Preparing to Customize Internet Explorer

You can make a wide variety of changes to Internet Explorer to fit your needs. You can modify the setup program, preset Internet options, and make visual changes. If you're a corporate administrator, you can control, or "lock down," many important settings to prevent users from changing them. If you're an ISP, you can provide sign-up solutions for your customers.

You should evaluate your organization's needs and then determine the preparation steps you'll need to take.

Determining Which Features to Customize

This section outlines the customization options for Internet Explorer and gives the steps you need to follow when preparing to use those options. To see a checklist of specific options, see Appendix D , "Checklists for Preparing to Use the IEAK."

Digital Signatures

If you are deploying 32-bit versions of your programs over the Internet, you must ensure that your programs are digitally signed. If you are deploying your programs over an intranet and you do not want to specially configure settings in your users' browsers, you must also ensure your programs are digitally signed. This is one of the first preparation steps you should consider, because you'll need to obtain a digital certificate from a certification authority (CA), if you don't already have one.

Digital signatures show where programs come from and verify that they haven't been altered. If you have a publisher certificate from a CA, the Internet Explorer Customization wizard can use it to sign your programs automatically.

If you are an ISP, you can specify a root certificate, so that all certificates lower in the hierarchy inherit the same level of trust and the user isn't continually prompted with security messages.

For more information about digitally signing your programs, see Chapter 6 , "Digital Certificates."

Preparation

• To prepare certificates for use by the Customization wizard, you can import them onto your computer by using the Certificate Manager Import wizard. If you have received a file with a software publishing certificate (.spc) extension, you can start the Certificate Manager Import wizard by double-clicking the .spc file in Windows Explorer or My Computer. You can also open the Certificate Manager from Internet Explorer. To do this, click the Tools menu, click Internet Options , click the Content tab, and then click Certificates . Click Import to start the Certificate Manager Import wizard, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

• Specify the company name, descriptive text, a URL that the users can click for more information, the .spc file name, and the private key (.pvk) file name.

• If you are an ISP and plan to specify a root certificate, you'll need to specify its URL when you run the Customization wizard.

• Although the Customization wizard provides an automated method of signing files, you can sign files manually as well, if you have a digital certificate. To use the manual method, you'll need to sign any custom files or programs that you are including in your custom package (also commonly known as an IEAK package). In addition, you'll need to sign any custom files created by the Customization wizard.
  You need to sign the following custom files:

  • Branding.cab

  • Desktop.cab

  • IEcif.cab

  • IE5Setup.exe

  • Any cabinet (.cab) files that are created by using the IEAK Profile Manager

  By default, the .cab files created by the IEAK Profile Manager will be preceded by the root name of the corresponding Internet settings (.ins) file. For example, if your .ins file is named Finance.ins, the corresponding default file name for the Configuration cabinet file would be Finance_Config.cab.

For more general information about digital signatures, contact your CA.

Windows Update Setup

You can add custom components to Windows Update Setup for Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools. In addition, you can create ten setup combinations, control whether users can customize the setup prompts, suppress user prompts during the setup process, and modify the appearance and functionality of the Windows Update Setup wizard. For 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer, you can add a custom Autorun screen for CD-ROM installations.

Preparation

• Prepare custom components and decide which setup combinations you'll need.

• If you want the user to be able to uninstall your component by using the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel, create an uninstall script.

• Determine how you want to customize the appearance and functionality of the Windows Update Setup wizard. This includes preparing any custom graphics you want to use for the wizard.

• If you are creating CD-ROM packages, prepare the graphics and any text you want for the Autorun screen.

• You can also use a batch file to customize Windows Update Setup. If you want to include the batch file with your custom package, you should create it before you run the Customization wizard.

For more detailed information about Windows Update Setup, see Chapter 16 , "Customizing Setup."

CD-ROM Autorun Screen

If you are creating a CD-ROM version of your customized browser, you can create an Autorun screen that is displayed when the user inserts the compact disc into the CD-ROM drive.

You can also provide a text file that gives additional or late-breaking information to users; this file is sometimes called a readme file. In addition, you can specify a Web page that appears in full-screen, or "Kiosk," mode after the user installs Windows Update Setup.

