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If you have used Internet Explorer 7, you are no doubt familiar with the Phishing Filter. This filter was a very useful part of Internet Explorer 7, but slowed web browsing to a crawl since it constantly analyzed the websites.
Microsoft has redesigned the Phishing Filter to make it less intrusive and renamed it to SmartScreen Filter. Unfortunately, the SmartScreen Filter is still intrusive and still slows down web browsing.
Shutting off this filter will help speed up web browsing and since we are going to install another add-on later that will perform this task, it makes the SmartScreen Filter useless.
To turn off the filter, click on the Safety button and highlight the SmartScreen filter. Click on Turn off SmartScreen Filter and you get a pop-up that wants you to verify if you want to turn off the filter. Verify that the filter is actually going to be turned off and click Ok.
RSS readers have revolutionized the news industry with their ease of use. Many browsers now have the capability to keep track of RSS feeds. Unfortunately, checking the feeds will slow down web browsing. If you really want a feed reader, you should use a dedicated application, such as FeedDemon or any of the other standalone programs.
Click on Tools, select Internet Options and click on the Content tab.
Click on the Settings button under Feed and Web Settings.
On the Feed settings window, uncheck the box next to Automatically check feeds and Web Slices for updates. Under the advanced section, uncheck Turn on feed reading view and Turn on in page Web Slice discovery. Click the Ok button on the Feed settings window and on the Internet Options window.
The Java Plug-in 2 SSV Helper is an unnecessary add-on for Internet Explorer. The name makes it sound like it is required for Java to run properly when using web applets. However, the newer versions of Java don’t require this add-on to be enabled. The more add-ons that are present on a system, the more likely the system is to slow down so it is a good idea to disable this add-on.
To turn off this add-on, click on Tools and select Manage Add-ons. Click on Java Plug-In 2 SSV Helper and click on the Disable button in the right hand corner of the window. Click on Close and restart Internet Explorer. The add-on is now disabled.
actxprxy.dll is a very important dynamic link library file crucial to the stable running of your computer. This process belongs to the ActiveX program for Windows. It controls the way the various ActiveX controls run and communicate on your system. This tweak will re-register the dll file on your system and potentially speed up web browsing.
This tweak may not speed up Internet Explorer 8, but may help fix IE8 if it is sluggish, and how you perform this tweak depends on what version of Windows you are running.
If you are running Windows XP, press the Windows key and R. Then paste the following in the run box: regsvr32 actxprxy.dll
If you are running Windows Vista or higher, click on Start and type “cmd” in the search box. Right click on the cmd result that displays and click Run as administrator. Paste the following text in the run box: regsvr32 actxprxy.dll.
If it was successful, you will see a message stating that the DLLRegisterServer in actxprxy.dll succeeded. This means the re-registration of the file succeeded and the tweak ran as planned, click Ok to close the window and then close the command prompt window.
Web of Trust (WOT) is a very useful Internet Explorer 8 add-on that warns you of risky and potentially dangerous websites. It uses a red, yellow, green and grey color scheme. Red means the website is bad, yellow means the website is potentially bad, green means the website is good and grey means the website has not yet been rated or does not have enough ratings to mark it as a good or bad website.
WOT is dependent on how the other users of the program rate particular websites. Since it takes more than one user to rate a website as good or bad, it makes this add-on safe.
Click here and download the WOT add-on. When the download window displays, click on the Run button so the program automatically starts installing after it is downloaded.
When WOT is ready to install it will display the EULA and make you accept the agreement. Please read the agreement, put a checkmark in the appropriate checkbox, and click on Install.
After the program is installed, WOT will open to the configuration page and ask you what protection setting you want to use. We recommend that you choose Maximum Safety since it will protect you from the extremely dangerous sites. However, this may slightly slow down your web browsing speed by less than a second, but this is a small price to pay for the added protection. If you don’t want this delay, select the Light protection setting and click Finish.
