Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 37 Hack Internet Explorer with the Group Policy Editor

XP Professional's Group Policy
Editor lets you tweak Internet Explorer in countless waysfrom
changing its logo and background, to changing its title bar text and
beyond.

XP Professional owners have a reason to
feel good about spending the extra $100 or so they forked over for
their version of the operating system: the Group Policy Editor,
available only in Professional, can make all kinds of secret tweaks
to Internet Explorer. This tool, primarily used for setting network
and multiuser policies and rights, can also be used to customize the
way XP and Internet Explorer look and work. It makes it easy to
customize many different aspects of Internet
Explorer's behavior and appearance from one central
place, without having to edit the Registry or delve deep into menus,
dialog boxes, and options. You can customize how Internet Explorer
looks and works for each individual account on the machine, or just
for a single account if there is only one.

That means that you'll be able to create customized
versions of IE for a variety of different purposes. For example, you
can create customized browsers for your children, or for a business
if you run or administer a small business.

Run the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc
at a command line or the Run box and pressing Enter. When it opens,
go to User Configuration\Windows Settings\Internet Explorer
Maintenance. There are five categories of Internet Explorer
settings you can modify:

Browser User Interface

Connection

URLs

Security

Programs

To change individual settings, browse to any of the categories, then
from the right pane choose the setting you want to
configurefor example, to change the browser title.
Double-click on the setting, then fill out the dialog box, such as
the one shown in Figure 4-9, which lets you change
Internet Explorer's static and animated logos.

Figure 4-9. Using the Group Policy Editor to change Internet Explorer's settings

There are quite a few settings you can change with the Group Policy
Editor. Next, we'll take a look at what the best of
each of these categories can do.

4.6.1 Browser User Interface

As the name implies, this section lets
you customize Internet Explorer's interface. This
section, as a whole, lets you create your own customized version of
Internet Explorer. For example, you can create a version of IE
specifically for one of your childrentake a digital photo of
her and use it as the background for the toolbar, crop a headshot
photo of your child and use it as the animated custom logo, and
change the browser title to put her name on it. There are three types
of tweaks you can make in this section:

Browser Title

This option lets you customize Internet Explorer's
titlebar text, though only to a limited degree; you can add your name
or company's name to a text string of
"Microsoft Internet Explorer provided
by." For example, you can have the titlebar read
"Microsoft Explorer provided by Preston
Gralla." When you do this, Outlook Express will have
the same title as well. Because you need to have that initial text
string, this isn't a great hack unless
you're a computer manufacturer and want to brand the
browser.

Custom Logo

This setting lets you replace Internet Explorer's
static and animated logo with logos of your own. Note that to do
this, you'll first have to create the logos
yourself. It's easier to use the Group Policy Editor
to change your logo than to use the Registry.

Browser Toolbar Customizations

You can use your own bitmap as the background to the Internet
Explorer toolbar. Additionally, you can delete the existing toolbar
buttons and add buttons of your own. You don't have
to worry if the bitmap you want to use is not the same size as the
toolbar. XP will accommodate itfor example, by tiling a
graphic that is smaller than the toolbar so that it appears multiple
times.

4.6.2 Connection

This section lets
you customize Internet Explorer's connection
settings, which you would otherwise have to go to several places to
set.

Connection Settings

This lets you customize your existing Internet connection settings
and import them for another use on the PC. It
doesn't have any use if you're the
only user of the machine; it's intended to help you
set up other accounts' connection settings. If you
have a network at home, for example, you could copy the settings from
one machine to every other machine on the network.

Automatic Browser Configuration

This is purely an administrator's tool. It lets you
automatically change browser configurations on
users' machines.

Proxy Settings

This lets you tell Internet Explorer to use proxy servers. You can
also set up proxy servers from within Internet Explorer. For more
details on setting up proxy servers, see [Hack #46].

User Agent String

This lets you customize the user agent string that is sent to web
sites whenever you visit them. The user agent string gives out basic
information about your operating system and browser to the web site
so that the site can better track usage statistics. Using this
setting lets you append a specific text string to your
PC's user agent string.

4.6.3 URLs

This
section is mainly for administrators,
so if you don't need administrative tools you can
pretty much forgo it. If you are an administrator, it will let you
specify IE settings for multiple machines, such as setting a home
page for all, specifying a URL they will go to when Help is chosen,
and populating their Favorites with those of your choice. If you run
a small business, you can use these settings to build a
business-specific browser for all of your employees. For example, set
the home page to be your company's home page or
populate Favorites with Intranet pages or other pages your employees
need to access regularly, such as benefits information.

Favorites and Links

This lets you create a Favorites folder and links, or import them.
It's primarily an administrator's
tool, since it doesn't add much extra functionality
to the normal way that you can manage Favorites.

Important URLs

You can specify the starting page, create your own customized Search
bar, and create a Help page that will display when someone clicks on
Help Online Support. Again, this is primarily an
administrator's tool.

4.6.4 Security

Here's where to set
Internet Explorer security settings.
You can change these settings from directly within Internet Explorer
just as easily as changing them here, unless you need to change the
settings for several accounts, in which case here's
the place to go.

Security Zones and Content Rating

You can customize both security zones and
content ratings, which limit sites with objectionable content from
being visited. This is primarily an administrator's
tool, since these settings can be edited easily from inside Internet
Explorer by choosing Tools Internet Options
Security and Tools Internet Options Content.
But it's ideal for parents who have networks at home
and want to customize different security settings for their
children's computers. You can set a higher level of
security for children's computers and a lower level
for parents' PCs.

Authenticode Settings

This lets you designate specific
credential agencies and software
publishers as trustworthy. This is primarily an
administrator's tool, since these settings can be
edited easily from inside Internet Explorer by choosing Tools
Internet Options Security and Tools
Internet Options Content Certificates.

4.6.5 Programs

Once again,
this section is mainly for
administrators. It lets you change default programs for multiple
machines. So, for users who require only a simple email program, you
can set the default to be Outlook Express. For other users, you can
set it as Outlook or a third-party email program.

Programs

This lets you change the default programs to be used for purposes
such as email, HTML editing, and others. This is primarily an
administrator's tool, since these settings can be
edited easily by choosing Tools Internet Options
Security and Tools Internet Options
Programs.