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Keeping Tabs on Users

Consider this scenario: Your computer is used in an office or home setting by multiple users, such as employees or even your children. You want to keep track of what they access when they are on the Internet. Can you do it?

The problem is that history items can be deleted by anyone logged on to your computer. You can create a local Group Policy (see “Managing Internet Explorer with Local Group Policy” on page 174) that prohibits users from making configuration changes in the History section of the General tab of Internet Options, but there is no setting to stop users from deleting entries on the History bar.

In this case, you can use a third-party program that lets you keep track of what users are viewing and doing as well as chat room transcripts. These tools can be valuable in offices that have strict usage policies or in cases where you want to keep tabs on what your kids are doing. Check out www.computer-snooper.com and www.spy-patrol.com to get started.

Managing Favorites

The Favorites bar in Internet Explorer provides you with an easy way to keep track of your favorite Web sites. Rather than remember individual URLs, you can simply add sites to your Favorites menu, give them a friendly name, and click on the link in Favorites to go to the site. It is quick and easy and allows Internet Explorer to keep track of URLs instead of you having to do so.

To add a site to your Favorites menu, just click the Favorites menu and click Add To Favorites. A small dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 6-25. You can change the name to whatever you want and click OK. To store the favorite in a particular folder on the Favorites menu, click the Create In button, and select a folder from the list that appears. You can also click the New Folder button to create a new folder at the same time you store the new link.

Figure 6-25. Enter a friendly name for the favorite link and click OK.

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When you add a favorite, you can also make it available offline. This feature is helpful if you want to read information on a Web site without being connected to the Internet. To make the link available offline, select Make Available Offline in the Add Favorite dialog box, and then, if you want to customize the offline settings, click the Customize button. When the Offline Favorite Wizard appears, follow these steps to customize how the offline Web site is handled:

1Click Next on the opening page of the Offline Favorite Wizard.

2On the page shown in Figure 6-26, choose whether you want to make additional links from the page available offline. When you initially make a page available offline, only that page is made available to you by downloading

its content to your hard disk. If you click a link on the page while you are offline, you are prompted to connect because the pages linked to the initial page were not downloaded to your computer. If you don’t have the ability to connect (that’s why you make a page available offline to begin with), you

won’t be able to retrieve the information. To avoid this problem, use this page of the wizard to also store linked pages offline. Set the Download Pages value to the number of levels of linked pages you want to store. For example, if you set this value to 2, all links on the original page will be stored offline, and all links on those pages will be stored offline, but no further levels of links will be stored. Keep in mind that the more levels of pages you choose to store, the more disk space and synchronization time Internet Explorer will require. Make your selections conservatively and click Next.

Figure 6-26. Use this wizard page to configure the link depth that you want to make available offline.

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3Choose a synchronization option. You can choose to synchronize only when you choose Tools, Synchronize, or you can create a schedule for automatic synchronization. Click Next.

4If you chose the schedule option, the schedule page appears. Choose when you want synchronization to occur and click Next.

5On the password page of the wizard, enter a user name and password if the site requires one for access. If not, leave the No button selected. Click Finish, and then click OK to close the Add Favorite dialog box.

tip You can always make a favorite site available offline at a later time by clicking the Favorites menu, right-clicking the favorite, and choosing Make Available Offline from the shortcut menu that appears.

Getting an E-mail Notice When an Offline Page Changes

When offline content changes due to synchronization, you can have Internet Explorer send you an e-mail so that you know the page has been updated. Sound cool? Just click the Favorites menu, right-click the offline favorite and click Properties. Select the Download tab, and select When This Page Changes, Send E-mail To. Enter your e-mail address and the name of your e-mail server (if you don’t know it, check the server specified for your outgoing mail [SMTP] in your e-mail account under Tools, Accounts in Outlook Express or the e-mail program you use). Also, note that you can make additional changes to the offline favorite in the Content To Download section, such as the link depth and hard disk space limit. You can even stop the synchronization from downloading images, sound and video, and ActiveX controls and Java Applets by clicking the Advanced button. These options help save disk space and reduce synchronization time.

To make your work with favorites easier, you can also use the Organize Favorites option. Click Favorites, Organize Favorites, and you’ll see the simple organizational dialog box shown in Figure 6-27.

You can use the Organize Favorites dialog box to create folders in which you can store favorites, or you can rename items, move them, or even delete them. If you want to delete favorites, you can also right-click the link on the Favorites bar and click Delete.

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Figure 6-27. Use the Organize Favorites dialog box to manage your Favorites.

