Friday, August 24, 2012

Web Browser Configuration Settings

Best viewing of any website requires optimized browser configuration and cache settings. Most common web browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera . From a performance as well as security standpoint, it is advisable to use the latest available versions of web browsers. For web browser configuration, the key point to note is the type and version of the browser we plan to use.

Configuring browser settings for optimal performance includes enabling JavaScript and cookies, installing add-ons, QuickTime ActiveX control  and Pop-up blocker, and deleting temporary files at regular intervals. To run any browser configuration utility, you need a minimum of two types of information:

1.    The host name of the proxy server
2.    The port used by the proxy server to accept requests



We can carry out browser configuration in more than one way. Every browser has its own browser configuration settings; below, we have described those for Internet Explorer in brief:

Web Configuration for Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher
Enable/Disable Pop-ups

Pop-ups are often used for better display. If pop-ups are blocked or not allowed, the web browser may not display full content or may look very awkward. But sometimes pop-ups may come up with a few ads which may be annoying to users. So, pop-ups may need to be disabled at times.

First, go to ‘Tools’, then click ‘Internet Options’ and go to the ‘Privacy’ tab. You need to check the option ‘Turn on pop-up blocker’. Then press OK to close the window. To enable pop-ups, you need to uncheck the ‘Turn on pop-up blocker’ option.

Cookie Enabling

When a user surfs websites or transmits information via a browser, some bits of data related to their browsing, called cookies, are saved on the browser. If the user visits the same website sometime in the future, this data available in the cookie will be accessed by the browser. Cookies keep records that may contain previous login information, clicks on specified buttons, form information and information on previously visited pages. Moreover, cookies cannot carry malware or any virus to other computers.

To enable cookies for your browser, carry on the following steps:

First of all go to ‘Tools’, then click ‘Internet Options’, followed by the ‘Privacy’ tab. Now click the ‘Advanced’ button. Here, you need to check the option ‘Override Automatic Cookie Handling’ and adjust the settings as ‘Accept’. Then you need to check ‘Allow session cookies’ and then click OK to complete.

Erase Existing Cookies

In order to increase the speed of the PC, you need to erase the cookie information. It also frees up the disk space consumed by cookies. This improves the performance of the browser as well.

For this purpose, first go to ‘Tools’ and click on ‘Internet Options’. Within ‘Browsing History’, press the ‘Delete’ button and ensure to select ‘Cookies’. Then click on OK to complete the procedure. All the unwanted cookies will be deleted. It increases the performance of the PC and speeds it up.

Summary

Web Configuration is a major thing to know for all the internet users. As there are numerous browsers, all of them have different browser configuration settings although the end result is the same. Browser config helps users browse the web smoothly and increase the performance of their PC.

2 comments:

  1. Nice Blog to read! Very informative. It helps me a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I appreciate what you say. But you have not written on Firefox. Please write on others as well!

    ReplyDelete