Preparation

If you want to include an Autorun screen:

• Provide a background bitmap.

• Provide labels for two buttons: one for installing Windows Update Setup and one for displaying more information.

• Determine whether you want to customize the title bar and the text color.

For more information about creating the Autorun splash screen, see "Creating CD-ROM Autorun Splash-Screen Graphics" later in this chapter.

If you plan to add an informational file or specify a Web page for Kiosk mode, you'll need to prepare the files and know their paths before you run the Customization wizard.

Browser Toolbar Buttons

You can specify a custom toolbar button that appears in the toolbar of the user's browser. The toolbar button can launch a custom program or script, including opening a custom Explorer bar.

Preparation

If you want to prepare a browser toolbar button:

• Create two icon files that contain color and gray-scale images for active and inactive states.

• Specify the script or custom program that you want to run when you start the browser.

For more information about creating the icons, see "Designing Browser Toolbar Icons for Internet Explorer 5" later in this chapter.

For more information about creating custom programs, see the MSDN Online Web site.

Connection Manager

Corporate administrators and ISPs can use the Microsoft Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK) to customize the appearance and functionality of the Connection Manager, a tool that enables users to dial up to the Internet or an intranet.

Preparation

You can import a connection profile that you've already created, or you can start the CMAK from the Customization wizard. Either way, you'll want to determine the settings that you want to customize.

For more information, see Chapter 14 , "Customizing Connection Management and Settings" and online Help in the CMAK.

Appearance

You can customize the title bar, animated and static logos, and the toolbar background of the browser. You can add a custom toolbar button or custom icons for the Favorites list. You can also customize the appearance of the Windows Update Setup wizard and Outlook Express.

If you're an ISP or a corporate administrator, you can customize the appearance of the Connection Manager, the dialog box that provides users with a connection to the Internet. ISPs can also customize the appearance of the Internet Connection wizard, which sets connection options and helps users sign up for Internet services.

Preparation

• Determine how you want to customize title bars.

• Gather any custom graphics. For a list of all the graphics you can customize, see Appendix D , "Checklists for Preparing to Use the IEAK."

For more information about using IEAK programs to create the animated logo, see "Creating an Animated Logo" later in this chapter.

Links, Favorites, and Important URLs

You can customize the links to Web pages that appear in the user's Links bar, across the top of the browser, and in the Favorites list, which appears in the left part of the browser when the user clicks the Favorites button. You can also customize the user's search, home, and support pages.

Preparation

• Gather up to 200 URLs and determine whether you want to use URL titles that differ from the current ones. Instead of specifying the links and favorites when you run the wizard, you can import them from the computer where you build your custom package.

• If you want graphics for the Favorites list, create custom 16-by-16-pixel icons before running the Customization wizard.

• Know the URLs for the search, home, and support pages. The pages don't have to be created before you run the Customization wizard, but you'll need to make sure they're in place when you deploy Internet Explorer.

Channels

You can add a channel or a channel category, which is a folder of related channels. The channels feature enables you to specify what content is downloaded and when. For example, you can provide the latest news reports and company information through a channel.

The technology that makes this possible is the Channel Definition Format (.cdf) file. You can use content you already have, such as Web pages and graphics, for channels. You might, however, want to structure your content differently, so you are sure that users receive the right amount of content in an organized way.

Preparation

For channel file specifications, see Appendix D , "Checklists for Preparing to Use the IEAK." For more information about creating channels, see the MSDN Online Web site.

User-Agent String

Some companies track site statistics, such as how many times their content is accessed and by which types of Web browsers. User-agent strings help identify the browser type.

Here's an example of a user-agent string:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; WindowsNT; YourCustomString )

Preparation

If you want to append a custom string to the user-agent string generated by Internet Explorer, you need to determine what the customizable part of the string will be.

Internet Sign-up

If you're an ISP, you can specify whether your customers will sign up for Internet services when they install Windows Update Setup. You can use a server-based sign-up process and post your sign-up files on an Internet server. You can have customers use the Internet Connection wizard, or they can use the browser in Kiosk mode as the interface for signing up using a server-based solution. You can also use a serverless, or local, solution that you include in your custom package.

