Question for the Internet Explorer experts

[Chock]

I cannot seem to reset IE so that it will recognise cookies, this means I have to sign in all the time on any page, even ones I look at all the time, and it means some sites I can't even proceed to. I've done all the standard stuff like going to the IE Tools menu and dropping the Internet Options to low levels, but still it isn't happening.

Any ideas as to how i can sort this? It's IE7 running on XP.

:D Chock

[TteFAboB]

Hold on, I'll make you a tutorial movie using "The Movies" "game", some photoshop and a bunch of video editing.

Come back here in about three weeks or so.

(I'm sorry: I'm joking)

[XabbaRus]

Get Firefox :)

[Chock]

Well, gee thanks for all the help guys, two answers and both taking the p*ss. I know what to do next time either of you ask for help with anything now don't I?

:D Chock

[Sailor Steve]

I'm no expert, but do this:

1) Click on the 'Help' button at the top of the screen (it's the last one on the right, next to 'Tools').

2) Click 'Contents and Index'.

3) Click the 'Search' tab.

4) Type in "cookies".

5) Double-click on 'Change your privacy settings'.

That will give you a menu showing what to do to enable cookies. I would have just told you how to actually do it, but the library computer won't allow me to access the 'Tools' button.

Actually, I just looked again; the other options under privacy gives you more ways to customize it. Anyway, that should help you get around.

[FIREWALL]

Hi Chock :D

Your probably better off following Sailor Steve's advice than mine but doe's Active X have anything to do with this or the problem your haveing ?

[Skybird]

Never drop internet level to "low". Never. It shouldn't be needed anyhow, and if it is needed, that is a good reason to be suspicious of the site demanding that.

I refer to the German IE.

Klick Extras -> Internetoptionen.

Here you choose "Datenschutz", and select "Erweitert. Tick the Box "Erweiterte Cookiebehandlung aufheben", that is: activate that Function, so that no cookies ever get placed on your system without your knowledge.
Below, block both cookies from first and third party adresses ("Erst- und Drittanbieter"). Now, no cookies will ever beeing placed on your system. That is something good.

Now go back to the step "Erweitert", and choose "Sites".

Here you paste and copy the site you want access to, for example subsim.com. it must not be the special forum site, just paste and copy any location within the forum structure. You then select if this adress either shall be blocked forever, or should always be allowed. Site and setting then is added to the already existing list. You confirm, and leave.

Now you go tothe site in question, enter the cookie, and tick the box saying that you want to be logged in whenever you visit the site. The cookie will be stored (and only the cookie from this site, no others!), and you should never need to enter it again as long as you do not clean the cookies, or use a registry cleaner allowing to delete cookies, or comparable action.

Leave IE always at at least medium setting, or better, switch it to maximum (use medium only wherre needed, and after that switch back to maximum), and use a firewall, and use windows update once a month. that way, IE is much safer than it's reputation as long as you do not get delibaretyl targetted by a hacker precisely aiming your system. It triggers much fewer alarms than I had with Firefox, although that was an earlier firefox version. Be alarmed if a site wants to run or install an activeX element, I refuse that almost always, same goes for Java.

Run AntiVir, Spybot, A2 and Adaware once a week with maximum security options. It takes time then, but you could let it run while working in the kitchen, for example. Clean explorer cache twice a day, and set it to minimum size (10 MB, I think).

Best security barrier is your brain. Be clever in your choice of sites you visit. not every rubbish is worth to be called up, and if you visit suspicious sites, don'T be surprised if you catch up some small little bugger.

[Chock]

Thanks for the suggestions, although what I meant was I'd already tried all those that everyone posted and they were not working; whatever I put the settings on, it was saying that my browser wasn't storing cookies properly (god knows why that might be) so I was looking for other obscure stuff that anyone might know.

Anyway, it seems nothing was going to sort it, obviously something was really screwed because it wouldn't even update via MS security updates, which is generally a bad sign, so I decided to delete it and re-install a different version (which fortunately I already had on another drive), and that seems to have got around the problem, as all the privacy and trusted site stuff is now working how it should. Although now my copy of AdAware thinks I'm a hacker, so it won't fire up:rotfl:

But hopefully I can sort that one out, I just emailed Lavasoft about it. So cheers all.

:D Chock

[Skybird]

That would be the part of the program where I would bring my image backup into position... I simply do not believe in software repairs anymore. :D

[Iceman]

Many times it is another program causing this type of problem...

Mcaffe,Norton ...Spysweeper is terrible for locking people out of stuff email especially as well as browsing..what happens is some alert goes off or the user is looking around in a programs settings ,advanced possibly and sets security to high....not realizing how it has just affected himself...so when you just re-installed or whatever....these programs now see a new program or whatever and so usually the defaults will work...until he fiddles around again and locks him self back out....


IE is a finicky program...the fact it not updating is not a good sign...so many things can be the cause of this but from my experience it is usually an "other" program or firewall setting in advanced or something other than IE it self causing this.

Reset all these types of programs back to default levels and check it out...99% of the time I find the cause like this and get people back in business.

That one other 1% is sometimes uninstalling programs is the only option...just turning things off sometimes doesn't work only uninstalling works....again I very much Dis-Like Spysweeper.....to easy to lock urself out of something.

[Chock]

Just as an update to the, Ad-Aware not firing up after the clock reset saga, Lavasoft technical support sent me a reset code for it, you hold down shift when the alert comes up, click on okay and enter the reset code. They got back to me in about two hours, which isn't too bad.

