Appendix A: Internet Explorer Maintenance Extension Settings

The following table lists Windows® Internet Explorer® Maintenance (IEM) extension settings in Group Policy that you can use to manage browsers on your users' computers.

Some of these settings are only available when you are using IEM in Normal mode, and other settings are only available when you are using IEM in Preference mode.

  • In Normal mode, policy settings are refreshed regularly on your users' computers, ensuring that your users cannot change those settings permanently.

  • In Preference mode, users are provided with the same starting configuration for their browsers, but they can personalize the configuration.

Note

You must be a member of the Administrators group to work with Group Policy settings and Group Policy objects.

For more information about using Group Policy settings (including Administrative Templates settings) to manage Internet Explorer 8, see:

Settings category Settings page Description IEM mode

Browser User Interface

Browser Title

Customize the text that appears in the title bar of Internet Explorer. The text you enter appears after the string “Windows Internet Explorer provided by”.

Normal only

Browser User Interface

Custom Logo and Animated Bitmaps

Customize the static and animated Internet Explorer logos in the upper-right corner of the Internet Explorer window.

Note
These settings do not apply to Internet Explorer 8.

Normal only

Browser User Interface

Browser Toolbar Customizations

Normal or Preference

Connection

Connection Settings

  • To preset your users’ connection settings, import from the Connections tab of the Internet Explorer Control Panel item on your computer.

  • Remove old dial-up connection settings from users’ computers.

Note

If you are planning to use an .ins file to configure your users' browser settings, the URL for automatic configuration is not imported with other connection settings. That URL must be set manually with Automatic Browser Configuration settings.

Normal or Preference

Connection

Automatic Browser Configuration

  • Update your users' browsers after deployment by specifying a URL to an .ins file, an automatic proxy URL, or both. See Using Automatic Configuration, Automatic Proxy, and Automatic Detection.

  • Set the interval in minutes for how often automatic configuration will occur. If the interval value is left blank, or at zero, automatic configuration occurs only when users restart their computers.

Normal or Preference

Connection

Proxy Settings

  • Specify which proxy servers, if any, your users' browsers connect to for various services.

  • Specify addresses, such as those on your corporate intranet, that do not require proxy servers.

Note

The gopher:// protocol type is not available for Internet Explorer 8.

Normal or Preference

Connection

User Agent String

Enter custom text that will be appended to the default Internet Explorer 8 user agent string. Internet Explorer 8 sends the user agent string to Web servers with each page request to identify itself, its version number, and the operating system. The string can be used by Web servers to display specialized content or to maintain site statistics.

Note

Customizing the user agent string is optional, but if you decide to do this, be aware that Web server software in other organizations may detect the customized string.

Normal only

URLs

Favorites and Links

  • Customize Favorites and Links in your users' browsers by pre-populating Favorites and Links lists in your users’ browsers.

  • Specify the order of each folder, add an icon for each Favorite and Link, and import an existing folder structure from your computer.

Normal or Preference

URLs

Important URLs

Specify custom URLs for the home page, Search bar, and Online Support page, instead of using the default values provided by Internet Explorer.

Normal or Preference

Security

Security Zones and Content Ratings

  • Import security zones and privacy settings from your computer, and customize them before applying them to browsers on your users' computers.

  • Import content ratings from your computer, and customize them to prevent users from viewing sites with risky content.

Normal or Preference

Security

Authenticode Settings

Import Authenticode settings from your computer, and customize them before applying them to your users' computers. Authenticode enables you to designate software publishers and credentials agencies as trustworthy.

Note

This option is not available for Internet Explorer 8.

Normal or Preference

Programs

Programs

Import the current default programs settings from your computer for Internet services such as e-mail and newsgroups, and modify them before applying them to browsers on your users' computers.

Normal or Preference

Advanced

Corporate Settings

Set user and computer preferences in the Inetcorp.iem template for the browsers on your users' computers. These settings enable you to specify the behavior of temporary Internet files, the location used to download ActiveX® or Java controls, and which error codes are allowed.

Note

Error code settings are not applied on computers running Internet Explorer 8.

Preference only

Advanced

Internet Settings

Set user and machine preferences (not all are applicable to Internet Explorer 8) in the Inetset.iem template for the browsers on your users' computers. (These settings correspond to options in Internet Options in Control Panel.)

Note

All of these settings can also be managed as true policies by using Group Policy Administrative Templates. In Group Policy, expand Computer Configuration or User Configuration, and then expand Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Internet Explorer, and Internet Settings.

Preference only