove button.

GIVE PLUG-INS THE HEISMAN.
Every now and again, you install a plug-in that no longer serves its purpose. How do you unload it? Just open the Downloaded Program Files folder, located in your Windows folder. You uninstall a plug-in by right-clicking it and choosing Remove. 

SAVE PAPER WHEN PRINTING.
The average Web page runs longer than just one printed page. Here's a good way to save some trees when printing from the Web. If the situation allows, first select the text and images you want to appear on your printout. With your selection highlighted, choose File, Print. The Print dialog box appears. Now, click the Selection radio button, and choose OK. You get only what you want and nothing you don't.

ORGANIZE YOUR FAVORITES.
Click the Favorites menu on the toolbar (not the Favorites button). Right-click a favorite, then choose Sort By Name. You should be all set, though you'll need to take this step periodically to keep things in alphabetical order.

ADD WEB ACCESSORIES.
IE5 offers a way to add new features to the browser, which are provided by Microsoft developers as well as by third-party types like Alexa (a recommended IE5 utility that provides contact, rating, and review information about the sites you visit. To see a listing of available Web accessories, browse on over to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/webaccess/default.asp

REMOVING BRAND LOGO'S.
If your ISP provides your version of IE5, you may see a logo associated with your ISP instead of the usual spinning globe, you may also see the name of the company in the title bar. Here's how to remove both of these annoyances.
Note: Messing with the Registry can cause all kinds of strange weirdness with your PC. If you don't know what you're doing, it's best to live with these inconveniences.
Now, launch the Registry Editor by clicking Start, and selecting Run. Type regedit in the Run dialog box that appears. Navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar.
In the right pane, select BrandBitmap and SmBrandBitmap. Delete these entries.
To get rid of the name in the title bar, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\WindowTitle.  Select the name in the right pane and delete the entry. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

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