When you visit websites you will see a red, yellow, green or grey circle at the top left hand corner of the browser window.
Comments are closed on this article
alexamica
March 15, 2011 at 12:09pm
I have been using dll file extension for a while now and I had no problems with the , like some are saying and it helped me to improve my windows and I have installed some great programs .
waleedraza
February 09, 2011 at 10:37pm
You Can Downlaod New Version Of C Cleaner at : www.mysoft101.com Or http://www.meratvforum.com
perfectpitcher22
January 30, 2011 at 3:30pm
Thanks for all your replies regarding this speedypc issue. Everybody certainly needs a faster computer. Some users may be okay with the tips and advice on this article, but there are also others who may find it erroneous. I was not so sure if WOT is actually safe, so I am still waiting for more replies on this thread.
speeddemon21
May 13, 2009 at 12:15am
Stry8993 can find help here http://home.comcast.net/~username54321/starfield/mods.html#options_picture_13
Why A Duck
May 01, 2009 at 8:30am
When I first installed IE8, it would take 5-10 seconds to start, and then 5-10 additional seconds for each new tab. Page rendering was hella fast, but the startup delay made me mad.
Finally figured it out after much Googling. If you have let SpyBot (or similar) "immunize" IE, it adds 10,000+ sites to IE's restricted site list. IE7 was cool with that, but IE8 ... not so much. After I undid SpyBots immunization and then redid it with everything but IE's domain and resitricted domain boxes checked, IE8 worked like a champ.
I don't like having to undo SpyBot's protection, but hopefully IE's built-in SmartScreen filter (or WOT) will mitigate this risk.
Bless
April 24, 2009 at 3:43pm
Need to add, disabling the auto complete and the feed seemed to make my newly installed IE works faster,
has anyone tried and felt the same thing?
I dont want to mess around further than this since anything beyond this point is irreversible, definitely dont wanna spent another 6 hours sitting on my chair to format, install and download all the windows update, flash player & java update for my vista, huh...
Bless
April 24, 2009 at 3:25pm
I tried the IE8 tweak exactly just as decribed, and the result is quite dissapointing in my opinion.
I dont know maybe it's just me but it seemed that IE8 after the tweak is slower than IE7. I had to reformat my windows and reinstall it all over again. :(
Deborah
April 24, 2009 at 2:00am
Thank you, Josh, for recommending WOT to the readers of Maximum PC. I just wanted to clarify the statement about user ratings.
Our system is based on the assumption that not all users are equally reliable. New users are not very reliable, but over time their reliability increases and their ratings have more weight. Because of this, a previously unrated site will not be influenced by a single new user’s rating. And ratings may change over time and in some cases move to unrated again. This is because the confidence in the ratings falls below the visible threshold. You can see more on our blog about these two things at http://www.mywot.com/blog/anonymity-vs-democracy and http://www.mywot.com/blog/confidence
Safe surfing,
Deborah
Web of Trust
www.mywot.com
ericlaw
April 23, 2009 at 5:54pm
Reader beware: This article is full of terrible advice for IE users and it's not clear that the author did any real research.
1> IE8 uses 6 connections by default, not two. This has been true for over a year, and is documented on the IE team blog. Increasing the limit beyond 6 can result in SLOWER performance.
2> SmartScreen is significantly more effective than competitive anti-phishing/anti-malware solutions, and the claim that it "slows down browsing" is unfounded; URL reputation checks happen in a different thread and in parallel; they are non-blocking.
The idea that WOT is safe "because" it requires two votes is simply absurd.
3> Claiming that RSS support slows down browsing is also incorrect; RSS feeds aren't checked by the browser, they're checked by the Windows Feeds platform on a schedule. The browser does not block on synchronization.
4> Re-registering actxprxy.dll on Vista does nothing at best and is harmful at worst.
