Chapter 24: Browsing the World Wide Web with Internet Explorer

Remembering Where You've Been on the Web

Internet Explorer provides a variety of ways to remember which Web sites you've already visited and how to get back to them. The Back menu keeps track of the last few Web pages you've viewed and a drop-down list from the Address box shows the most recent URLs that you've typed. There's also a History feature that you can check when you find yourself saying "I know I saw that last week."

When you find a Web page you like, you likely will want to look at it again sometime. Favorites and Internet shortcuts allow you to return easily to a Web page without having to write down or remember the page's URL.

Using the Back Menu

The Back button has a drop-down menu of the last several Web pages you have looked at during the current session. To access this menu, click the arrow on the right side of the Back button.

Using the Address Box

If you remember the beginning of the URL you are looking for, start typing it into the Address box. As you type, Internet Explorer's autocomplete feature generates a menu of URLs, based on the URLs you have visited recently. If the URL you want appears, you can choose it from the menu.

In addition, Internet Explorer maintains a drop-down list of the last 25 URLs that you have typed into the Address box. You can select an entry off the drop-down list, and the browser fetches the corresponding Web page.

Covering Your Tracks and Tracking Others If other people use (or are authorized to look at) your user account, you need to be aware of the privacy implications of the History folder, the Address box and the Back menu. These features (especially the History folder) provide a trail that someone else can follow to see what you've been viewing on the Web. Conversely, you may examine the History folder to see what other people (your children, for example) have been viewing on the Web. If you want to erase that trail, do the following: Select Tools | Internet Options to open the Internet Options dialog box. Click the Clear History button on the General tab. Click Yes when you are asked to confirm. IE deletes the history and the list of URLs that you have typed in the Address box. Click the Delete Files button to erase the files in your Temporary Internet Files cache. Click OK when asked to confirm. If you just walk away from the computer at this point, the Back menu could still give you away, so exit Internet Explorer. This clears the Back menu.

Examining History

Internet Explorer keeps track of the Web pages that you have accessed recently. This information is stored as Internet shortcuts inside a hierarchy of folders capped by the History folder. You can turn History off, wipe the History folder clean, or edit it selectively, removing only the Web pages you don't want recorded.

Clicking the History button on the toolbar (the one with the turn-back-the-clock icon) or selecting View | Explorer Bar | History opens the History Explorer bar, shown here:

Clicking the History button again causes the History pane to disappear.

The History folder is organized into subfolders--one for each day of the current week and one for each previous week, going back 20 days. (You can use the steps listed in the following paragraphs to change the number of days History remembers.) Selecting a closed folder expands the tree to show its contents; selecting an open folder compresses the tree to hide its contents. Each day's folder contains one subfolder for each Web site visited. Inside the Web site folders are Internet shortcuts to each of the pages viewed on that Web site.

Delete a shortcut or a subfolder from the History folder by right-clicking it and selecting Delete from the shortcut menu.

To change Internet Explorer's History settings:

1. Select Tools | Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog box opens with the General tab on top (as shown in Figure 24-3). The History box is near the bottom of the General tab.

Figure 24-3: The General tab of the Internet Options dialog box

2. If you want to delete all the entries in the History folder, click the Clear History button in the History box of the General tab.
3. If you want to change the number of days that the History folder remembers a Web page, enter a new number into the Days To Keep Pages In History box.
4. Click OK.

History is subject to user accounts: each user has his/her own History folder with its own settings. This folder is located at C:\Documents And Settings\username\Local Settings\History (assuming that Windows is installed on C:--replace username with your user account name, as described in Chapter 6).You can edit the History folder with Windows Explorer, but only if you have it set to display hidden files and folders.

Using Favorites, Links, and Internet Shortcuts

Favorites and Internet shortcuts are ways to keep track of Web sites that you think you will want to come back to.

An Internet shortcut is a small file (of type .url) that contains the Internet address of a Web page. Opening an Internet shortcut causes Windows to connect to your Internet provider (if necessary), open your default Web browser, and display the Web page that the shortcut points to.

