To access the following screen click the icon in the top right corner and choose Internet options

To access the options page move your mouse pointer to the top or bottom right corner (or swipe in from the right of the screen if using a tablet) to display the Charms Bar, and click Settings > Options

More settings relating to privacy (cookie, tracking and location settings) and safety (smartscreen) can be found by choosing Settings > Privacy from the Charms Bar

You will often see the Notification Bar appear across the bottom of the web content you are trying to view, this appears for various reasons - the most common of which are covered below:-

When visiting a website that requires an additional plug-in to display content - you can then click Install to continue

Common examples of this would be Adobe Flash Player and Java

If content on a website is blocked for security reasons it will prompt you to choose if you wish to allow the blocked content

And finally when you try to download a file from a website it will prompt you to choose if you wish to run the file, save it in your downloads folder or cancel the download

If the download is not recognized then the notification bar will turn red and give you alternative options

SmartScreen Filter is a service provided with Internet Explorer 9 to protect you from Phishing sites (sites designed to pretend to be something else like your Bank website which are trying to get your personal details etc) and also from websites that contain viruses or malware

If the SmartScreen Filter is active and you attempt to visit a website that isn't considered safe, this screen will appear advising you not to visit this website

Browse the web without saving your history with Internet Explorer InPrivate Browsing

Now you can shop for that special gift knowing your family won't accidentally find out what websites you have visited, or you can use a shared computer to browse the internet without leaving a trace

This works by preventing Internet Explorer from storing data about your browsing session. This includes cookies, temporary Internet files, history, and other data

Toolbars and extensions are disabled by default

To use InPrivate Browsing click Tools > Safety > InPrivate Browsing

Favorites allows you to add websites you visit regularly to a list so that you can easily access them again at a later date
 
To access your favorites list click the button and you will see the dialog shown below

From here you can browse through your favorites, feeds and view the history of websites you have visited recently

You can also click Add to favorites to add the current page to your list, or click the drop down arrow for further options such as adding all currently open tabs to your favorites, import and exporting favorites and the ability to organize your favorites (as shown below) where you can rename, move, delete and organize favorites into folders

Download Manager lists the files you have downloaded from the Internet

To open the download manager click on the Tools button and choose View downloads

From here you can see all your recent downloads, where they are stored and it also allows you to run or open any downloaded files, as well as being able to click Options to change the default location that they are stored

When you click the New Tab button (as shown below) a new tab will open showing the ten websites you visit the most

If this feature is not enabled then you can turn it on via Tools > Tabs, and set When a new tab is opened, open: to The new tab page

You can then revisit any of these websites by clicking the relevant link or you can click the x icon to remove the site from the list

Show tabs on a separate row

To show your tabs on a separate row below the address bar (as shown) which is handy if you often have lots of tabs open as it gives more space to display the tabs, right click on a tab and select Show tabs on a separate row

Open a copied URL quickly

If you have copied a website address (URL) to your clipboard from another application you can now quickly open it in Internet Explorer by right clicking and choosing Go to copied address

Additional menu options

To show the additional menu options (File, Edit etc) as shown above press the key

Search in the Address bar

As well as being able to type the URL of the website you wish to visit in the address bar, you can also type what you would like to search for and suggestions will appear in the drop down box (as shown)

Speed up browsing by disabling add-ons

You may occasionally receive the message as shown below asking if you wish to speed up Internet Explorer by disabling add-ons such as toolbars

This message tends to appear even if the browser speed is okay, so in most cases (unless you specifically want to disable a particular add-on) can be ignored either for now or permanently by clicking on the arrow next to Ask me later and choosing not to ask again

Last browsing session closed unexpectedly

If your computer crashes or you have a power cut the next time you open Internet Explorer it will show the message below and you can click Restore session to re-open all the pages you had open prior to the crash/power cut

You can also do this manually by clicking Tools, Reopen last browsing session

Zoom option not showing

If the zoom option is not showing at the bottom of your internet explorer window then it can be enabled by pressing + - and then selecting Toolbars > Status bar from the menu that appears

Disable pop-up blocker

Occasionally you may find it necessary to disable the pop-up blocker if the website you are viewing does not open a link correctly or warns you it was blocked

To do this press + and click Pop-up Blocker > Turn off Pop-up Blocker, or click Pop-up Blocker settings to change settings or to disable it for specific websites

Reset Internet Explorer back to default settings

Sometimes Internet Explorer can become corrupt (especially if a lot of different toolbars are installed), and will not load pages correctly (or at all), and you will often receive a message at the bottom of the screen saying "website is not responding"

The best course of action in this case is to reset Internet Explorer back to its default settings:-

1)  Open Internet Explorer and click the Settings icon in top right corner (looks like a little cog), then choose Internet Options from the menu that appears

2)  When the Internet Options dialog box appears choose the Advanced tab, and then click Restore advanced settings, next click Reset, tick the box to Delete personal settings and click Reset again

3)  When it is complete close Internet Explorer, restart the computer and then all should be working fine again

N.B. Doing this may change your homepage back to the default MSN web page, you can change it back to your chosen home page by following the instructions in the Internet Options section above