Internet Explorer 6.0 Registry Settings
The registry stores information necessary to configure the system for applications and hardware devices. The registry also contains information that the operating system continually references during operation. The registry settings in these sections are the default settings. For a description of user agent and authentication support settings for Internet Explorer, see WinInet Registry Settings.
Base Registry Settings
Base registry settings for the Internet Explorer browser are stored in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main key.
Note The default registry values vary depending on which features are included in your platform. For more information, see Default Registry Settings.
The following table shows some of the settings that are available. The device manufacturer sets the actual registry values for a particular platform.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| StartPage : REG_SZ | The URL for the default browser start page. |
| SearchPage: REG_SZ | The URL for the default browser search page. |
| NoNewWindows : REG_DWORD | Default setting is 0. If set to 1, this entry blocks the window.open event. In this case a new window event will become an in-place navigation event and a window.close event will instead execute a back command. |
| SBSizeV : REG_DWORD | Default setting is the system metric value SM_CXVSCROLL, which can be obtained by calling the GetSystemMetrics function. Sets the width of the vertical scrollbar. The valid range is 0 - 400. Setting the value to 0 hides the scrollbar. |
| SBSizeH : REG_DWORD | Default setting is the system metric value SM_CYHSCROLL, which can be obtained by calling the GetSystemMetrics function. Sets the height of the horizontal scrollbar. The valid range is 0 - 400 pixels. Setting the value to 0 hides the scrollbar. |
| StackRes : REG_DWORD | The size of the stack. Default setting is 40000. |
| Error Dlg Displayed On Every Error : REG_SZ | Default setting is "no". This disables the JScript error dialog in the browser, allowing the JScript engine to ignore errors and continue running. |
| Use_DlgBox_Colors : REG_SZ | Default setting is "no". |
| Anchor Underline : REG_SZ | Default setting is "no". |
| SmoothScroll : REG_DWORD | Default setting is 0. |
| Anchors jump on accesskey : REG_DWORD | Default setting is 0 and pressing ALT+<accesskey> selects the specified link. When set to 1, the access key combination navigates to the linked page. |
User Colors and Fonts
The following settings in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Settings key set user color and font preferences for the browser.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| Anchor Color : REG_SZ | Default setting is "0,0,255", which represents the color blue. |
| Anchor Color Visited : REG_SZ | Default setting is "128,0,128", which represents the color purple. |
| Background Color : REG_SZ | Default setting is "255,255,255", which represents the color white. |
| Text Color : REG_SZ | Default setting is "0,0,0", which represents the color black. |
| Always Use My Colors : REG_DWORD | If set to 1, the browser ignores colors specified on Web pages in favor of user preferences. (Accessibility option.) |
| Always Use My Font Face : REG_DWORD | If set to 1, the browser ignores font styles specified on Web pages in favor of user preferences. (Accessibility option.) |
| Always Use My Font Size : REG_DWORD | If set to 1, the browser ignores font sizes specified on Web pages in favor of user preferences. (Accessibility option.) |
User Styles
The following settings in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Styles key set user style preferences for the browser.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| Use My Stylesheet : REG_DWORD | If set to 1, the browser ignores styles specified on Web pages in favor of user preferences. (Accessibility option.) |
| User Stylesheet : REG_SZ | Specifies the location of the user's style sheet, for example, "file:///Windows/mystyle.css". (Accessibility option.) |
View Source
The following setting in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ViewSourceEditor key enables source-code viewing. To use this feature, the user should type the following command in the address bar of the browser:
view-source:http://<url>
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| Editor Name : REG_SZ | The name of the text editor to use, for example, "pword.exe". |
Thread Priorities
The following settings in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ThreadPriority\MSHTML key set thread priorities for MSHTML function calls.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| base : REG_DWORD | The thread priority for the main thread. The default is 251 (thread priority normal). |
| stride : REG_DWORD | The thread priority for the download thread, which is the base+stride. |
The following setting in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\WININET key sets thread priorities for WinInet function calls.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| base : REG_DWORD | The thread priority for the main thread. The default is 251 (thread priority normal). |
Cache Size Limits
The following settings in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\Cache registry key and subkeys specify initial cache limits, in kilobytes.
| [Subkey\]Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| Signature : REG_SZ | "Client UrlCache MMF Ver 4.7" |
| QuotaAdjustCheck : REG_DWORD | Default setting is 00000001, which represents the minimum cache size of 256 KB. If this entry is not in the registry, the initial cache limit is 8192 KB. |
| Content\CachePrefix : REG_SZ | "Content:" |
| Content\CacheLimit : REG_DWORD | Default setting is 00000200, which represents a cache size of 512 KB. For example, to change the cache size to 4096 KB, change the value to 00001000 (4096 hex). The upper limit is determined by the amount of free space on the device. |
| Cookies\CachePrefix : REG_SZ | "Cookie:" |
| Cookies\CacheLimit : REG_DWORD | Default setting is 00000100, which represents a cache size of 256 KB. |
| History\CachePrefix : REG_SZ | "Visited:" |
| History\CacheLimit : REG_DWORD | Default setting is 00000100, which represents a cache size of 256 KB. |
Cache Configuration
The following setting in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ registry key specifies when the browser should check for updated Web pages.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| SyncMode5 : REG_DWORD | Default value is 00000004, which instructs the browser to automatically check for updated Web pages. Other valid values are:
0: Never check for updates (always use cached page). 2: Check for updates once per session. 3: Always check for updates. |
Image Cache Limits
The following settings in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Image Caching key specify cache limits for downloaded images. Increasing these values gives improved performance but uses more RAM.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| Cache Size : REG_DWORD | The size of the image cache, in bytes. Default setting is 1048576 (1024KB). Doubling the cache size increases performance when displaying images. |
| Item Size : REG_DWORD | The maximum size of each cached item. Default setting is 131072 (128KB). |
| Max Items : REG_DWORD | Number of cache entries. Default setting is 128. |
Glyph Cache Size
The following setting in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GDI\GLYPHCACHE key sets the size of the glyph cache.
| Value : type | Description |
|---|---|
| Limit : REG_DWORD | The maximum size of the glyph cache. Default setting is 00004000 (16KB). Doubling the cache size to 00008000 (32KB) can improve the rate at which text is rendered. |
See Also
Last updated on Thursday, April 08, 2004
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