Alexander’s Blog

When Federal Trade Commission (FTC) came out with the Do Not Call list idea, everyone loved it. Okay, may be not everyone. I am sure the telemarketers didn’t like the fact that they can’t pick up the phone and start calling anyone they want. But I bet they like it when they themselves don’t receive these uninvited calls. The Do Not Call list is by far one of the most popular successes FTC ever had. Now FTC wants voluntary ‘Do Not Track’ for the Web. The details are posted on the FTC site in this 122-page PDF file. The document was posted on December 1, 2010 and is essentially a Do Not Call list for online behavioral advertising.

Just three days ago on January 24, 2011, Mozilla and Google announced their browser Do Not Track features. You can read more about their approach here. There are pros and cons to the way different companies will implement their features. For example, adding a Do Not Track HTTP header in the browser like Mozilla’s plan for the Firefox browser seems to have an advantage in the sense that even if the user clears the browser cache, the opt-out setting will remain in place. If the feature is implemented as opt-out cookies or an opt-out registry, the results will be different and the setting may be lost. Once the dust settles we will know exactly how different browsers will end up implementing this feature. Frankly, at this point it’s too early and as some wise guy/gal once said, the proof is going to be in the pudding.

Microsoft has already announced in the first week of December that it would add a new Tracking Protection feature to Internet Explorer (IE) 9. This feature is expected to show up in IE9′s release candidate (RC) version sometime in Q1 2011. This is good news because according to some reports Microsoft removed similar features from IE8 because of the pressure from online advertisers.

If you go to Google or Bank of America’s Web site you will notice that your browser displays a custom logo to the left of the URL. I have customized most of my Web sites the same way. When you bookmark the site it adds the logo next to the URL so it is easy to identify. To add this type of custom logo you can create your own favicon.ico file and upload it to the root of your Web site. Here’s what the end result will be in Internet Explorer.

In this article I will show you how to add a custom logo to your SharePoint site. There are lots of free utilities that you can use to create the .ico file. I use Easy Icon Maker to create .ico files for my sites from scratch but there are lots of other tools available that you may find more convenient. For example, some tools will let you save your existing .gif files as .ico files.

The add the custom logo to your SharePoint site, create the logo and save it as favicon.ico. You cannot use any other name, you must save the file as favicon.ico using a tool that allows you to create .ico files. Here are the steps to add your logo to SharePoint sites.

WARNING! Backup your SharePoint site collection. Anytime you use SharePoint Designer there is always a possibility that your site can get totally messed up, depending on the type of changes you are going to make. If you are not comfortable using SharePoint Designer 2010 and don’t understand the risks, do not perform these tasks.

1. Upload your favicon.ico file to your SharePoint site collection using the browser.
2. Open your site in SharePoint Designer 2010.NOTE: You can’t edit a MOSS 2007 site with SharePoint Designer 2010, or a SharePoint 2010 site with SharePoint Designer 2007.You have to use SharePoint Designer 2007 for MOSS 2007 sites and SharePoint Designer 2010 for SharePoint 2010 sites.
3. If prompted, select edit the page layout option. You may also be asked to check out the document, which is necessary if you want to edit the master page.
4. Go to the Master Pages library.
5. Edit the Master Page for your site. I am using Team Site in my example so my master page is v4.master.
6. Click the Edit file link under Customization heading otherwise you won’t be able to edit the page in SharePoint Designer 2010. When prompted Do you want to check it out?, select Yes.
7. Switch to the Code view by clicking Code at the bottom of the page.
8. Use the Find option on the ribbon to locate the tag “SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon” in the code. It’s usually located in the heading section at the beginning of the page.
9. Edit the existing URL (/_layouts/images/favicon.ico) and replace it with the URL for the favicon.ico. You need to replace everything between the quotes. For example, replace the text /_layouts/images/favicon.ico with the URL to your favicon.ico file.
10. If you uploaded the favicon.ico file to the Site Collection images than the URL might look like this.

    http://<YourSiteName>/SiteCollectionImages/favicon.ico.

11. If you are not sure what site definitions are and what the effect might be then stop right here. Discard all changes and exit SharePoint Designer 2010. Otherwise, click Yes when you see the warning message about the Site Definition Page Warning.
    
12. Save the v4.master page in SharePoint Designer.
13. In the left hand Navigation window notice the green check mark next to the file v4.master. This means the file has been checked out. Right-click the file and Check In. Unless the file is checked-in, the changes will not be visible in the browser.
14. In the Check In window select Publish a major version and click OK.
15. When prompted for content approval, select Yes.
    
16. You will be taken to the Master Gallery page where the approval status for the file will show pending.
17. Click on the drop-down button and select Approve/Reject.
    
18. In the Approve/Reject Window select the Approved button and click OK.
    
19. As soon as you approve the document, the browser will display your custom logo.
    
20. Now when you add the site to the Favorites in Internet Explorer or Bookmark the site in Firefox, the  address will also display the logo.
    

