General Browser Orientation

Work Offline
Internet Explorer's not just for surfing the Web. Versions 5 and above allow you to use your browser to search your hard drive, send email, and launch programs right from your desktop.

Organize Your Hard Drive
Internet Explorer can also operate as a file management tool similar to Windows Explorer. To view your hard drive from within your browser window, type C: in the Address bar; the window will display the drive's contents. The toolbar buttons will change, and you can use them as you would those in Windows Explorer. For example, you can copy files from one folder to another using Copy and Paste, and double-click a document to open it in its related application.

Launch Programs From Your Browser
IE also lets you open any program on your system from your browser, provided the program has a desktop shortcut. Just type the name of your shortcut in IE's address bar, and the program will launch. For instance, if you have a desktop shortcut to Microsoft Word, type Microsoft Word in the address bar, Press ENTER and the program will automatically launch. Keep in mind that you must enter the exact name of the shortcut as it appears on your desktop.

Read a Web Page Offline
To read a Favorites or Links bar item offline, right-click it, then click Make Available Offline. IE stores the Web page, complete with graphics, into a temporary folder. Then you're free to read it on your own time.

Save a Web Page for Offline Viewing
Here's another way to make a Web page available offline: Select File/Save As; choose a folder for the file; alter the filename (if required); from the Save As Type drop-down list, select "Web page, complete (*.htm,*.html)"; then click Save. Anytime you want to view the page again, simply open the file; it will appear as you saw it on the Web, with all of its images, sound files, and so on. Or if you'd rather not waste disk space on graphics files, you can opt to save the page as a text-only file instead.

Mail a Web Page
If you want to pass along an online article or a cool Web page to a friend, there's no need to copy and paste it into an email. Just click the Mail button and choose either Send A Link to fire off the URL or Send A Page to transmit the entire HTML page. Note: Your recipient will need to have an HTML-capable mail reader to view the page. You can also select Send and choose Page By E-mail or Link By E-mail from the File menu to perform the same actions.

Add Address Toolbars to the Windows Taskbar
Have you ever wanted to open a specific Web page without launching your browser first? If you're running Windows 98 or above, there's a simple way to do it: Just add Internet Explorer's Address toolbar to your Windows Taskbar (located at the bottom of your screen to the right of the Start menu). Here's how: Right-click an open spot on the Taskbar, choose Toolbars, and select Address from the pop-up menu. To remove the Address toolbar, right-click the taskbar again and uncheck Address under Toolbars in the same menu.

Check out the HTML Code of a Web Page
To see how any Web page was coded, Right Click in the page, and click View Source. 

Create a Shortcut for a Web Page 
You can quickly put a shortcut to any Web Page on your desktop by Right-clicking in the page and selecting Create Shortcut.

Troubleshoot
You've mastered your browser, but that doesn't guarantee problem-free surfing. Next time you run into problems that you can't fix with the Refresh button, see if one of these tips does the trick.

Repair Internet Explorer
If Internet Explorer is on the fritz and you can't locate an obvious cause, try the Repair button. In the Start Menu, go to Settings/Control Panel. Then double-click Add/Remove Programs and select Microsoft Internet Explorer and Internet Tools. Click the Add/Remove button. A pop-up window asks you whether you want to add a component, repair Internet Explorer, or restore the previous Windows configuration. Select Repair Internet Explorer. This self-repair tool fixes any IE components that may have installed incorrectly. After the process is finished, restart Windows.

Stop Jerky Browsing
Occasionally, long Web pages load slowly or jerkily. To iron out your browsing, simply select Internet Options from the Tools menu. From the Advanced tab listed under Browsing options, select the box labeled Use Smooth Scrolling. Click OK to save changes. Now your pages should scroll without hitches or hiccups.

Limit Cache Size
Earlier, we recommended that you increase your cache size to boost your surfing speeds (see Surf Fast). But if you don't have a large hard drive, increasing your cache may not be a viable option because it will eat up space. So, to limit the amount of space IE uses, select Internet Options from the Tools menu and click the Settings button under Temporary Internet Files. Slide the bar under "Amount of disk space to use" to the left or enter a smaller number of megabytes in the field to the right.

Reset Default Settings
Sometimes your IE problems are entirely your fault. After you've made a lot of changes to IE's preferences or customized your home page, IE may start to misbehave. If you have no idea which tweak caused the problem, back up to square one and start over. To restore IE's default settings, select Internet Options from the Tools menu, then click the Programs tab and the Reset Web Settings button.

Resume Your Download After a Disconnection
If your modem connection breaks during a download or if a download times out, sometimes the download window will remain open. If you leave that window open, reconnect to the Internet, and start downloading the file again, IE will resume the download where it left off.

