To drive around the Internet superhighway, you need a good vehicle. A browser is a program that you can use to get around the Internet, and Internet Explorer (IE) is one of the best.

IE is built into Windows Vista because it’s made by Microsoft, so the Microsoft folks can put it anywhere they like. This is good news for you because by using IE you can

➟ Navigate all around the Web. Use the IE navigation features to jump from one site to another, go back to places you’ve been (via the Favorites and History features), and search for new places to visit.

➟ Download files to your computer or print. When you find what you want online, such as a graphic image or free software program, you might want to save it to your computer for future use. Do you need a hard copy of what you’ve found? Just use the Print feature of IE.

➟ Protect yourself. The Internet is a bit dangerous — a place where some people try to get at your private information and make nefarious use of it. IE provides privacy settings and special features to control the use of cookies (small files that folks who run Web sites insert on your hard drive to help them track your online activities). You can use the Content Advisor to limit the online locations that your computer can visit.

Navigate the Web

1. Open IE by clicking the Internet Explorer icon on the Quick Launch portion of the Windows Vista taskbar.

2. Enter a Web site address in the Address bar and then press Enter.

3. On the resulting Web site, click a link, display another page on the site, or enter another address to proceed to another page.

A link can be an icon or text. A text link is identifiable by colored text, usually blue or purple. After you click a link, it usually changes color to show that it’s been followed.

4. Click the Back button to move back to the first page that you visited. Click the Forward button to go forward to the second page that you visited.

5. Click the down-pointing arrow at the far right of the Address bar to display a list of sites that you visited recently.. Click a site in this list to go there.

The Refresh and Stop buttons on the right end of the Address bar are useful for navigating sites. Clicking the Refresh button redisplays the current page. This is especially useful if a page updates information frequently, such as on a stock market site. You can also use the Refresh button if a page doesn’t load correctly; it might load correctly when refreshed. Clicking the Stop button stops a page that’s loading. So, if you made a mistake entering the address, or if the page is taking longer than you’d like to load, click the Stop button to halt the process. You can use the Pop-Up Blocker to stop annoying pop-up ads as you browse. Click the Tools menu button and choose Pop-up Blocker➪ Turn On Pop-up Blocker to activate this feature. You can also use the Pop-up Blocker Settings command on this same menu to specify sites on which you want to allow pop-ups.

Search the Web

1. Open IE and click in the Live Search pane on the toolbar.

2. Enter a search term in the text box and then click Search.

3. In the resulting Windows Live list of links, click a link to go that Web page. If you don’t see the link that you need, click and drag the scrollbar to view more results.

4. Click a tab along the top of the search results to see different types of results: for example, news stories or images related to your search term.

5. Click the Options link at the top of the Search window to change Live Search settings.

6. In the resulting Search Settings dialog box, select options such as the following, and then click Save to apply the new settings:

• SafeSearch: These options let you set filtering of search results at three levels: Strict, which filters out most inappropriate content; Moderate, which filters out only certain types of content; and Off, which turns off filtering for searches.

• Results: Select one of these options to determine whether results are opened in the current browser window or whether Windows Live opens a new browser window.

Knowing how search engines work can save you time. For example, if you search by entering golden retriever, you typically get sites that contain both words or either word. If you put a plus sign between these two keywords (golden+retriever), you get only sites that contain both words.

Find Content on a Web Page

1. With IE open and the Web page that you want to search displayed, click the arrow on the Search box and choose Find on This Page.

2. In the resulting Find dialog box, enter the word that you want to search for. Use the following options to narrow your results:

• Match Whole Word Only: Select this option if you want to find only the whole word (for example, if you enter elect and want to find only elect and not electron or electronics).

• Match Case: Select this option if you want to match the case (for example, if you enter Catholic and want to find only the always-capitalized religion and not the adjective catholic).

3. Click the Next button. The first instance of the word is highlighted on the page. If you want to find another instance, click the Next button again. Click the Previous button to move back to the last match.

4. When you’re done searching, click the Close button in the Find dialog box.

Many Web sites, such as www.Amazon.com, have a Search This Site feature that allows you to search not only the displayed Web page but all Web pages on a Web site. Look for a Search text box and make sure that it searches the site — and not the entire Internet.

Set Up a Home Page

1. Open IE and choose Tools➪Internet Options.

2. In the resulting Internet Options dialog box, on the General tab, enter a Web site address to use as your home page. Note that you can enter several home pages that will appear on different tabs every time you open IE. Alternatively, click one of the following preset option buttons:

• Use Current: Sets whatever page is currently displayed in the browser window as your home page.