Favorites is a folder of Internet shortcuts. This folder is accessible from the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer, and you can add Favorites to the Start menu as well. Selecting an entry from the Favorites menu has the same effect as opening an Internet shortcut that points to that Web page. When Favorites are chosen from the Start menu, they open in the default browser, but choosing a Web page from the Favorites menu of Internet Explorer opens the page in Internet Explorer, even if another browser is the default browser.

The Links folder is a subfolder of Favorites. The items in the Links folder appear on the Links toolbar.

Adding Favorites and Links

Adding a Web page to the Favorites menu automatically creates an Internet shortcut pointing to that Web page. If a Web page is displayed in Internet Explorer, you can add it to Favorites by dragging its icon from the Address box to the Favorites menu or the Favorites Explorer bar, or you can invoke the Add Favorites wizard by selecting Favorites | Add To Favorites.

To add a Web page to the Links toolbar, either drag its icon from the Address box to the place on the Links bar where you want it, or drag it into the Links folder on the Favorites Explorer bar or on the Favorites menu.

Creating Internet Shortcuts

To create shortcuts in Internet Explorer, open the page to which you want to create a shortcut and choose File | Send | Shortcut To Desktop.

You can also create shortcuts in Windows Explorer or the desktop. From Windows Explorer, choose File | New | Shortcut. From the desktop, right-click and choose New | Shortcut. Either way, a Create Shortcut box opens. Type the URL of the Web page into the Create Shortcut box, or if you have copied the command line from some other document, paste it into Create Shortcut by pressing CTRL-V. Click Next. Give the shortcut a name. Click Finish.

Organizing Favorites

If you have picked out only a few Web pages, your favorites don't have to be well organized, but as time goes by, favorites accumulate like knick-knacks. It saves time to reorganize them once in a while and toss out the ones that are obsolete.

The Favorites list is actually a folder (C:\Windows\Favorites, if you haven't established user profiles on your computer; C:\Windows\Profiles\username\Favorites, if you have), and each of the entries on the Favorites list is a shortcut pointing to the URL of the corresponding Web page. Consequently, one way to organize Favorites is to use the same techniques you would use to organize any other folder in Windows Explorer. You can choose Favorites | Organize Favorites from any Explorer or Internet Explorer window. An Organize Favorites box opens. Move, rename, or delete entries on your Favorites list by selecting the entries and clicking the corresponding buttons in the Organize Favorites box.

Importing and Exporting Favorites and Bookmarks

When you install Internet Explorer on a computer that already has Netscape Navigator, the Navigator bookmarks are automatically imported to the Favorites list. Conversely, there is no need to convert the Favorites folder to Navigator bookmarks, as long as you are using both on the same computer: The Bookmarks | Imported IE Favorites menu in Navigator displays an up-to-date list of the entries in the Favorites folder.

To import bookmarks to Internet Explorer after installation, select File | Import And Export to start the Import/Export Wizard. This Wizard provides the best way to convert between Internet Explorer's Favorites (a folder of Internet shortcuts) and Navigator's bookmarks (an HTML file of links).

Adding Favorites to the Start Menu

Having the Favorites menu appear under Start is a convenient way to eliminate one step in the process of opening a favorite Web page. Rather than starting a Web browser and then choosing the Web page, you can choose the Web page directly from the Start | Favorites menu, and the default Web browser starts automatically.

If Favorites doesn't appear on your Start menu, you can add it as follows:

1. Right-click the Start button and select Properties from the shortcut menu. The Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box appears with the Start Menu tab selected. The tab contains two radio buttons: Start Menu (the default setting) and Classic Start Menu. One of the buttons is selected, and the Customize button next to this choice is active.
2. Click the active Customize button on the Start Menu tab. Either the Customize Start Menu or the Customize Classic Start Menu dialog box appears.
3. If the Customize Start Menu dialog box is open, click its Advanced tab. If the Customize Classic Start Menu dialog box is open, move on to step 5.
4. Check the Favorites Menu check box on the Advanced tab of the Customize Start Menu dialog box, or the Display Favorites check box on the Customize Classic Start Menu dialog box.
5. Click OK in all open dialog boxes.