5> Disabling autocomplete is a great way to make your browser annoying and slow you down on the web. Anyone with physical or admin access to your computer can abuse you in other ways.
hackman2007
April 26, 2009 at 6:19pm
1. The two connection limit was a typo. Thanks for catching that.
2. It does slow down browsing, at least it did on my connection. WOT takes more than two users to rate a site as safe.
3. Turning off feed checking sped up my browser. Not all of the tweaks mentioned are going to have the same desired affect.
4. The tweak is not harmful. It just re-register's a dll. It doesn't delete or modify anything. As mentioned, it may not speed up your computer. The tests were done a Windows Vista and Windows 7 computer.
5. Autocomplete stores information about you in plain text format. That seems unsafe to me. To each their own I guess.
BizSAR
April 23, 2009 at 6:37pm
Can anyone at MaxPC answer to this comment? I'd like to know before I try any of these.
Thanks :)
smashingpumpin
April 23, 2009 at 4:00pm
I just downloaded the NASA night launch theme and expected Google's main page to be black just like the one in the picture. What am i doing wrong? I like dark themes coz it seems to delay the dimming effect of my dying CRT.
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he's pwning with a trackpad? oh really? oh reheheheeally?
brainwins
April 23, 2009 at 1:32pm
No Script has been most of the time a big pain in the ass for me. It cripples most of the pages.
It´s probably a good idea for those "dangerous" pages one visits every once in a while. But for everyday browsing is just overkill.
Editorial_Response
April 23, 2009 at 3:49pm
Everyone with Firefox should install NoScript. It will keep your system safe from everything except a directed/targeted attack by a hacker. This is a no brainer.
Another added benefit to NoScript is that it blocks the Digg Bar! That rocks! You can keep the Digg Bar from getting in the way of everyday surfing and you will continue to see the actual URL when you surf. Otherwise you do no tknow where you are headed and what site has just been loaded in your browser.
Kulmanari
April 23, 2009 at 3:39pm
Just click on the NoScript icon in FF and set it to allow every webpage that you navigate to and you have deemed to be safe/legit and you'll never be bothered by it while it sits in the background keeping you safe. There are several websites I visit where NoScript is allowing the page to work just fine, but it has disabled code from places like "google-analytics.com" and "doubleclick.net" which are mostly for information gathering/advertisements and even though Ad-Block Plus keeps you from seeing them, the code would still be running without NoScript.
amacieli
April 23, 2009 at 8:37am
I actually don't find IE8 that much slower than FF3, to the point where there is no real advantage of FF3, except maybe for firebug. Chrome just "aw snaps" every 2 seconds, so I uninstalled that with prejudice (although it is quite fast when it deigns to work), and I'm still playing around with Opera (which seems pretty good, though not compatible with some sites (or vice versa)).
dethdeks
April 23, 2009 at 2:59am
i find that speed dial isn't as great as fast dial, i find with Firefox 3.x that speed dial seems to cause issues, id suggest using fast dial instead, it looks exactly the same but runs faster and is more customizable
link to fast dial
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5721
toohightocomply
April 23, 2009 at 1:38am
Lets keep in mind how many more bugs are in Firefox compared to IE. Plus, Microsoft is a bigger company and can delegate more resources to finding problems than Mozilla can. Mozilla even has on their website a claim about how much better Firefox is, by using a study from 2006!!! Come on. Stop the Fanboyism and stop following orders without significant thought.
roninnder
April 23, 2009 at 2:25am
I find the pure self defeating irony in your post too powerful to take in in a single reading. Take your IE8 love elsewhere MS fanboy troll. This website's patrons are firefox users exactly because we do discriminate in choice of software, substandard though ubiquitous browsers need not apply.
Bobinator2000
April 23, 2009 at 1:07am
It's the NASA Night Launch Theme: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4908
KNFrH2O
April 22, 2009 at 11:27pm
"The newest version of the once dominant Internet Explorer is a quantum leap above previous buggy versions, but remains slow."
People seem to forget that "quantum" doesn't mean huge. :D In this case, though, it still fits! Internet Explorer is horrible (in my opinion).