Customizing Search Options

Internet Explorer includes a search feature that queries a number of search engines for Web site content based on the information you choose to search for. To use the search feature, just click the Search button (the magnifying glass icon) on the toolbar. If you don’t see the Search option, choose View, Explorer Bar, Search. The Search bar appears in the left pane of Internet Explorer, as shown in Figure 6-28. Then type a question or topic you want to search for and click the Search button.

Figure 6-28. Enter words or phrases to search the Internet.

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note The program encourages you to enter the search in a complete sentence, but you can just type keywords if you prefer.

You can also change some search options that might make searching easier for you. For instance, you can click the Turn Off Animated Character option if you do not want to see Rover, the friendly dog. Or, you can click the Change Preferences option to display a list of basic options:

●You can choose a different animation character (if you’ve turned off animation, you will have to first select With An Animated Screen Character).

●You can choose With Indexing Service for very fast local searches on your computer (once the Indexing Service completes its index of your local storage).

●You can choose Change Internet Search Behavior to open the Internet Search Behavior page. The default Search Companion automatically sends your search request to additional search engines, so that setting is usually best. But if you only want results from one search engine, select With Classic Internet Search, and then select a default search engine. Click OK.

Importing and Exporting Favorites and Cookies

Internet Explorer provides you with the option to import and export certain data. For example, you can export your Favorites list so it can be used on another computer, or you can even import and export cookies. The good thing about importing and exporting is that you can import and export to a file so that you can share information with Netscape or even print your Favorites list easily. The following steps walk you through exporting your Favorites list, but you can adjust the steps for other actions:

1To import or export an item, choose File, Import And Export.

2Click Next on the Import/Export Wizard Welcome page.

3On the Import/Export Selection page of the wizard, shown in Figure 6-29, choose an action. In this example, the Favorites list will be exported by choosing Export Favorites and clicking Next.

4On the Export Favorites Source Folder page, choose to export everything by selecting Favorites or choose a subfolder. Make a selection and click Next.

5On the Export Favorites Destination page, choose to export to another application on your computer or to a file. Make your choice and specify either the application or the name and path of the export file. Click Next, and then click Finish to start the export.

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If you export your favorites, they appear in an HTML file (Bookmark.htm by default), which you can open in any browser and click the links to open the pages. If you export your cookies, they appear in a text file (named Cookies.txt by default). In the same manner, you can import favorites or cookies from another application or from a file.

Figure 6-29. Choose an import or export action for Internet Explorer to perform.

Choosing Language Encoding Features

Internet Explorer supports viewing Web pages composed in a variety of languages so that you can view Web sites in the language and alphabets in which they were written. This process, called encoding, uses HTML information from the Web page to determine which language the Web page is written in. This tells Internet Explorer which character set to use to display the Web page correctly. If the Web page does not tell Internet Explorer which language is being used, Internet Explorer can usually determine the language if you have the Auto-Select feature turned on. To make sure Auto-Select is turned on, choose View, Encoding, Auto-Select.

If Auto-Select still does not display the language correctly, you can specify the language that is in use. Click View, Encoding, and choose a listed language, or click More to display the full set of available languages. In some cases, you might be prompted to install a language pack so that the Web site can be displayed correctly.

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Using Keyboard Shortcuts

As with most Windows programs and features, there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that enable you to use Internet Explorer more quickly and easily. Table 6-2 lists some of the more common shortcuts for you, but you can also find a complete list in the Internet Explorer online Help.

Table 6-2. Common Internet Explorer Shortcut Keys

Keyboard Shortcut	Action
F11	Toggles between full screen view and the browser
	window
Alt+Home	Goes to the Home Page
F5	Refreshes the current Web page
Esc	Stops downloading a Web page
Ctrl+N	Opens a new browser window
Ctrl+E	Opens the Search window
Ctrl+I	Opens Favorites
Ctrl+H	Opens History
F4	Displays a list of addresses you have typed in the
	Address bar
Ctrl+Enter	Adds http://www. to the beginning of text entered in
	the Address bar and .com to the end
Ctrl+D	Adds the current page to your Favorites menu

Managing Internet Explorer with Local Group Policy

Group Policy is a feature that was first implemented in Microsoft Windows 2000. Local Group Policy is a feature available on Windows XP Professional computers that enables a computer administrator to configure a number of settings that are uniformly applied to all users who log on to the computer. Group Policy can be used to configure many kinds of settings including user passwords and accounts, security settings, Start menu and taskbar settings, desktop settings, and many, many more. Essentially, Group Policy can make changes to the registry and security settings, thus controlling many kinds of system parameters. Although it’s beyond the scope of this book to thoroughly explore

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all that Group Policy has to offer you, this section will highlight the Internet Explorer group policies you might find useful in an environment where a number of users access a computer on which you want to enforce uniform settings.

note You can learn more about Group Policy in Chapter 1 of this book, “Introduction to Windows XP Networking,” in Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out, from the Help And Support Center in Windows XP Professional, and at www.microsoft.com.

