If you'd like to make more room on your screen for viewing Web pages, you can turn off items you don't need. For example, if you seldom use the toolbar or the Address box, choose View|Toolbar. If you don't want to go quite so far as to remove the entire toolbar, you can save some space by moving the Address box up into the toolbar. To do this, double-click the Address box bar and on the second click drag the bar onto the toolbar. Now use the mouse to drag the Address box to the desired size.
Even if you set History to zero, files will still get stored in the History folder. The reason is that Microsoft Internet Explorer must download the Web page and any other files that are needed by the page. If you're a little short of disk space, don't worry--Microsoft Internet Explorer deletes the history files when you exit Explorer.
As you know, you can choose View|Options, click on the Navigation tab, and click on View History to see where you've been. To clear the entire history, all you have to do is click on Clear History, confirm your choice, and click on OK. You can also delete only portions of the history: Click on View History, and when the History window opens, select and delete the files you no longer need. When you finish, close the History window and click on OK in the Options dialog box.
You may notice that when you use a scroll arrow, scrolling will start out smooth, then get more jerky as you hold down the mouse button. The reason for this is that Microsoft Internet Explorer switches to a higher speed scrolling mode when you continue to hold down the scroll arrow. This isn't a bug, just the way it is. By the way, if you'd like to speed up all the scrolling, and don't mind the jerky effect, choose View|Options and click the Advanced tab. Now deselect the Use Smooth Scrolling check box and click Apply, then OK.
The first time you open Microsoft Internet Explorer, it asks if you want to make it your default browser. So you do. Then you load other software, and sometimes this other software loads a different browser. Now you get the question again. This happens because the other browser has made itself the default. Just click on Yes when asked and go ahead with your work. Check into the other software. Perhaps you can use Microsoft Internet Explorer rather than the browser that shipped with the program. If so, you can uninstall the other browser and go back to normal. If you can't designate Microsoft Internet Explorer as a permanent default for whatever reason, just keep insisting it's the default when asked.
In our previous tip, we explained how to add Notepad to Windows 95's Send To menu (right-click and drag Notepad.exe from the Windows folder to the Send To folder). Now that you've added Notepad to the Send To folder, you can quickly send a Web link to Notepad. All you have to do is pull down Internet Explorer's File menu, choose Send To, and then select Notepad. The link to the current page will appear in Notepad. You can use the same technique to send a link to a Floppy disk, e-mail, or the Briefcase.
Microsoft Internet Explorer comes with some predefined Quick Links. If you like, you can redefine the Quick Links to suit your own surfing habits. If your Quick Links aren't visible, move the mouse pointer over the bottom edge of the toolbar until it turns into a double arrow. Now use the mouse to drag downward and the Quick Links bar will appear. To add your own URL to a Quick Link, choose View|Options and click on the Navigation tab. Now click the down arrow at the right side of the Page list box to expand the list. Select (for example) Quick Link #1. Give it a name and type in the complete URL. Click on OK.