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Steps to resolve common internet browsing issues
More often than not when browsing the internet and things just don’t work right and you receive errors it’s usually a simple quick fix that can make everything work smoother and much more reliable.
Here we’ll try to capture them all in one repository and act as a catch all one stop shop for your browsing issue.
The main culprit when it comes to problems is add-ons or plugins. Different browsers will call them different things. For the sake of this document what should we say? Addins? Plugons? Neither sounds right. Let’s go with plugins as that seems to be the more common term of the two. Just know that if you hear about browser add-ons they are not different than plugins and each should be treated like the other.
Plugins cause problems with browsing because they are developed and created by third party developers. They are then tested by third party developers and are not tested against compatibility against other plugins and all websites. Since there is so many variables and it’s such an unknown if you call Microsoft, or any other company that supports a product that supports plugins they’ll want you to disable and remove plugins to take them out of the picture and to rule them out as a factor.
To remove the plugins in Internet Explorer we go to Tools and from there you are going to see Manage Add-ons. From there you are going to see this screen
It defaults to Currently loaded add-ons which is what we want and you'll see the add-ons that are installed with the browser. Some add-ons you may know are there because you wanted while some of them are sneaky ninjas that find themselves there while installing software on your computer. These are usually not malware or anything like that, but instead that one option you didn't check when installing your favorite programs.
You'll notice next to each add-on name is the publisher and status. The first key area is the publisher, if the add-on is from a publisher you don't know or trust, the best recommendation is to disable it and remove it. If all the add-ons are from trusted developers and are safe we still want to disable them to run Internet Explorer in a stock state. After we put this change into place we need to reboot Internet Explorer to see if the changes helped. If not we need to try other options.
Next we need to look at the cache (pronounced cash, but not as exciting). The cache stores pages you visit on the web and it's intent is to save a "copy" or cache of this page so that the next time you visit the page it's faster and loads quicker. Great in theory and usually great in concept, sometimes it just breaks. Along with that cache your computer has cookies. Cache and cookies, this is going to be great! No!
Cookies store information about the site you visit and help you plug that information back in. This will include user names, shopping cart data, selections in forms, and authentication data. Bad cookies (you know, over cooked) can cause the computer pages to not respond properly or give poor results. With that being said let's go into our Internet Explorer settings and delete the cache and cookies.
We'll do this by going to Tools and Internet Options. Here you are going to see Browsing History and two buttons, we want the delete button. When you do you are going to see a screen similar to this one
You want the options checked that we are getting rid of (usually the default of everything is what is best) and obliterate them from your computer by pressing that Delete button. Restart Internet Explorer and see how the things work. If we are still having problems there is a slightly more drastic although effective approach we can take with issues.
Starting over from scratch. Almost every program has a restore to default settings. Why do they have this? Because there are so many settings and as users we like to poke and prod and change things up. Sometimes altering things so much that they don't work right and we didn't write those settings down so there is no telling what they originally where. To fix, uninstall / reinstall. Great, now I have to remember my settings again. To alleviate this we smartened up and added the option to restore back to defaults and IE is no different.
If you need to restore all your IE settings back to the way they were when Microsoft packaged it up and sent it to you then you will want to go to Tools, Internet Options, and then click on that Advanced tab.
As a side note, I always feel a little smarter when I look at the advanced tab or advanced options of programs, makes me feel proud that I "have" to go there.
Anyways, when we get to that screen we are going to see this
Press that reset button, restart Windows and presto we are back at a virgin state of IE. Beautiful isn't it.
