101 software tips, tweaks and tricks

Internet Explorer 7

While there are Internet Explorer specific tips here, there are some tips that have been replicated from the Firefox section, as they still apply. We understand there's people out there using Internet Explorer that won't even look at the Firefox section (for shame!) so for those, keep on reading!

063. Four different ways to open new tabs

There are four ways you can open a new tab in Internet Explorer (pretty much identical to Firefox), listed from slowest to quickest:

1. Click the New Tab button, found on the right-hand side of the last tab
2. Use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + t
3. Right-click on the tab bar and choose New Tab
4. Double click anywhere on the tab bar where there isn't a tab (including in the small section above the tab)

064. Navigating tabs

There are a few ways you can navigate tabs using the keyboard in Internet Explorer 7. CTRL + TAB will cycle the active tab from left to right, whereas CTRL + SHIFT + TAB will cycle the active tab from right to left.

To quick access tabs, press CTRL + 1 to switch to the first tab, CTRL + 2 to switch to the second, and so on.

CTRL + W will close the active tab.

065. Open link in a new tab

Exactly the same as Firefox — to always open a link in a new tab, click the middle mouse button on it (the middle mouse button is often used by pressing the scroll wheel down). You can also close tabs by middle clicking on them. If you don't have a middle mouse button, the same effect can be achieved by holding down CTRL on the keyboard and left clicking on the link.

066. Quick zoom

Once again, the same as Firefox — just hold down CTRL on your keyboard and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom the page in and out. If you don't have a scroll wheel, you can use CTRL + +, or CTRL + -.

067. View thumbnails of all open tabs

To view thumbnails of all open tabs, and to be able to click on that thumbnail to go to that tab, simply press CTRL + Q.

068. Unhide the File menu

By default, the File menu is hidden in Internet Explorer 7. Simply tap ALT to reveal it. To turn it on permanently:

1. Tap ALT to reveal the menu
2. Click on View, mouse over Toolbars and click on Menu bar

069. Open new windows in a tab instead

To force links that are set to open a new window into a new tab instead:

1. Tap ALT to reveal the menu
2. Click on Tools, and click Internet Options
3. Under the Tabs section, click the Settings button
4. In the When a pop-up is encountered section, check Always open pop-ups in a new tab
5. Click OK twice to return to your browser

070. Maintain privacy

To cover your tracks with Internet Explorer:

1. Tap ALT to reveal the File menu
2. Click on Tools and then Delete Browsing History
3. Delete whatever you feel is necessary
4. Now all you have to do is go to Tools and Clear Private Data, and a confirmation dialogue will appear. Or even quicker, use the keyboard shortcut of CTRL + SHIFT + DEL

071. Re-enable log-in/password URLs

These URLs were disabled in Internet Explorer 7 to reduce phishing attempts, however, some users will be annoyed that they can't log in to certain sites using the user:password@domain.com style format. We must emphasise if you don't know what this is, it's a better idea security wise for you to leave it disabled!

To re-enable it for the current user:

1. Open Regedit by clicking on the Start/Windows button, typing regedit into the run box, and hitting enter
2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\
3. If it doesn't exist already, right-click in the right-hand pane, choose New, then Key, and enter the name FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME_PASSWORD_DISABLE
4. Enter the folder you created, and in the right-hand pane, right-click, choose New and DWORD Value. Enter the name iexplore.exe and hit enter
5. If you want to re-enable for Windows Explorer as well, create another DWORD and call it explorer.exe. Both should have their data set to 0
6. User/pass URLs are now active again

072. Set default search engine to Google

If you didn't have the opportunity to set the search field in the top right to search Google (or any other provider for that matter), here's how to change the search engine used.

1. Click on the down arrow next to the magnifying glass on the right-hand side
2. Select Find more providers
3. From the links provided, click on the search engine you want
4. Click on the check box that says Make this my default search provider, then click Add Provider
5. If at any time you want to change the default from pre-installed search engines, click the down arrow next to the magnifying glass, and select Change Search Defaults. Select the search engine you want and click the Set Default button, then click OK

073. Increase simultaneous download limit

Web browsers these days will only run a finite amount of concurrent downloads from the one server. In the case of Internet Explorer 7, it's still limited to two, although Firefox 3 has since made the upgrade to six concurrent connections to a single server. To raise the limit in Internet Explorer:

1. Click the Start/Windows button and in the run box, type regedit and press Enter on your keyboard
2. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
3. Right-click on the right-hand side in an empty space, mouse over New and click on DWORD Value. Enter the name MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server, then double click it and set the value to the number of concurrent connections you want.
4. Create another DWORD Value called MaxConnectionsPerServer, and enter the same value as before
5. Restart your machine for the changes to take effect