How to Speed Up Internet Explorer

This lesson explains how to speed up Internet Explorer and how to keep it running smoothly. There are a few things that you can do periodically to make IE run faster.

For enhanced security reasons it is important to download the latest Internet Explorer if you do not already have it. Internet Explorer 7 comes standard with Windows Vista, but if you run Windows XP, download Internet Explorer 7 here.

1. Delete your browsing history. Repeat this process at least every month:

• Open Internet Explorer
• Go to the "Tools" menu
• Go to "Delete Browsing History"
• Choose either "Delete all" at the bottom of the dialog, or selectively choose which items to delete
• Then a dialog asks you to confirm the deletion. On this dialog, check the box "Also delete files and settings stored by add-ons"
• Click OK

2. Change the browsing history settings:

• Open Internet Explorer
• Go to the "Tools" menu
• Select "Internet Options"
• In the "Browsing history" section, choose "Settings"
• Change the "Check for newer versions of stored pages" setting to "Automatically"
• Change the "Disk space to use" setting to 50 MB
• Change the "Days to keep pages in history" to 0
• Click OK

3. Check your add-ons. Repeat this process every month or so:

• Open Internet Explorer
• Go to the "Tools" menu
• Select "Manage Add-ons"—>"Enable or Disable Add-ons"
• You may see a list of Disabled Add-ons at the top with the Enabled Add-ons below. Select which add-ons you want to disable/enable (see the list below) and click OK

Add-Ons that Should Not Be Disabled

Add-ons that are unnecessary can be disabled. For instance, if you do not use the Yahoo! or Google toolbar, but they are enabled in your list of add-ons, you can speed up your web browser by disabling these items. However, there are some add-ons that you may need to view pdfs or videos, play games written in Java, etc. Here is a incomplete list (that I'll continue to update) of add-ons you should not disable:

• Shockwave Flash Object
• XML DOM Document
• Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper
• SSVHelper Class
• Sun Java Console