Understanding Local Group Policy

Simply put, Group Policy enables an administrator to enforce a number of required settings for users who access the computer. These settings can vary from password issues to Internet Explorer configuration. In Windows 2000 domain-based networks, Group Policy is implemented at the site, domain, and organizational unit (OU) levels (see Chapter 1) by network administrators. Using Group Policy, the network can set uniform computing standards and even automatically roll out new software.

Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional also provide Local Group Policy. Local Group Policy applies to a single computer and to all users who log on to that computer. Settings are enforced, and administrators on the local machine can make changes to the Local Group Policy settings. Site, domain, and OU Group Policy uniformly applies policy settings across a domain-based network, whereas Local Group Policy uniformly applies policy to the users that log on to a particular computer in either a stand-alone or workgroup environment.

Before using Local Group Policy, there are a few important points to remember:

●Local Group Policy is the weakest form of Group Policy. If your computer resides in a Windows 2000 domain, any site, domain, or OU level policy will override the Local Group Policy if conflicting settings occur. You can still use Local Group Policy, but conflicting settings will be overwritten by the network policy. If the computer becomes disconnected from the domain, Local Group Policy settings will take over until the computer rejoins the domain.

●Local Group Policy only applies to the local computer. You cannot implement Local Group Policy across all computers in a workgroup from a single computer. You must configure the Local Group Policy on each computer.

●Any user who has administrative privileges can change your Local Group Policy settings and invoke new ones.

●Local Group Policy is not available on Windows XP Home Edition.

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A Philosophy for Local Group Policy

If you are thinking about using Local Group Policy, rest assured that the features provided in the policy settings work well and can be very important. However, Group Policy also has a lot of power. You can unnecessarily restrict the users that log on to your computer in a number of ways—even from changing their own wallpaper.

When thinking about using Local Group Policy, it is important that you adopt a philosophy of how you will use it. Consider taking the less is more approach. Although you have the power to control a large number of settings, that power should be used wisely. The fewer restrictions you can place on local users, the more they can do with the computer and the fewer complaints you will likely receive. After all, you do not want to spend your time constantly trying to adjust policy settings to reverse actions that you once disallowed but now prove to be too onerous for your users. So, when the need arises, invoke a policy setting. Otherwise, leave Local Group Policy settings at the default level—you’ll be happier and so will your users.

Using Local Group Policy to Invoke Internet Explorer Settings

You can start the Local Group Policy console by choosing Start, Run, and typing gpedit.msc. Press Enter. The Group Policy console appears, as shown in Figure 6-30. In the left pane under Local Computer Policy, there are two nodes—Computer Configuration and User Configuration. Under each of these nodes, you will find policies that you can invoke for Internet Explorer.

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Figure 6-30. The Group Policy console can be used to configure computer and user policies.

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Configuring Computer Policy for Internet Explorer

To configure the available Internet Explorer policies under the Computer Configuration node, expand Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Windows Components, and then select Internet Explorer. A list of the available policies appears in the right pane of the console, as shown in Figure 6-31.

Figure 6-31. The available policies in the selected node appear in the right pane of the console.

In the Setting column in the right pane, you can read the basic description of the action the policy takes. To set a policy, double-click it. A properties dialog box, like the one shown in Figure 6-32 on the next page appears for the selected policy and provides you with the following three options:

●Not Configured. The policy is not configured. In other words, Local Group

Policy makes no registry entry for this item—any Windows XP default setting will be in effect.

●Enabled. The policy is enabled, written to the registry, and applied to all users on this computer.

●Disabled. The policy is written to the registry, but it is disabled for all users on this computer.

These settings, although simple, can be a little confusing. Let’s consider an example. As you can see in Figure 6-32, the policy setting Disable Periodic Check For Internet Explorer Software Updates has been enabled. Because this policy is worded as Disable, enabling this policy setting means no periodic update checks are made. If this policy is disabled, the disabling of periodic update checks is itself disabled, leaving its status the

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