Get New Updates and Add-Ons
Like all other software, IE is constantly changing and improving. To find Microsoft's latest updates and add-ons for Internet Explorer (including security patches), check out Microsoft's Windows Update page by selecting Windows Update from IE's Tools menu or from the Windows Start menu. (Make sure you're already connected to the Internet.) Windows Update prompts you to accept the Active Setup installation, which you must do to view the Updates page. Active Setup then checks your system to find which of the latest add-ons and updates you need, then lets you choose the ones you want to install from a list.

Navigate With Ease
Your browser's main purpose is to help you travel from one Web page to another with minimal fuss. Internet Explorer provides you with all the standard surfing tools, Back and Forward buttons, and a URL address field, but there's lots more power under the hood. Check out some of these slick navigation tricks.

Take Giant Steps Back and Forth
While it's easy to move back and forth between Web pages one at a time with IE's Back and Forward buttons, you can also leap ahead or back several pages at a time. Right-click either button (or click the tiny down arrows next to each button), and a pop-up menu displays the last ten sites you've visited. Then, simply select the page you'd like to jump to from the pop-up menu that appears.

Browse With Hot Keys
Keyboard shortcuts save loads of time because they let you execute certain commands without digging through menus to find them. IE makes use of many standard Windows shortcuts, plus a few browser-specific ones. For example, to move back and forth between Web pages without clicking the Back and Forward buttons, hold down the Alt key, then hit the left arrow to move back and the right arrow to move forward.

Add Buttons to the Links Toolbar
The Links toolbar is a quick and easy way to access your favorite Web pages without entering the Favorites menu. First, turn on your Links toolbar (if you haven't already) by right-clicking any toolbar and selecting Links from the pop-up menu. To add a new button to the toolbar, drag any URL link from the address field to the toolbar and drop it. 

Change Text Size
You can change the size of the text in the Browser Window.  Open the View Menu and choose Text Size. 

Open Multiple Windows
Ever need to open a second Web page but don't want to close the one you're on? Internet Explorer lets you open more than one browser window simultaneously. Click File in the main menu, select New, and then Window. To close a browser window, click the X in the top right corner or select Close from the File menu. You can also open a new browser window with Ctrl-N.

Search the Internet
It's one thing to know how to navigate the Web, but finding the information you need is another matter entirely. A ton of info is available, but without the right search tools and techniques, it's easy to get lost. Internet Explorer tries to plow through the sea of Internet information with several built-in features and functions. (For more Web search tips, check out CNET's "Ultimate Guide to Search.")

Use IE's Search Assistant
One of IE 5's handiest and most effective tools, the Search Assistant, helps locate sites, places, and people on the Web by accessing several different search engines, including Yahoo, AltaVista, and Go.com. To display the Search Assistant, click the Search button in the toolbar. A new pane opens on the left side of your browser window. Pick the kind of search you want to perform, either for a Web page, an address, a business, a map, or results from one of your previous searches. Enter the text you want to find, then click Search. By default, IE 5 uses Go.com to run Web site searches. To run the search using a different search engine, click the Next button in the Search Assistant pane, and a drop-down menu displays the services you can choose from.

Fine-Tune Your Searches
It's also possible to fine-tune the Search Assistant. Click the Search button on the toolbar and select Customize. Now you can specify which types of searches you want to appear in the Search Assistant window and which sites the assistant will use for those searches.

Type Keywords Into the URL Box
In addition to the handy Search Assistant, IE 5 also lets you type search terms directly into the URL address field. So rather than typing, say, www.yahoo.com into the URL field, just type yahoo directly into the URL box, and IE will automatically perform an MSN search of the Web.

Find Related Links
If you're interested in a site you're currently viewing and would like to check out similar sites, select the Show Related Links from the Tools menu. IE uses the interest-matching service Alexa to search for Web pages on similar topics, then displays them in the browser's normal Search window.

Search Your History
Suppose you need to find some information you recently saw on a Web site, but you can't remember where or when you saw it. Provided you haven't erased your History in a while, IE will search your previously visited sites for keywords. Just click the History button, select Search from within the Explorer bar, and hunt away.

Sift Through Long Pages
Say you've performed a Web search for a specific word or phrase, but the resulting page of links is so long that you can't find the site you need. Just search for keywords on the currently open page. Choose the Edit menu option and select Find (on This Page) or hit Ctrl-F. Enter the word you're looking for into resulting the dialog box and hit Enter. As with other Windows-type searches, you can limit your search by clicking the Match Whole Word Only or Match Case boxes.

Turn off the Underline
You may prefer to see the hyperlinks on your web pages without the underline style.  Open the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Advanced Tab.