Manipulating IE Security Settings

Under the Tools pull down, click on Internet Options. Go to the Security tab.

Internet Explorer gives us four different "zones" to control web site content. These zones are Local Intranet, Trusted Sites, Restricted Sites, and Internet. We can use the combination to give us quite a bit of control over the what web sites are allowed to do when we surf to them.

The Local Intranet zone is meant for internal corporate web sites. Internet Explorer gives the Local zone very open permissions unless you change them. Put the Intranet URL in here, and then give it only those permissions it needs to run. If you're not using a corporate Intranet, then set the restrictions to their highest.

Why restrict permissions on a zone you're not even using? Because if someone manages to sneak a malware site into the corporate Intranet, or a virus programmer works out a way to exploit weaknesses in the Local zone, everyone who has wide open security settings becomes fair game.

Like the Local zone, the Trusted zone is also set to wide open by default. The only sites that should be listed in the Trusted zone are sites you trust completely-which are probably only those sites that you own and control. Again, if you're not using the Trusted Zone, you should set the security as high as it will go.

The Restricted Zone doesn't restrict your access to the sites, like some might think. Instead, it keeps any sites listed on very high security. There is a utility program that will even let you import a list of sites into the Restricted list.

The fourth and final zone is the Internet zone, and it is a catch-all for anything not already listed. By default, it sets security to Medium. Make sure to set ActiveX controls to Disable or Prompt, and your Internet Explorer security will be set the way it should.