• Use Default: This setting sends you to the MSN Web page.

• Use Blank: If you’re a minimalist, this setting is for you. No Web page displays; you just see a blank area.

3. Click OK.

4. Click the Home Page icon to go to your home page.

If you want to have more than one home page, you can create multiple home page tabs that will display when you click the Home button. Click the arrow on the Home button and choose Add or Change Home Page. In the Add or Change Home Page dialog box that appears, click the Add this page to your home page tabs radio button, and then click Yes. Display other sites and repeat this procedure for all the home page tabs you want.

To remove a home page you have set up, click the arrow on the Home Page button and choose Remove and then choose a particular home page, or choose Remove All from the sub menu that appears.

Add a Web Site to Favorites

1. Open IE, enter the URL of a Web site that you want to add to your Favorites list, and then click Go (the button with blue arrows on it to the right of the Address bar.

2. Click the Add to Favorites button and then choose Add to Favorites.

3. In the resulting Favorites Center dialog box, modify the name of the Favorite listing to something easily recognizable. If you wish, choose another folder or create a folder to store the Favorite in.

4. Click Add to add the site.

5. Click the Favorites Center button and then click the name of the site from the list that’s displayed to go to that site.

Regularly cleaning out your Favorites list is a good idea — after all, do you really need the sites that you used to plan last year’s vacation? With the Favorites Center displayed, right-click any item and then choose Delete or Rename to modify the favorite listing. You can keep the Favorites Center as a side pane in Internet Explorer by displaying it and then clicking the Pin the Favorites Center button (it has a left-facing green arrow on it and is located to the right of the History button).

Organize Favorites

1. With Internet Explorer open, click the Add to Favorites button and then choose Organize Favorites.

2. In the resulting Organize Favorites dialog box, click the New Folder, Move, Rename, or Delete buttons to organize your favorites.

3. When you finish organizing your Favorites, click Close. These steps provide a handy way to manage several sites or folders, but you can also organize favorite sites one by one by using the Favorites pane. (You display the Favorites pane by clicking the Favorites button.) Right-click any favorite site listed in the pane and choose a command: Create New Folder, Delete, Rename, or Sort by Name, for example.

If you create new folders in the above steps, then you will have to manually transfer files into those folders. To do this just display the Favorites Center and click and drag files listed there on top of folders.

Work with Tabs

1. With Internet Explorer open, click New Tab (the smallest tab on the far right of the tabs).

2. A new tab appears, which displays some information about tabs. Enter a URL in the Address bar. The URL opens in that tab. You can then click other tabs to switch among sites.

3. Click the Quicktabs button (it consists of four little squares on the far left of the tabs) to display a thumbnail of all open tabs, or click the Tab List button (the arrow to the right of the Quicktabs button) to display a text list of tabs.

4. Close an active tab by clicking the Close button on the right.

A tabis a sort of window you can use to view any number of sites. You don’t have to create a new tab to go to another site. Having the ability to keep a few tabs open at a time means you can more quickly switch between two or more sites without navigating back and forth either with the Previous or Next buttons or by entering URLs. You can also create more than one Home Page tab that can appear every time you open IE. See the task “Set Up a Home Page” for more about this. You can also press Ctrl+T to open a new tab in Internet Explorer. Also, if you want to keep one tab open and close all others, right-click the tab you want to keep open and choose Close Other Tabs.

View Your Browsing History

1. Click the Favorites Center button and then click History to display the History pane.

2. Click the down-arrow on the History button and select a sort method:

• By Date: Sort favorites by date visited.

• By Site: Sort alphabetically by site name.

• By Most Visited: Sort with the sites visited most on top and those visited least at the bottom of the list.

• By Order Visited Today: Sort by the order in which you visited sites today.

3. In the History pane, you can click a site to go to it. The History pane closes.

You can also choose the arrow on the right of the Address bar to display sites you’ve visited.

Choose Search History on the History menu to display a search box you can use to search for sites you’ve visited.

Customize the Internet Explorer Toolbar

1. Open IE.

2. Click Tools➪Toolbars➪Customize. The Customize Toolbar dialog box appears.

3. Click a tool on the left and then click the Add button to add it to the toolbar.

4. Click a tool on the right and then click the Remove button to remove it from the toolbar.

5. When you’re finished, click Close to save your new toolbar settings. The new tools appear; click the double-arrow button on the right of the toolbar to display any tools that IE can’t fit onscreen.

You can use the Move Up and Move Down buttons in the Customize Toolbar dialog box to rearrange the order in which tools appear on the toolbar. To reset the toolbar to defaults, click the Reset button in that same dialog box.

