jeff's WebLog

If you are running Windows XP and want a cmd prompt with no strange environment variables set, do the following: CTRL + SHIFT + ESC ->File-> CTRL +New Task (Run...) This will open a cmd window with only the basics. This is useful if you have killed...

Today I have a mini-FAQ on Favicons. Q: How do I make a favicon appear for my site in IE7? A: There are two ways. The first is to put a file in the root of your domain called favicon.ico. The second is to use a <link> tag with the rel="shortcut...

These data files are used by Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer. You cannot delete a file that is in use by a running program. If you feel you need to delete the file, you will have to shutdown all instances of Explorer and IE. This includes applications...

When using IE, CTRL + ENTER is a very useful shortcut. It puts 'http://www' before the text in the address bar and '.com' at the end. So if I want to visit 'http://www.microsoft.com' all I have to do is type ALT + D , microsoft, CTRL + ENTER . But what...

why IE will only let you save as BMP...

I just noticed that my recent post on how to start and shutdown Explorer got a lot of hits. I was looking at the referer logs and it seems a lot of people have more questions about Explorer. I will answer some of them: Q: What is explorer.exe? A: Most...

Last week we shipped SP2 RC1 for Windows XP. This is a Release Candidate and it is not intended to be used in production environments. However, those of you who love to test things can check it out here . Those of you who are merely interested in screen...

I have been slacking in the posting department during my recent travels. RC2 shipped last week, while I was in NYC. Others have spoken about it. I will describe briefly what changed wrt pop-up blocker. But first a warning: everyday we have an internal...

...and why View->Source sometimes stops working. I had previously discussed this here . In that post I mentioned the reason for this was IE's cache was filling up. This brings up the question, "Why does the cache scavanger not kick in and do its job...

MSDN has had an article entitled Security Considerations: Dynamic HTML for a while. It is a good article, but it simply says what not to do. Everytime I run across it I promise myself I am going to write something more useful someday, something that says...

As I mentioned in Part I , index.dat files are used by various features of IE to keep track of URLs and associated information about URLs. The two primary consumers of these files are the Temporary Internet Files folder (TIF) and History. TIF uses an...

This question comes up frequently and generally the asker really means, “How can I prevent people from stealing the [content | script] from my Web site?” And there are a few things you can do to make it more difficult. You can add onContextMenu...

Frequently people are confused by the various dropdown quick-complete boxes in IE. Most people lump them all under the term "AutoComplete." There are actually several features in play, and today I will describe them all. Typed Urls Typed Urls appear...

Question: What is wrong with this code? case WM_DRAWITEM: { LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT pdis = (LPDRAWITEMSTRUCT) lParam; COMBOBOXEXITEM cbexItem = {0}; cbexItem.mask = CBEIF_IMAGE | CBEIF_SELECTEDIMAGE; cbexItem.iItem = pdis->itemID; CallWindowProc(pfnOldWndProc...

If you go poking around in [d]:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\History\, for example, you will find several index.dat files laying around. (Note: several of the directories that I listed in the path are hidden directories.) We (the...

I am a UI programmer. I work on the BrowserUI team. Of course, very little of my time is spent actually making UI--the buttons and toolbars and such. Adding a button takes a few minutes out of my week. Writing the code to implement whatever the button...

I started working on IE right after IE 5.5 shipped. Since then, there is one little feature which has been the subject of my loving attention from time to time-- setHomePage() . setHomePage() is implemented as a behavior in iepeers.dll. It takes one...

My roommate had a house guest over this weekend and I woke one morning to find her in the office attempting to use a computer currently busy showing football in full screen mode. She was grapling with the trackball, a device she was unfamiliar with. When...

I get a lot of e-mails from Internet Explorer users asking why they still get pop-ups even though they have turned on the Pop-up Blocker. Barring user error, there are three possible reasons discussed below. Note: I will discuss several Pop-up Blocker...

Q: Why does IE6 + XP SP2 block new windows launched from my onMouseDown handler? A: We wanted Pop-up Blocker to allow new windows launched as a result of a user initiated action. We defined 'user initiated action' as a click (or keypress). A click is...

ActiveX® controls frequently need to communicate with their containing object. For example, a control may want to QueryService for the cached InternetSecurityManager object to decide whether or not to take a particular action . Controls can obtain a pointer...

If you write an application that hosts the WebBrowser Control , and you want the control to do something, you can send commands to mshtml via the IOleCommandTarget interface. However, if you are an ActiveX control and you want to send CGID_MSHTML commands...

You're writing some code that uses COM. Do you use SmartPointers or not use SmartPointers? Debate on this topic flares up now and then. The trick to answering it is to seperate the technical facts from stubbornly held beliefs. Like any technology,...

I have returned from my Holiday holiday. I am back, hard at work on Internet Explorer the Next. I will, hopefully, have more interesting things to post soon. In the meantime, for those of you who may care, I present a brief summary of my Midwestern Wanderings...

I recommend everyone visit Windows Update and install this patch. Here is the security bulletin containing technical information about the patch. I will summarize it for you. This patch fixes a cross domain vulnerability that could allow LMZ script...