Preparation

For a server-based sign-up process, you'll need to:

• Customize sign-up files - such as Signup.htm or Icwsign.htm - that will point to your sign-up server.

• Post sign-up and settings files on your servers before you deploy Internet Explorer.

• Customize all the sign-up and settings files that you want to include in your custom package. The Customization wizard can generate .ins files to post to your server (for a server-based sign-up process) or to include in your custom package (for a serverless, or local, sign-up process). If you want the Customization wizard to generate these files for you, you'll need to know the settings that you plan to specify, such as area code, gateway, and connection settings.

For more information about setting up servers, see Chapter 13 , "Setting Up Servers." For more information about the sign-up process, see Chapter 20 , "Implementing the Sign-up Process."

Address Book Directory Services

Corporate administrators and ISPs can provide custom directory or "address book" services using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

You can specify your own LDAP server and Web site, and you can customize the bitmap that appears when users access directory services.

Preparation

To customize LDAP settings:

• Know the service name, server name, service Web site, search base, and service bitmap path.

• If you plan to customize the service bitmap, prepare it before you run the Customization wizard.

Microsoft Outlook Express

Corporate administrators and ISPs can customize many settings for Outlook Express. Some key settings include account and server information, the InfoPane that appears when users start the program, and advanced settings, such as service information for obtaining additional accounts and for determining whether Outlook Express is the default e-mail program.

Preparation

To customize Outlook Express, you need to gather the following information:

• Incoming mail server - This can be a Post Office Protocol (POP3) or Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) server. POP3 is used by most Internet subscribers for e-mail. An example is pop01.microsoft.com. IMAP is used mainly by corporate users who want to read their e-mail from a remote location. POP3 servers allow access to a single inbox, but IMAP servers provide access to multiple server-side folders.

• Outgoing mail server - This is a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server. An example is smtp.microsoft.com.

• Internet news server - This is a Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) server that is used to distribute network news messages to NNTP servers and to NNTP clients (news readers) on the Internet. An example server name is nntp.microsoft.com.

• InfoPane - This is the page that appears along the bottom of the Outlook Express window. You can specify a local Web page that you include with your custom package, or a Web page on the Internet or intranet that you can continue to customize. You can also include an image for the InfoPane. If you do, you'll need to provide the path to the image.

• HTML welcome message - This is a custom message that appears in the users' inbox when they first install Outlook Express. You'll need to specify the location of the .htm message, the sender (your name or your group's name) address, and the recipient's name (the group of users you will send the message to).

• Subscribed newsgroups - This is the list of newsgroups that the user will automatically be subscribed to. You should collect these names before you run the Customization wizard.

• Service for additional accounts - This is the menu item that users can access to get an additional mail account. You'll need to know the service name and service URL of the account provider. This entry is added to the New Account From menu in Outlook Express. When the user selects this service name from the menu, the Web page is opened. An account number, which can be specified in the .ins file, and a unique identifier for the user will be sent to the ISP when the Web page is opened.

• Compose settings - This is the default signature that you can add to each e-mail or news message. Often, this is a disclaimer that shows that messages submitted by employees over the Internet do not represent official company policies. The maximum size of the signature is 1 KB.

Component Update and Update Notification Pages

You can specify and host a custom Web page from which users can download components. By default, this is the Microsoft site that appears when the user clicks the Tools menu, and then clicks Windows Update . If you choose to customize this page, you'll need to know its URL before you run the wizard. For more information, see Chapter 16 , "Customizing Setup."

You can specify a page that temporarily replaces the user's home page at a time interval you designate. You'll need to know the URL of this page before you run the Internet Explorer Customization wizard. The default notification page is the Microsoft Windows Update page. For ideas about how you can use this page, see Chapter 22 , "Keeping Programs Updated."

For a checklist of specific information you need to gather before running the Customization wizard, see Appendix D , "Checklists for Preparing to Use the IEAK."

My Computer and Control Panel

If you are a corporate administrator, you can customize how My Computer and Control Panel appear on your company's computers by customizing the files that serve as templates for them. Then, if the user installs the Windows Desktop Update, My Computer and Control Panel can appear as Web pages, or Webviews. You can customize these folders to provide instructions, a company logo, or links to support or corporate sites.