If you work with Dreamweaver 8 for Windows and have noticed that your FTP login settings in the Dreamweaver site definitions are lost when you close and re-open the program or after you reboot your computer. If you have an earlier version of Dreamweaver, you may not encounter this problem.

According to Adobe, there are two known causes for this.

1. The most common cause is that Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is installed on the same machine as Dreamweaver 8.
2. A less likely cause is that the following registry key is missing or is empty:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\User Shell Folders\AppData

If You Have IE7 Installed on Your Computer

If you have IE 7 installed then installing the Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater should resolve your problem in most cases. Make sure that you verify the installation of the updater. In Dreamweaver, go to Help > About Dreamweaver > and click the scrolling text to reveal the version number. It should say Dreamweaver 8.0.2. You should not have to reboot the computer after installing Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater.

If You Don’t Have IE7 Installed, or if the Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater Doesn’t Solve the Problem

If you don’t have IE7 and are experiencing the problem then install the Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater as described above and then perform the following steps.

Warning: Modify the registry at your own risk.

1. Launch the Registry Editor by clicking the Start button, choose Run, then type “regedit”. In the Registry Editor, navigate to this folder:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\User Shell Folders\

2. See if there is a key called AppData, as shown in the screen shot below:
   
3. Backup the Users Shell Folders registry branch as follows:
   1. Right-click the Users Shell Folders folder and select “Export”.
   2. In the “Export range” section, choose “Selected branch”.
   3. Save the .reg file to the desktop.
   4. If problems occur after editing the registry, double-clicking the .reg file will re-install that registry branch.
4. If the AppData key is missing, then perform the following steps. If the AppData key exists, then skip to Step 5.
   1. On the right side of the Registry Editor explorer pane, right-click in a blank area anywhere under the last key in the list. You should get a context menu that says “New” with a flyout menu.
   2. In the flyout menu, select “Expandable String Value” and name the new key AppData.
5. Right-click the new AppData key (or the existing one if it was already there), select Modify, and enter the following in the Value Data field: %USERPROFILE%\Application Data. If the values for the other keys in your User Shell Folders directory don’t start with %USERPROFILE%, then use the value that your other keys use. For example, if your Local Settings key has a value of u:\Local Settings, then try usingu:\Application Data.
6. Open Dreamweaver, re-enter the FTP login information for one of your sites, and see if the FTP login is now saved when you close and re-open Dreamweaver.

The following information is useful to understand some of the issues related to IE 8 User-Agent String.

Affected Platforms

Clients – Windows XP | Windows Vista | Windows 7

Servers – Windows Server 2003 | Windows Server 2008 | Windows Server 2008 R2

Feature Impact

Severity – Medium

Frequency – High

Description

The User Agent String is the Internet Explorer identifier that provides data about its version and other attributes to Web servers. Many Web applications rely on, and piggyback on, the IE User Agent String. Those that do so and depend on an earlier version number will be impacted. The User Agent string now includes the string ‘Trident/4.0′ in order to allow differentiation between the Internet Explorer 7 User Agent String and the Internet Explorer 8 User Agent string when running in Internet Explorer 7 Compatibility View. See Understanding User Agent Strings link below for details.

Manifestation of Impact

There are two impacted areas:

• Web pages that explicitly check the User Agent String and do not support the Internet Explorer 8 User Agent String may not run properly. In the majority of cases, this means the pages will be block users from the content they are attempting to access or display incorrect or malformed content.
• Applications that host Trident (see Hosting and Reuse) will default to Internet Explorer 7 using the Web Optional Component, but will not have access to Internet Explorer 8 features.

Solution

Ensure that your applications properly handle the new ‘MSIE 8.0′ version in the User Agent String. You may also opt in to the Internet Explorer 7 Compatibility View for those applications based on Internet Explorer 7. This can be done with meta tags. See the discussion in Understanding User Agent Strings for details.

Compatibility, Performance, Reliability, and Usability Testing

• Run your applications and Web pages in an Internet Explorer 8 environment on Windows Vista or Windows XP to ensure that they behave in the desired manner.
• Alternatively, you can run the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool (IECTT) provided with the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) to locate any potential issues due to security feature updates.

Links to Other Resources

• Understanding User Agent Strings: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537503(VS.85).aspx
• The Internet Explorer 8 User-Agent String: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/02/21/the-internet-explorer-8-user-agent-string.aspx
• User-Agent String and Version Vector: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ie8whitepapers/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=531
• Hosting and Reuse: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa752038(VS.85).aspx
• Application Compatibility Toolkit Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=24DA89E9-B581-47B0-B45E-492DD6DA2971
• Known Internet Explorer Security Feature Issues: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722079.aspx

How to View the User-Agent String

To view your browser’s user-agent string, type the following case-sensitive command into the address bar.

javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

Internet Explorer User-Agent Tokens

The following tokens are used by recent versions of Internet Explorer, which places three tokens in the user-agent string by default.

