Just sharing some hacks I used for a logon script that I created for Internet explorer. Most of the hacks were using registry key, which is pretty simple as long as you know where the keys are.
Change Home Page
To set the home page for IE can’t be easier. For example setting google.com as home page you do this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain] "Start Page"="http://www.google.com"
Change Search Provider
There are two parts to this one, first is adding Google as a search provider option, second is making Google the default search provider.
Each search provider installed has a unique search scope identifier, for example, the one for google is {523578E1-643D-43BB-8840-A021BF2B23AB}.
In this example I am adding google as a search provider option and making it default search provider.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearchScopes{523578E1-643D-43BB-8840-A021BF2B23AB}] "DisplayName"="Google" "URL"="http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerms}&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:{language}:{referrer:source}&ie={inputEncoding?}&oe={outputEncoding?}" "ShowSearchSuggestions"=dword:00000001 "SuggestionsURL"="http://clients5.google.com/complete/search?q={searchTerms}&hl=en-gb&gl=gb&client=ie8&mw={ie:maxWidth}&sh={ie:sectionHeight}&rh={ie:rowHeight}&inputencoding={inputEncoding}&outputencoding={outputEncoding}" "OSDFileURL"="http://www.iegallery.com/en-gb/AddOns/DownloadAddOn?resourceId=14045" "FaviconURL"="http://www.google.com/favicon.ico" "FaviconPath"="C:\Users\oliang\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Services\search_{523578E1-643D-43BB-8840-A021BF2B23AB}.ico" [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerSearchScopes] "DefaultScope"="{523578E1-643D-43BB-8840-A021BF2B23AB}" "DownloadRetries"=dword:00000000 "ShowSearchSuggestionsInAddressGlobal"=dword:00000001 "KnownProvidersUpgradeTime"=hex:7d,ba,31,91,e7,65,ce,01 "Version"=dword:00000003 "UpgradeTime"=hex:09,5f,ee,b3,e4,65,ce,01 Internet Security Settings for the Four Zones
The Registry Key for this is located in
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZones
There are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 sub folders within this folder. Each Folder keeps different settings for different zones:
- 0 – Computer
- 1 – Local Intranet
- 2 – Trusted Site
- 3 – Internet
- 4 – Restricted Sites
Easiest thing to do is setup whatever settings you need, and export the corresponding zone folder. To load the settings for that zone you just need to run that registry key file. Easy!
To add a website / domain to a particular zone, like “Trustted Site Zone”, you add the URL / domain to the zones first, then export this registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZoneMap
For example to add news.bbc.co.uk as Trusted Site
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZoneMapDomains] @="" [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZoneMapDomainsbbc.co.uk] [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet SettingsZoneMapDomainsbbc.co.uknews] "http"=dword:00000002
Turn On / Off Tool Bar, Favorites Bar, Status Bar
This one is even easier, they are all in the same registry folder, this is the key values for turnning them all on:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMINIE] "ShowStatusBar"=dword:00000001 "LinksBandEnabled"=dword:00000001 "AlwaysShowMenus"=dword:00000001
ShowStatusBar is status bar obviously, LinkBandEnabled is the favorites bar, and AlwaysShowMenus is the toolbar. To turn them off, change values to 0.
Running Registry Key Files In Batch Script
You can run a registry key file using this command:
regedit -s \xxx.xxx.xxx.xxxscriptstest.reg
4 comments
Hi Oscar,
Thanks for giving me the solution to change internet settings. but am not getting clarity my requirement i want to enable JavaScript in ie10 how to achieve this task my using registry key plz give me the solution
I would like to know how to change the registry settings to batch change the security settings. I want to change the Trusted Sites and Intranet to a custom level; where the user authentication is set to use current user name and password. Can you help me with this?
have you achieved this, as i am trying to accomplish the same task
Hi Oscar,
Good post. I am looking at writing a batch file to add a intranet site and then set it as the default provider. Your post is very useful.
I just wondered, If you are adding Google as a search provider option using this script then how did you know the search identifier was {523578E1-643D-43BB-8840-A021BF2B23AB} in the registry before you added it?
Cheers.