Windows Vista: Configuring Internet Explorer 7.0 - Dynamic Security and Protected Mode

• Address bar turns green to indicate that a website is bearing new High Assurance certificates, indicating the site owner has completed extensive identity verification checks.

• Phishing Filter notifications, certificate names, and the gold padlock icon are now also adjacent to the address bar for better visibility.

• Certificate and privacy detail information can easily be displayed with a single click in the Security status bar.

• The address bar is displayed to the user for every window, whether it’s a pop-up or standard window, which helps to block malicious sites from emulating trusted sites.

• To help protect you against phishing sites, IE warns you when visiting potential or known fraudulent sites and blocks the site if appropriate. The opt-in filter is updated several times per hour with the latest security information from Microsoft and several industry partners.

• International Domain Name Anti-Spoofing notifies you when visually similar characters in the URL are not expressed in the same language.

To protect your system even further, IE includes the following features:

• ActiveX opt-in. Disables nearly all pre-installed ActiveX controls to prevent potentially vulnerable controls from being exposed to attack. You can easily enable or disable ActiveX controls as needed through the Information Bar and the Add-on Manager.

• Cross-domain barriers. Limit scripts on web pages from interacting with content from other domains or windows. This enhanced safeguard will help to protect against malicious software by limiting the potential for malicious websites to manipulate flaws in other websites or cause you to download undesired content or software.

If IE is still using its original settings, you’ll see the Information bar in the following circumstances:

• If a website tries to install an ActiveX control on your computer or run an ActiveX control in an unsafe manner

• If a website tries to open a pop-up window

• If a website tries to download a file to your computer

• If a website tries to run active content on your computer

• If your security settings are below recommended levels

• If you access an intranet web page, but have not turned on intranet address checking

• If you started IE with add-ons disabled

• If you need to install an updated ActiveX control or add-on program

• If the web page address can be displayed with native language letters or symbols, but you don’t have the language installed

When you see a message in the information bar, click the message to see more information or to take action.

To stop the information bar from blocking file and software downloads, follow these steps:

Table 1 lists some of the more common messages that might appear in the information bar, along with a description of what each message means.

IE’s Protected mode is a feature that makes it more difficult for malicious software to be installed on your computer. In addition, it allows users to install wanted software when they are logged on as a standard user rather than an administrator. Protected mode is turned on by default, and an icon appears on the status bar to let you know that it’s running. When you try to install software, Protected mode will warn you when web pages try to install software or if a software program runs outside of Protected mode. If you trust the program and want to allow it to run on any website, select the Always Allow Websites to Use This Program to Open Web Content check box.