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IE4 Speed Up Tricks

A few undocumented ways to access files quickly, and customize the Active Desktop.

By TipWorld staff, edited by Paul Heltzel   

Getting to the Root of Things
If you%squotre working in IE4 and want to get to your hard disk%squots root folder, just type a backslash \ into the Address Bar and press Enter. To get back to the previous Web page (or folder), click the Back arrow.

Thanks to reader G.W. for this tip.

Customize Quick Launch
IE4%squots Active Desktop lets you open files, folders, and Web pages from your Taskbar with a single click. Simply drag items to the Quick Launch portion of the Taskbar (to the right of the Start menu) to add them.

Just as you can drag Shortcuts to Quick Launch on the Taskbar, you can remove them from Quick Launch by dragging them away from the Taskbar. To move a Shortcut to the desktop, for example, click it, then drag it to the desktop. You can delete a Quick Launch item by right-clicking its icon, then choosing Delete from the pop-up menu that appears.

One thing you can%squott do directly from the Quick Launch bar is rename a Shortcut. To do this, navigate to \Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, find the Shortcut, then select and rename it.

Double Your Pleasure
You may want to use some features of Active Desktop, but pass on one-click launching of programs and folders. If you prefer to double-click your desktop icons, open any folder and choose View, Folder Options. When the Folder Options dialog box opens, click the General tab. Now select the %dquotCustom, Based on Settings You Choose%dquot radio button. Next, click Settings. Under Active Desktop, select %dquotEnable All Web-Related Content on My Desktop.%dquot Move to %dquotClick Items as Follows%dquot and select %dquotDouble-Click to Open an Item%dquot (single-click to select). Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

A Reason to Upgrade
Several readers have complained that the Paste option is unavailable when they try to paste a file into the Favorites folder. Although you can%squott paste files into the History, Subscriptions, Tasks, or Downloaded Program Files folders, you should be able to do this with Favorites. This is a bug in IE4 that does not occur in Internet Explorer 4.01. You can download the most recent version of IE4 from Microsoft%squots site (see link at right).

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