Automatic resizing of large images is a feature Microsoft built into Internet Explorer, and turned ON by default. In my opinion, when large images are scaled to fit the screen it can make them a little too distorted. Most of the time I find I end up just clicking the little resize image box in the lower right hand corner, this tells the browser to display the image as it was meant to be seen.

Luckily this is one feature which is super easy to turn off in Internet Explorer. To do this you need to open up Internet Explorer and go to Tools menu, from there select Internet Options. If you don’t see the File/Edit/View/Favorites/Tools/Help menu at all, just hit the ALT key once to bring it up.

Click on the Advanced tab and you should see a window with a lot of radio and check boxes. Scroll down to the "Multimedia Section" and from there un-check the "Enable Automatic Image Resizing" box. Click the Ok button and now you’re set. Images will no longer resize to fit in the Internet Explorer Window.

While you’re in there, you might want to also un-check "Play Sounds in Webpages". This stops background music from automatically playing on websites that have it embedded.

If you have upgraded to Internet Explorer version 7 recently, and encounter an issue where the program immediately exits when first loaded, it’s probably an issue with the IEProxy.dll file and Windows XP.

The fix is quite simple; go to “Start” -> “Run” then type “cmd” then press the “OK” button, that will open up a command prompt. From there navigate via the command prompt to the Internet Explorer directory (usually C:\Program Files\ Internet Explorer) and type “regsvr32 /s IEProxy.dll” (without the quotes) and press the enter key. That should fix the problem, to close the Command Prompt simply type “exit” and press the enter key. Internet Explorer 7 should now be fixed and that closing immediately after starting issue should be resolved.

By default Internet Explorer 7 has a search option at the top right hand corner of the browser. This embedded search tool makes quick work of the web, and for your convenience (and Microsoft’s coffers) is connected directly to Microsoft’s Live Search.

In case you’re not a fan of Microsoft‘s search engine, and we’re not particularly attached to it, you can change it to another search engine. To do this click on the triangle to the right of the search text box and select the “Find More Providers…” option. That will open up a new window and from there you have the following four search engine options “AOL”, “Ask.com”, “Google”, “Lycos.com” and “Yahoo!” Select the one you want, that will pop open a new “Add Search Provider” option remember to check the “Make this my default search provider” check box and then click the “Add Provider” option. Congratulations you’ve just changed IE7′s search provider and don’t have to use Microsoft Live Search anymore.

Alternatively, you can set the search box to go directly to just about any search box on any website, provided it meets certain criteria. While you’re still on the “find more providers…” page look for “Create Your Own” and follow the instructions posted there. FireFox has a similar set of options if you use that great browser.

One of my biggest qualms with Internet Explorer 7 is that allows you to only download two files from the same server at any given time. We can tweak this within the Windows registry. Here’s how you do that for IE7. Click the Windows Start button, type “regedit” and follow this path “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” -> “Software” -> “Microsoft” -> “Windows” -> “CurrentVersion” -> “Internet Settings“.

Double click on the “MaxConnectionsPerServer” option and change the decimal value to something larger than “2“. Then double click on the “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server” and again change its value to something larger than “2“. Once that’s done, reboot your computer and you’re all set. IE7 will allow you to download more than 2 files from the same server.

The method for IE7 when used in Windows XP is the same as in Windows Vista, if you’re using an older version of IE here’s what you have to do.

Load up the registry editor (Start -> Run then type regedit and press the OK button) and follow this path HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> CurrentVersion -> Internet Settings. From there edit the “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server” and “MaxConnectionsPerServer” DWORD values to anything greater than 2. Exit then reboot your computer and you’re set. Internet Explorer can now download more than 2 files from the same server from now on.

Data Execution Prevention is a very handy feature if you routinely surf in the shadier side of the internet. It can help stop the spread of spyware or virus attacks, but unfortunately for Internet Explorer 7 users who are running Microsoft Windows Vista, it’s disabled by default. To enable Data Execution Prevention load up internet properties (start IE7 then go to “Tools” -> “Internet Options“) then click the “Advanced” tab and scroll to the “Security” section. There you should find the “Enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks” checkbox. Check it, then click the OK button. Once that’s done you’ll have an extra layer of security when browsing the internet.