To provide Webviews, you must include the Windows Desktop Update in your browser package and be running the desktop on your build computer.

Preparation

To customize the templates, you use the following files:

• Mycomp.htt for My Computer

• Controlp.htt for Control Panel

If you have installed the Windows Desktop Update on your computer, these files are located in the C:\Windows\Web or C:\Windows\NT folder. You can open them using a text editor, such as Notepad, or an HTML editor. It's recommended that you make a back-up copy of these files before working with them, so you can restore them to their original state if needed.

You can modify these files in several ways to suit your company's needs. You can add your own links or graphics, change colors, and even determine which icons and file names are displayed. For example, you could choose not to display the icons in Control Panel. Instead, you could provide graphical buttons that the user can click for the settings you choose to make available.

The .htt files use active scripting, such as JavaScript, JScript, or Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VB Script). The existing Mycomp.htt and Controlp.htt files, and other files related to the desktop (Folder.htt and Printers.htt), use JavaScript. You can modify some aspects of these files without scripting, or if you're familiar with scripting, you can add to or change the scripting to meet your needs.

The desktop template files are very similar to HTML (.htm) files, except for three variables: %THISDIRNAME%, %THISDIRPATH%, and %TEMPLATEDIR%, which are processed through a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) filter and replaced with the correct file or path information. These variables are useful when you specify links to external files, such as graphics. Although the template files are located in the C:\Windows\Web or C:\Windows\NT folder, they are processed in the Temp folder, so the path information is necessary to ensure that links to other items work.

It's important to ensure that the customized versions of My Computer and Control Panel resize the display in accordance with users' screen resolutions, and that they appear correctly. In the Mycomp.htt and Controlp.htt files, the following syntax is used to ensure proper resizing:

<script language="JavaScript">
window.onresize = fixSize;
</script>

In My Computer and Control Panel, Infotips from the registry are displayed when the user points to an item. The Infotips provide a brief description of the item.

You can also modify the Printers.htt (Printers folder) and Folder.htt (default Web view for folders) template files in the C:\Windows\Web or C:\Windows\NT folder on your computer or on your users' computers. These files cannot be included in your custom package.

If you want, you can provide .htm files instead of modifying the *.htt files. To do this, you need to change the associated PersistMoniker references in the registry to PersistFile , and point the references to your customized file.

Caution Editing the registry can cause harm to the operating system. You are responsible for any risks associated with editing registry entries.

Developing Custom Graphics

Some custom graphics used with the Customization wizard are simple bitmaps sized to the appropriate dimensions and resolutions. Other graphics, however, require more complex preparation. This section discusses how to produce those graphics.

Creating CD-ROM Autorun Splash-Screen Graphics

When the user inserts a CD-ROM into a computer running a 32-bit version of Windows, an Autorun splash screen can appear. The splash screen provides installation instructions and other helpful information.

The following procedure for creating an Autorun splash screen assumes that you are starting with a 24-bit RGB bitmap file. If your file is not a 24-bit RGB bitmap, you must convert it.

To create an Autorun bitmap

1. Create a 256-color bitmap image (540-by-357 pixels).
   This bitmap should provide an introduction to the product and should contain labels for two buttons: one for installing Windows Update Setup and one for displaying more information.

   Note The dimensions of the bitmap are important, because the dialog box resizes to the bitmap dimensions. If the bitmap isn't wide enough, text in the dialog box may appear clipped.

2. In your graphics program, create a working file for your palette. To do this, paste both your background and button files into a single file. Make sure to paste the files side by side, not overlapping.

3. Save the file as Palette.bmp.

Creating an Animated Logo

Two separate tools are included with the IEAK to help you create customized animated bitmaps for your browser:

• The Animated Bitmap Creator takes a series of sequentially numbered bitmaps and stacks them into one bitmap using the correct format for animation.

• The Animated Bitmap Previewer allows you to preview the animation of the bitmap. This tool can also be used to display any correctly formatted bitmap.

