David Geer Talks Tech
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Friday, July 01, 2005
A more secure Outlook Express 6, here's how ... Courtesy of http://www.GeerCom.com.
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
I was reminded today of my security settings for Outlook Express 6. Because of them, I couldn't open a link to Kanoodle in an e-mail I received about advertising my writing services through their link campaigns. If you think you would like to try a more secure Outlook Express, read on.
Before reading on (I just had to do that :), please note: the latter half of this operation includes automated changes to the system registry. If in doubt, do without and add sites to the Restricted sites zone we will soon discuss manually.
If you use Outlook Express 6, go to Tools in the top menu, Options and then the Security tab. The security settings I use are as follows. At the top, under Virus Protection, you have what is called a radio button. You can click to put the dot in either of two holes to make your selection.
Click inside the dot next to "Restricted sites zone [More secure]". I'll show you how to make this make a difference in only a few minutes. Next, check "Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me."
Unless you never plan to accept attachments, don't check "Do not allow attachments ... " because this setting is so strict that I have never heard of anyone using it and being able to get attachments through. Click Apply and OK.
Now, for the Restricted zone settings. Close Outlook Express and open Internet Explorer, even if you don't use it. Go to Tools, Internet Options. Go to the Security tab and highlight the "Restricted sites" object at the top (it's a red circle with a line in the middle).
Click the Custom Level button at the bottom. Select High from the drop down menu at the bottom. Click Reset and then Yes on the dialog box (the little gray Warning! window) that appears. Now you can either click OK and OK again and close Internet Explorer, or do some more tinkering.
For those who want to learn more, under that Security tab, with the Restricted sites object highlighted, click the Sites button. You will see that you can add any Web sites that you are leery of to the Restricted sites zone here. Just type them in and click Add. Click OK when you are done.
That does sound tedious, doesn't it? Well, various folks have gone to the trouble of compiling files you can use to automatically add thousands of known bad sites to the Restricted sites zone with a few clicks.
For one such file, go here: IESPYAD and scroll to Download: and download (double click and confirm you want to download it) IE-SPYAD2.EXE to your desktop or some place you can easily find it.
Double click and unzip the file using WinZip or whatever comes up. There's an Unzip button if you use WinZip. Before using it, note where the folder is being created to save the files. Click OK and Close for WinZip. Surf to where the folder is and open it. On my system, I need to Open My Computer, the C drive, and the ie-spyad2 folder.
Many will shudder in fear of making changes to the Registry, which these files will automatically do. I have not had a problem with these files or making such changes. If you are in doubt, don't do it. If you want to have a little bit of a backup, you can do a backup of your system registry in the following way.
Go to Start, Run, type in regedit and Click OK. Don't tough anything but what I tell you. Go to File, Export. At the bottom next to File name: type in a one word name for the file, perhaps the date in consecutive numbers with no separators. Under Export range select the radio button next to All.
At the top next to Save in: select a place to save the registry file you are about to create where you know you can find it. Click the Save button to the right of the file name you typed in. This may take a moment. Go to File and Exit to leave the Registry Editor.
If you need to restore the registry because the uninstall file described here later doesn't work, navigate to the registry file you just created and double click it and select Yes and OK on the windows that come up.
Are you ready to add the list of restricted sites to the Restricted sites zone?
Double click ie-ads.reg, select Yes on the next Window and OK on the one after that. If the result is too restrictive, you can't get to sites you want to or Outlook Express security is too restrictive, you simply need to go back to this folder and do the same operation but with the ie-ads-uninst.reg, which will uninstall it from your registry, removing the Restricted sites that were added by this file only.
If you use these settings they will also work for Internet Explorer and you won't be able to surf to restricted sites.
Best,
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
Geer Communications - your on time technology writer!
Welcome!
I was reminded today of my security settings for Outlook Express 6. Because of them, I couldn't open a link to Kanoodle in an e-mail I received about advertising my writing services through their link campaigns. If you think you would like to try a more secure Outlook Express, read on.
Before reading on (I just had to do that :), please note: the latter half of this operation includes automated changes to the system registry. If in doubt, do without and add sites to the Restricted sites zone we will soon discuss manually.
If you use Outlook Express 6, go to Tools in the top menu, Options and then the Security tab. The security settings I use are as follows. At the top, under Virus Protection, you have what is called a radio button. You can click to put the dot in either of two holes to make your selection.
Click inside the dot next to "Restricted sites zone [More secure]". I'll show you how to make this make a difference in only a few minutes. Next, check "Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me."
Unless you never plan to accept attachments, don't check "Do not allow attachments ... " because this setting is so strict that I have never heard of anyone using it and being able to get attachments through. Click Apply and OK.
Now, for the Restricted zone settings. Close Outlook Express and open Internet Explorer, even if you don't use it. Go to Tools, Internet Options. Go to the Security tab and highlight the "Restricted sites" object at the top (it's a red circle with a line in the middle).
Click the Custom Level button at the bottom. Select High from the drop down menu at the bottom. Click Reset and then Yes on the dialog box (the little gray Warning! window) that appears. Now you can either click OK and OK again and close Internet Explorer, or do some more tinkering.
For those who want to learn more, under that Security tab, with the Restricted sites object highlighted, click the Sites button. You will see that you can add any Web sites that you are leery of to the Restricted sites zone here. Just type them in and click Add. Click OK when you are done.
That does sound tedious, doesn't it? Well, various folks have gone to the trouble of compiling files you can use to automatically add thousands of known bad sites to the Restricted sites zone with a few clicks.
For one such file, go here: IESPYAD and scroll to Download: and download (double click and confirm you want to download it) IE-SPYAD2.EXE to your desktop or some place you can easily find it.
Double click and unzip the file using WinZip or whatever comes up. There's an Unzip button if you use WinZip. Before using it, note where the folder is being created to save the files. Click OK and Close for WinZip. Surf to where the folder is and open it. On my system, I need to Open My Computer, the C drive, and the ie-spyad2 folder.
Many will shudder in fear of making changes to the Registry, which these files will automatically do. I have not had a problem with these files or making such changes. If you are in doubt, don't do it. If you want to have a little bit of a backup, you can do a backup of your system registry in the following way.
Go to Start, Run, type in regedit and Click OK. Don't tough anything but what I tell you. Go to File, Export. At the bottom next to File name: type in a one word name for the file, perhaps the date in consecutive numbers with no separators. Under Export range select the radio button next to All.
At the top next to Save in: select a place to save the registry file you are about to create where you know you can find it. Click the Save button to the right of the file name you typed in. This may take a moment. Go to File and Exit to leave the Registry Editor.
If you need to restore the registry because the uninstall file described here later doesn't work, navigate to the registry file you just created and double click it and select Yes and OK on the windows that come up.
Are you ready to add the list of restricted sites to the Restricted sites zone?
Double click ie-ads.reg, select Yes on the next Window and OK on the one after that. If the result is too restrictive, you can't get to sites you want to or Outlook Express security is too restrictive, you simply need to go back to this folder and do the same operation but with the ie-ads-uninst.reg, which will uninstall it from your registry, removing the Restricted sites that were added by this file only.
If you use these settings they will also work for Internet Explorer and you won't be able to surf to restricted sites.
Best,
David Geer - your on time technology writer!
Geer Communications
