Everything I’ve tried to do today has been hampered by Internet Explorer 7 bugs. OK some of them are features rather than bugs, but even so if it messes up your normal workflow it’s still a bug in your day!  And [please excuse my exasperation] it’s been a bugger of a day!

IE7 & Outlook 2002 conflict
First up to bat in the give Kathie a tough day playoffs was the conflict between IE7 and Outlook 2002. 

   
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This little bug means that any links you click on in emails open a save dialog rather than opening the browser and displaying the page.  A lot of people are having this problem and there seems to be a fair bit of snake oil going round about how to fix it (uninstall the browser, stand on one leg, turn to the east, reinstall the browser kinda thing). I guess I’ve known about this issue for a while and really I should have dealt with it sooner, but it didn’t really get to be a problem for me until Windows Update installed IE7 on the PC I run Outlook 2002 on. (It works fine with Office 2007.)   It also affects links that you click in Desktop Sidebar too. The fix for both was quite simple and you’ll find Adrian’s written it up over on The PC Doctor’s Guide.  Be forewarned fixing it will delete your history, add-ons etc, so if your only link to your long lost auntie’s website is in your history better write it down now.

Run once
The fix for that reset all my settings, which in itself takes time to fix, as well as disabling all my add-ons such as toolbars etc.  It also unfortunately reset the “runonce” page that offers you the option to customize the the browser when you first install it.  Only this time, it wouldn’t go away and I was stuck with a blue screen – not a Bue Screen Of Death fortunately, but a Blue Screen Of Mild Annoyance nonetheless!

Fixing that one took some time to track down.  Again the solution is over on The PC Doctor’s Guide.

Intranet Zone
The Intranet issue is a little more complicated and it definitely isn’t a bug, except to my workflow. I’ve been trying to write an article today about the changes to the intranet zones in IE7 but without much success … in fact I’m now confused about something I understood well enough to start writing an article about this morning.  I’ll stick with it but suffice to say it’s not as clear as it would appear first hand … or maybe it is, I don’t know.  (Right now I’m seeing that if I set the opening a UNC network place it takes a looooooong time to open if I have IE7 set not to automatically detect intranet network.  I’m not 100% sure what I’m seeing yet so I’ll keep investigating that for now.)

Hide IE7 Search Box
The next IE issue came up with regard to the search box, not a bug just a new feature, that not everyone will want.  It’s a handy box that you can use to search … if you want to.  If you don’t want the ability to search to be right in front of you, it’s an annoyance that you can’t get move it or hide it to reclaim that valuable screen real estate.  Many parents are concerned that this box puts the full scope of the internet in plain view of their children. (Google??? What’s that dear?) If, like me, you prefer to keep your young one’s surfing as a more limited experience, you’ll be glad to know that you can get rid of the box.  And it’s fairly easy to do too… 

• Click on the Start menu and choose Run. (If you’ve disabled this from your kid’s PC too, hold down the window key and hit ‘R’) 
• Now type in ‘gpedit.msc’.  This opens the Group Policy editor. 

 
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• Under ‘User Configuration’ click the ‘+’ next to ‘Administrative Templates’. Drill down further by opening ‘Windows Components’  and ‘Internet Explorer’ in the same way. 
• Once you’re there, look in the right hand pane for an entry ‘Prevent the Internet Explorer search box from displaying’. 
• Double click on that to open it up.  In there click the ‘enable’ button. 

 
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• Click OK and the search box should be gone.  You may need to close IE7 and reopen it before you see the change.  (And to get the search box back you would go through the same process above, but this time click Disable.)

OK, now someone remind me, what was I trying to do before I got caught up on IE7 today???

my day | Internet Explorer | tips | IE7

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Browsers. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.