:D Chock

[The WosMan]

Have you ever considered mozilla firefox? Use that and you won't have these problems.

[Chock]

Yeah I know Firefox and a few others too, but it doesn't like it when you have a Macintosh powerbook on the network going through Airport, so I'm kind of stuck with IE while my wife insists on using a Mac Powerbook with all that Safari cobblers that you get on them, for anything other than work. I built her a perfectly good PC that blows it out of the water in terms of performance, but she is one of those 'Mac lovers', her Powerbook cost three times the price of my Hewlett Packard laptop, and my laptop can run circles around it, and even an old PC I have in the corner that rarely gets switched on, which runs Win98/XPon a dual boot can give her Powerbook a run for its money.

I have to use Macs at work a lot of the time, but nobody is going to force me to use one when I get home, and I'd sure as hell never buy another one:rotfl: If it weren't for those networking constraints, I'd blow out IE in a microsecond, purely for security issues if nothing else.

:D Chock

[The WosMan]

I'm stunned! I have never heard a mac user talk a mac down like that ever before! Wow, that just really took me by surprise. I don't use Macs but everyone I know that does raves about them. I am not biased either way to tell you the truth but woah, that was crazy.......

[Chock]

I've not got any problem using Macs, it's just that their main reason to exist has come and gone. When they first came out in 1984, the typical mainstream computer alternative was either a DOS PC, or one running a very early version of Windows, and there were less people around that felt comfortable with computers, so at that time, it was a good idea to have a 'friendly-looking' computer with a one button mouse and a GUI that was purposely very difficult to get into (especially by accident).

But these days it is not surprising to find people of all ages on the internet, and fairly computer-savvy they are too. With Windows operating systems looking a lot more user-friendly, there is far less need for a PC user to have to be clued up on how it actually works. When that became the status quo, the only thing left for Apple to do, was to claim that their machines were more sleek and stylish and pretty. To an extent this has worked for them too; in the DTP and print industry, you will have a hard time convincing anyone (other than the IT people) that a PC is better, cheaper and more capable than a Mac, and you can point out the fact that when they upgrade their new Apple-certified graphics card, what they are buying is a card that PC users are thinking about replacing as it is getting on a bit until you are blue in the face, you won't convince them!

Even pointing out that Macs have now switched to using Intel processors, and have been through numerous mouse incarnations in recent years only to end up with a three-button mouse that has a scroll wheel on it, which is what PC users been shoving around their mouse mats for the past 15 years, will fall on deaf ears. As will the fact that most large Mac server networks in the media industry will either use Unix stations or even ordinary PCs with Windows 98 on them before they'll attempt to try it with a Macintosh OS!

Working for Apple and Adobe (among others), as I often do, they regard me as the antichrist because I prefer PCs by the way.

Macs: They are pretty, and the build quality is generally great, the design is not quite so clever sometimes, as anyone who has ever had a G3 give up the ghost in high temperatures, or had a CD that won't eject, will confirm. They do have the advantage of being a controllable environment when it comes to writing compatible applications, a bit like a games console to a large degree, although CS2 applications crash on the newer Intel Macs with annoying regularity. Also like a games console, they are overpriced and expensive/impossible to upgrade, so for a home user, they are quite simply a bad buy if keeping up with the times is a goal, and like a games console, you'll need the new model in three years, unlike a PC, which you can perform rolling upgrades on. On top of all that, because the Mac user base is smaller, the software costs more as there is not the economy of scale which can be achieved with a PC platform, which is why they are getting ever closer to becoming a PC in different box with a fancy logo on it that buyers will be paying 800 quid for. And Apple know this, which is why they started diversifying into the music industry.

And yes, I do know there is Linux as well. That penguin is cute.

:D Chock

[The WosMan]

I don't think Macs time to exist has come and gone at all. Again, I am not a Mac user, never owned one in my life and the only time I used them is when I lived in the UK and was forced to use them at the College I attended. However, MS has fubared Vista so badly that Mac is a very viable choice in the market.

A good PC running WinXP is a beast of a machine but Vista is horrible. Vista is an overpriced piece of bloatware offered in 454,345,342.999 different versions with none of the promised features that "Longhorn" promised. They thought they could sell the system by bombarding the market with new PCs that had Vista on it but a lot of the PC makers demanded XP which is why MS is pushing back the end of support date for XP now. Since MS seems to be too focused on Google and trying to create an online search engine to rival Google, I doubt they are going to fix Vista the way it needs to be.

I know a lot of people who build their own PCs as gaming rigs and they are all holding out to see what happens because nobody wants Vista despite the DX10 carrot being dangled in front of them. I can also say that the bank I work for with nearly 30,000+ users doesn't plan to upgrade to Vista. I have a feeling people are going to seriously start looking to Mac or Linux as a viable alternative if MS doesn't pull their head out of their rear and PC hardware manufacturers will too since Vista is likely hurting their sales as well.

[TteFAboB]

The Mac OS is a joke. They ripped it off Vista! :smug:

[sonar732]

While we are talking about big corporations that don't upgrade at the latest and greatest MS OS, the company that I work for didn't upgrade to WXP from NT 4.0 until 2004! MS always pushes back the support date for the previous OS...look at how long it took them to stop providing support for W98SE. :yep: