New, expanded and updated version released November, 2011
Current version: 2.11.1114.2
If you must use Internet Explorer...
Some people like Internet Explorer. Others are stuck with it for one
reason or another. Either way, anyone using IE has been facing increasing complexity
and restrictions. The settings, especially security-related settings, have become
bizarrely convoluted.
The IE MD is designed to provide easy access to obscure but important settings and information.
It is a free utility that is easy to use. Actually it's just a webpage application, known as an HTA, that runs in Internet Explorer.
The IE MD is "powered" by script, so anyone can customize it or add to it to suit their own preferences.
If you want to use IE, or have no choice in the matter, the IE MD
can at least give you better control over IE settings:
• Eliminate restrictions, nags and the "Information Bar"
• Control add-ons
• Access hidden settings
For a more thorough discussion of the changes and problems with Internet Explorer, see this page.
Interested in more technical details about IE MD? Read the following.
What's wrong with Internet Explorer?
That's a long story. First, it's important to understand that IE is not designed for the person
using it. It is designed for corporations and online businesses. For corporations, Microsoft
designs IE so that corporate IT people can override employee choices, settings and even
the websites employees choose to visit -- without their knowledge. For online business,
IE is designed to optimize security, but only insofar as it does not impede online money
spending. (That's why the privacy settings in IE are so convoluted and unusable. Neither
merchants nor advertisers want you to have any privacy online.)
You might think that you can select IE security settings in the Internet Options window. That's
not entirely true. What you see there is your personal settings.
In some cases your personal setting can be overridden by "machine-wide" settings. Your personal
settings can also be overridden by "System Policy" settings. And your personal settings can be
overridden by "Lockdown" settings. The first two overrides are designed to allow corporate IT
people to override your choices without you knowing it. The Lockdown settings are Microsoft's
idea to override your personal settings "for your own good", without you knowing it.
In other words, for each security option on the Internet Options Security tab, in addition to
there being 5 possible zones that apply, each setting in each zone can be set in 8 different
locations in the Registry! Seven of those settings can override your personal selections.
Yet your personal selections are the only ones that will show up in Internet Options, whether
or not they've actually been overridden. Any person or software with access to your PC
can override your choices without you knowing it. That could be malware or a virus. Or
it could be an employer or tech. support person. It could even be a naive but well-intentioned
software developer who wants to make sure that their software is able to go online to
update itself, and who puts you at risk in the process.
Each version of Internet Explorer involves more restrictions and nags, more
hidden settings, and more convoluted complexity, than the last. The point of the IE MD is to cut through all
that madness and give you very easy, simple, clear access to the settings that should
already be under your control. Most of the settings
in IE MD are normally hidden.
Requirements:
This updated version of the IE MD
is designed to work with IE versions 5-8, on any version of Windows. It should work fine with IE9, but since IE9 only
works with Windows Vista/7, IE MD has not been specifically tested with IE9, nor has it
been updated to target IE9-specific problems.
The IE MD is entirely powered by VBScript, with an HTA file providing the
graphical interface. The code is all plain text. It can be inspected and edited. Also, for those who like
to take care of their settings directly, or who just want to know what IE MD is doing, the download
includes a file that lists what changes are made to effect various settings.
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