1. Version tokens
2. Platform tokens
3. Feature tokens

The following information pertains to the version and the platform tokens. In general, version tokens begin with MSIE and are followed by the version number of the browser. Many pre-release versions append the letter “b” to the version number. The following table lists the version tokens used in recent versions of Internet Explorer.

Platform tokens describe your operating system. The following table lists Internet Explorer platform tokens for the last several versions of Windows.

(Source: Microsoft TechNet)

Internet Explorer 8 (IE), which is the default browser in Windows 7,  has been reported by the general public as one of the most problematic versions of browser in years. People are reporting that there are numerous Web sites that are not accessible in IE8. When they are able to access the sites, the content is not displayed right. Sometimes only part of the page is displayed. People who have multiple computers have success accessing the troubled sites in older versions on other operating systems (e.g. IE 7 on Vista or IE 6 on Windows XP).

Unfortunately, Windows 7 users are reporting that they are spending too much time troubleshooting the problem before they finally give up. Some get lucky and find a solution. Others, who must use IE8 for whatever reason, have no choice but to continue looking for solutions.

What’s the under lying cause of all this mayhem? Well, there are thousands of Web sites that are displayed improperly, or not displayed at all, when you use IE8 engine to surf the Web. In February 2009, Mary Jo Foley posted this article: Microsoft’s IE 8 Incompatibility List: 2,400 major sites (and counting). In her article she lists the incompatible Web sites, which include major Web sites such as:

microsoft.com

msn.com

amazon.com

ebay. com

google.com

yahoo.com

myspace.com

youtube.com

…..and more.

A Compatibility View List is essentially a list of Web sites that are broken in IE8. In other words they are incompatible with IE8. Obviously, calling it an Incompatibility List won’t sound too good. Compatibility View List puts a very positive spin on a painful experience and makes it sound as if it were a preplanned “feature” of IE8.

Let’s take a closer look at the actual issue behind the scenes. Unlike previous versions, IE8 renders content in a standards-compliant way. That’s a good thing. Because the previous versions of IE were so messed up (for lack of a better word) and Microsoft has decided to offer a browser that is “standards-compliant”, now all these Web sites are inaccessible in IE8. It’s going to take a while before the Web designers fix all the mess because they wanted their Web sites to appear properly in previous versions of IE and as a result intentionally created sites that won’t follow the standards just so they would run properly using IE engine. To help the public, Microsoft now puts out a Compatibility View List which may make these Web sites accessible. However, I can tell you from personal experience that the Compatibility View will not fix the problem in all cases. Some times it works, some times it doesn’t.

Possible Solutions & Workarounds

There are several solutions and workarounds that work for some individuals. Here are a few examples. Keep in mind this is not a complete list by any means. Also, don’t be surprised if you still have problems accessing the inaccessible Web sites after you have tried all the tips that I’ve listed below because there are too many possibilities and I can’t possibly cover them all.

NOTE: You may have to first install another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, before you try these solutions because if you use IE8 you may not be able to go to Microsoft’s Web site and access the KB articles that I have listed below. Microsoft’s Web site is one of the thousands of Web sites that are reported as inaccessible in IE8.

1. Go to Tools, Internet Options, Advanced tab and click Restore advanced settings. I know, you are going to tell me that this means that you can’t configure IE8, but you want to surf the Internet don’t you?

2. Run the command prompt as an administrator and type “netsh winsock reset” without the quotes. Reboot the computer. This KB article 811259 has more details.

3. Try Resetting TCP/IP.

4. Uninstall all IE8 updates. Yes, it may make your computer less secure.

5. Disable all IE8 plug-ins and add them back one-by-one.

6. Your computer may be infected with a virus so go to Safe Mode and run a program that will clean the virus. I prefer AVG, which is free and includes anti-virus and anti-spyware components. You may not be able to access AVG’s Web site in IE8 that’s why I mentioned earlier that you may have to install another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox first so you can download the AVG software.

7. Disable Windows firewall. Yes, it may make your computer less secure.

8. Turn on Compatibility View, either for individual Web sites (Tools, Compatibility View) or for all sites (Tools, Compatibility View Settings, Display all websites in Compatibility View). To view the content of your active list you can type the following in the IE8 address bar:

res://iecompat.dll/iecompatdata.xml

9. If you are running more than one browser, make IE8 your default browser. For example, if you run Firefox as your default browser you need to make IE8 happy by making it your default browser. Just do that temporarily so the sites start to work. Then switch back to Firefox as your default browser. You’ll have to remember to keep doing this whenever IE8 starts to give you problems.

10. Use Mozilla Firefox. All the 2,400+ sites that are incompatible with IE8 are likely to work in Firefox.