Customize Your Web Browser

Customize Your Web Browser
By: Scott Hendison � Published: August 2000

Whenever you go to a website, the software that you are using to read the text and view the pictures etc. is called a Web Browser. Microsoft Internet Explorer is the single most popular web browser in the world right now. Others, like Netscape and the AOL browser are popular too, but the vast majority of you are running IE (Internet Explorer).

In the latest version of IE, which is IE5 there are several options you can choose from to make your web browsing more enjoyable. Going to the "Tools" pull down menu at the top of the screen, and selecting "internet options" can access them.

From there, you can change lots of things. The first option you'll see is to change your home page. Your home page is the page that will open up every time you either open IE or every time you hit the "Home" button at the top of the screen. You can set your home page to be whatever you want, as long as it's a web page. Just type in the name of the page you want to use, or click "use current" if you find a page you want to use.

The next option is for your temporary Internet files, or your "Cache". Web browsers automatically save many web pages on your computers hard drive, so they can be viewed offline. From this screen, you can hit "settings" and limit how much space they'll use up, and how often your computer will check for new versions of pages you've visited before.

The third and last option in this first tab of the window is your history. Your history is a record of every page you've been to. You may have noticed that after time, your address bar is filled with what seems like every web address (URL) you've ever typed in. You may want to limit the amount of time that these addresses remain visible, or even delete those addresses so that others in your home or office won't be able to easily see where you've been web surfing. From here, is where you can do that.

The next tab is for your Internet security. This area would be great if every site had a security rating from Microsoft, but they don't. The trouble you can get into here is that if you change your security settings you won't be able to view any pages that are not "rated". It's more trouble than it's worth in my experience. If you do play around in here, try to remember (or write down) everything you do, so you can undo it if you want to.

The next tab is for "content". There are three sections here. Content Advisor allows you to "child proof" your web browser, and it actually works pretty well. Just hit "Enable" to see your options. Any sites that are not rated can become inaccessible though if you do not take care in setting it up correctly. I have seen people screw up their browser by attempting to become too restrictive. Go through all four options, and make the appropriate choices for your family. Whatever you do, DO NOT forget your password if you enable all these settings, as it's very difficult and time consuming to fix. The password prompt comes up after you've changed anything in this area and you hit "okay".

The next area is for Certificates. Simply put, I don't know exactly what they are for so I stay out of there myself. That's a good rule of thumb to live by!

The third area is for "Personal Information". Next month, I will finish up this article with an explanation of this, and the remaining three tabs in the "Internet Options area of IE5.

Can you wait until then, or will you explore them on your own? Do whatever you want, but remember what you do!

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