If you want to add some space between tools on the toolbar so they’re easier to see, click the Separator item in the Available Toolbar Buttons list and add it before or after a tool button.

Download Files

1. Open a Web site that contains downloadable files. Typically Web sites offer a Download button or link that initiates a file download.

2. Click the appropriate link to proceed. Windows Vista might display a dialog box asking your permission to proceed with the download; click Yes.

3. In the resulting File Download dialog box, choose either option:

• Click Run to download to a temporary folder. You can run an installation program for software, for example. However, beware: If you run a program directly from the Internet, you could be introducing dangerous viruses to your system. You might want to set up an antivirus program to scan files before downloading them.

• Click Save to save the file to your hard drive. In the Save As dialog box, select the folder on your computer or removable storage media (a CD-ROM, for example) where you want to save the file. If you’re downloading software, you need to locate the downloaded file and click it to run the installation.

If you’re worried that a particular file might be unsafe to download (for example, if it’s from an unknown source and, being an executable file type, could contain a virus), click Cancel in the File Download dialog box.

If a particular file will take a long time to download (the Windows Vista beta version took me over 20 hours!) you may have to babysit it. If your computer goes into standby it could pause the download. If your computer automatically downloads updates it may cause your computer to restart automatically as well, cancelling or halting your download. Check in periodically to keep things moving along.

Change Privacy Settings

1. With IE open, choose Tools➪Internet Options and click the Privacy tab.

2. Click the slider and drag it up or down to make different levels of security settings.

3. Read the choices and select a setting that suits you.

4. Click the Sites button to specify sites to always or never allow the use of cookies. In the resulting Per Site Privacy Actions dialog box, enter a site in the Address of Website box and click either Block or Allow.

5. Click OK twice to save your new settings. The default setting, Medium, is probably a good bet for most people. To restore the default setting, click the Default button in the Internet Options dialog box Privacy tab or use the slider to move back to Medium.

You can also use pop-up blocker settings on the Privacy tab to specify which pop-up windows to allow or block. Just click the Settings button, enter a Web site name, and then click Add to allow pop-ups.

Enable the Content Advisor

1. With IE open, choose Tools➪Internet Options.

2. In the resulting Internet Options dialog box, click the Content tab to display it.

3. Click the Enable button. (Note: If there is no Enable button but Disable and Settings buttons instead, Content Advisor is already enabled. Click the Settings button to see the options and make changes if you wish.)

4. On the Ratings tab of the Content Advisor dialog box, click one of the categories (such as Depiction of Drug Use) and then move the slider to use one of three site screening settings: None, Limited, or Unrestricted.

5. Repeat Step 4 for each of the categories.

6. Click the Approved Sites tab and enter the name of a specific site that you want to control access to. Then click Always or Never.

• Always allows users to view the site, even if it’s included in the Content Advisor screening level you’ve set.

• Never means that nobody can visit the site even if it’s acceptable to Content Advisor.

7. When you finish making your settings, click OK twice to save them.

If you want to view sites that you don’t want others to see, you can do that, too. On the General tab of the Content Advisor dialog box, make sure that the Supervisor Can Type a Password to Allow Viewers to View Restricted Content check box is selected, and then click Create Password. In the dialog box that appears, enter the password, confirm it, and then enter a hint and click OK. Now if you’re logged on as the system administrator, you can get to any restricted site by using this password.

View RSS Feeds

1. Click the Favorites Center button; then click the Feeds button to display a list of recently displayed RSS Feeds.

2. Click a Feed to display it.

3. You can also click the View Feeds on This Page button on the toolbar to view any active feeds listed on the currently displayed page.

The View Feeds on This Page button is grayed out when there are no RSS feeds on the current page, and it turns Red when feeds are present.

Though Internet Explorer has an RSS feed reader built in, you can explore other feed readers. Just type “RSS feeds” into Internet Explorer’s Search box to find more information and listings of readers and RSS feed sites.

Print a Web Page

1. If a Web page includes a link or button to print or display a print version of a page, click that and follow the instructions.

2. If the page doesn’t include a link for printing, click the Print button on the IE toolbar.

3. In the resulting Print dialog box, decide how much of the document you want to print and then select one of the options in the Page Range area. Note that choosing Current Page or entering page numbers in the Pages text box of the Print dialog box doesn’t mean much when printing a Web page — the whole document might print because Web pages aren’t divided into pages as word processing documents are.

4. Click the up arrow in the Number of Copies text box to print multiple copies. If you want multiple copies collated, select the Collate check box.

5. When you adjust all settings you need, click Print.