Internet Explorer 8 is without doubt the best browser Microsoft has ever produced, but it still has a few problems.
In particular, you may find its performance tails off over time, pages can suddenly take ages to load, and you might even find it crashes unexpectedly.
The reason? Junk. Just as Windows slows down as it becomes clogged with leftover registry entries and unnecessary start-up programs, so Internet Explorer can become weighed down with unwanted toolbars, pointless plug-ins and other assorted rubbish.
But don't worry. All this trash may take months to build up, but in just a few minutes you can strip it all away, revitalising Internet Explorer 8 and restoring its original speedy performance.
1. Remove unwanted extensions
Click Tools > Manage add-ons to see the add-ons you've installed. If you spot anything you no longer need, click it and select Disable.
Do experiment – the worst that can happen is that some pages won't display properly, in which case you can simply re-enable the add-on and everything will be back to normal.
2. Remove Accelerators, too
Click Accelerators in the left-hand Add-on Types list. If you're sure you don't need one of these, click it and select Disable or Remove.
Click the Search Providers add-on type, remove any you don't like, and check Prevent programs from suggesting changes to my default search provider to keep current settings.
3. Download more
Download more files simultaneously. Launch Regedit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Internet Settings.
Double-click MaxConnections PerServer and MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server in the right-hand pane, select Decimal, set each to 10, then reboot your PC.
4. Save time
Some programs reconfigure Internet Explorer to check for a newer version of a web page every time you visit it, slowing down browsing.
To fix this, click Tools > Internet Options > Browsing History Settings and make sure Check for newer versions of stored pages is set to Automatically.
5. Configure the cache
Stay in the Browsing History Settings, and check that the cache Disk space to use value is set to the default 50MB.
If your PC has more than one hard drive, make sure your temporary files are stored on the fastest. Check the location path to see where they are, and click Move Folder to relocate them, if necessary.
6. Clean everything
Even when it's correctly configured, your IE8 cache may become corrupted. As a result, some pages may load slowly, or not at all, and the browser might crash.
Fortunately, this is easily fixed: click Tools > Delete Browsing History, check Temporary Internet Files, clear all the others, and click Delete.
7. Turn on Pop-up Blocker
Unwanted pop-ups sap your bandwidth, slowing down your browsing. Click Tools > Internet Options > Privacy and check Turn on Pop-up Blocker to keep them under control.
Then click Settings and check the sites that are allowed to display pop-ups. Select any that don't need to be on the list and click Remove.
8. The final step
Click Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings. Most home users don't need Automatically detect settings checked – it can cut performance.
Clear the box and reboot. Then you just need to sit back, relax and enjoy a smoother and faster browsing experience.
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First published in Windows: The Official Magazine Issue 40
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Your comments (8) Click to add a new comment
jojothehobo
May 8th 2010
8. I think you mean Internet Explorer 8 is by far the worst browser Microsoft has ever produced. Up until IE8 I could surf the net with IE as an afterthought. Lots of useful add ons, just about any settings.
Now I am continually messing with it to get it to go faster than 1kbs on a line that is clocked at 18mhz download. I have to optimize and pare it down every week. I run three anti virus programs every other day. I use Microsofts' own firewall. I've tried registry tweaks and Santaria. In short, nothing works. It takes five minutes to load a page. Your page loads half way and then stops for thirty seconds before the second half of the page loads.
This is simply impossible. IE 8 is slow and unstable. Anything will set it off. I am using VISTA 64 Ultimate on a quad core 8gb machine so I don't think it is my hardware.
Basically IE sucks. Since I am coming to rely on the internet, and even Firefox and opera are degraded in Windows, I have moved to Linux for daily internet and other operations. When I need file compatibility or something MS Office only can do or some other Windows software I'll use Micro pace.
Otherwise I'll use something that works. I'm going to reinstall Windows XP on an older machine and see how that works. It used to work pretty well.
My own take is that Microsoft has sold it's soul to the Media industry and has so many checks and stops in the fear that maybe someone will be downloading a song. Perhaps corporate security is part of this game. I can assure you consumers aren't and until there is a consumer operating system, not a stripped down operating system, but a system that is robust, fast and doesn't need service twice per day. I wouldn't be surprised to see China or India come out with an operating system that works and wipes MS out. Apple could, but they have a different business model.
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tech89
March 13th 2010
7. IE became way too cluttered with toolbars. It also became slow.
A good browser should allow maximum screen space with minimum toolbar space. Clutter free, simple, fast.
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bradavon
March 10th 2010
6. You FORGOT one of the biggest IE slowdowns:
* Uninstall browser toolbars.
If you really must use one, stick to ONE. One PC I used once had six installed, taking more space than the actual browser window.
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bradavon
March 10th 2010
5. p.s - Safari is rubbish on Windows, not much better than IE frankly. Firefox, Opera or Chrome are excellent though.
Sadly you cannot disable IE, some sites simply work the best using it.
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bradavon
March 10th 2010
4. "Internet Explorer 8 is without doubt the best browser Microsoft has ever produced, but it still has a few problems."
It really, really isn't. That's IE7. IE8 is so slow and clunky. The Accelerators are nice but not enough reason to upgrade.
I do however as I rarely use IE and it's best to have the most secure version of any web browser. I use IE so rarely I can live with it's rubbishness.
Firefox (for techies, customisation) and Chrome (for newbies, very good "out of the box") are the way to go.
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shambolic2000
March 10th 2010
3. @calcio
I was going to say exactly the same thing!
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jelmer
March 10th 2010
2. 1. Install a recent standard compliant browser:
Firefox, Safari, Chromium, Chrome, Opera.
1. Disable Internet Explorer.
3. Don't look back.
4. Have lots and lots of speed and compatibility improvements.
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calcio
March 10th 2010
1. 1) Install Google Chrome
2) see 1)
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