Note These tools are not to be distributed as supported Microsoft products. Both tools can be found in the \Toolkit\Tools\Animate folder.

To use the Animated Bitmap Creator (Makebmp.exe)

• To run this tool, type the following at the command line:

  makebmpbasename numfiles outputname

  Where:

  • makebmp is the executable file

  • basename is the root file name (without numbers and an .bmp extension)

  • numfiles is the number of bitmaps to sequentially add

  • outputname is the output file name (you must include the .bmp extension)

  Example:

  To combine the files Bitmap0.bmp through Bitmap19.bmp, you would type the following:

  makebmp bitmap 20 final.bmp

  Note The files you use should be numbered sequentially beginning with 0. For example, if you were using 25 files, they would be numbered as: IEbmp0.bmp IEbmp1.bmp IEbmp2.bmp ... IEbmp24.bmp. When typing basename at the command line, you would use IEbmp .

To use Animated Bitmap Previewer (Animbmp.exe)

• Start the previewer either from a command line or from Windows Explorer.

  After Animbmp.exe is started, you can preview an animated bitmap by dragging the file into the box, or by clicking the File menu and then clicking Open . The lead-in frames are shown only once, and then the bitmap loops continuously.

Designing Browser Toolbar Icons for Internet Explorer

To create a custom browser toolbar icon, you will need to provide each image in two sizes for two toolbar states (grayscale for the default state and color for the active state, when the user's mouse is pointing to it), and in two color depths. The following summary describes the image icons that you need:

• One 20-by-20-pixel color image (256-color Windows half-tone palette)

• One 20-by-20-pixel gray image (256-color Windows half-tone palette)

• One 20-by-20-pixel color image (16-color Windows palette)

• One 20-by-20-pixel gray image (16-color Windows palette)

• One 16-by-16-pixel color image (16-color Windows palette)

• One 16-by-16-pixel gray image (16-color Windows palette)

For example, if you used the image of a house as the icon, the images would look similar to this:

Designing Toolbar Icons

Keep the following points in mind when designing toolbar icons:

• Make sure the visual transitions between your default and active images are smooth. An easy way to test this is to create separate layers for the default and active images in a photo imaging program so that you can view the images on top of each other.

• When you design 16-color icons, use the Windows 16-color palette. For both the default and active states, a black border should appear around the icon, except where the readability of the image might be affected, such as for an arrow or an "X." The images should have little shading and appear flat.

• When you design 256-color icons, use the Windows half-tone palette. For both the default and active states, the icons should have icon-style borders with gray or color top and left borders, and black bottom and right borders. They can have more shade and visual depth than 16-color images, with a light source from the upper left and shading where appropriate.

Creating .ico Files

You will need to create two .ico files for one icon:

• The first .ico file contains the active images (color) in the appropriate sizes and color depths.

• The second .ico file contains the default images (grayscale) in the appropriate sizes and color depths.

It is recommended that you use a graphics program to draw your icons and a development environment, such as Microsoft Visual C++® Development Studio, to create the .ico files.

The two icon files would contain the following graphics:

1
#1.ico

2
#2.ico

To draw images for your icons

1. After drawing your images in a graphics program, place the 16-color and 256-color images in separate files.

2. Index each file to the appropriate palette, either the Windows 16-color palette or the Windows half-tone palette.

3. Save each file as a .bmp file.

To create your icon files in Visual C++

1. Open each .bmp file.

2. On the File menu, click New , and then click Icon . By default, the icon window that opens displays a standard 32-by-32-pixel device image.

3. In the Icon window, click New Device Image . Click Custom , and then create the following images:

   • One 22-by-20-pixel 16-color image

   • One 22-by-20-pixel 256-color image

   • One 18-by-16-pixel 16-color image

   Note The device images are two pixels wider than your original images, which reflects the actual width of the button. Center your images in the device image area.

4. Delete the default 32-by-32-pixel device image.

5. Copy and paste the color images from your .bmp files into a device image with the appropriate size and color depth.

6. To make the background transparent, select the transparent color in the color palette and fill the background of each image where you want transparency.

7. Save this file as an .ico file.

8. To create your default (grayscale) .ico file, follow the same steps (steps 1 through 7).

.