Internet has become our second home. Today, not only young people spend time on the Internet, but there are also many other generations who do so. And each time more. So, safety is important and in this case, Internet options in Windows can help you so that you do not encounter serious problems.
As you know, opening a browser, or searching for a web page It has, behind it, many factors that must be taken into account and that can be the "back door" through which viruses or hackers would enter if you do not configure this Windows function properly. Shall we give you a hand?
What are Windows Internet Options
The first thing we are going to do is for you to understand what we are referring to with the Internet options in Windows. Actually, these are part of a program found in the Control Panel and that allows you to manage different alternatives regarding the Internet connection and web browsing.
For example, imagine that your computer is run by your young child. You do not want to accidentally enter some page not suitable for minors. Or worse still, that you decide to buy something or enter a page of doubtful security. For that, Internet options are configured in Windows in such a way that it is specified how to access different pages, or even access or not, as well as customize what will be the privacy and security when connecting to the Internet.
Among the functions that you can carry out in this applet, some of the most used are: control cookies (to deny permissions if you have granted them), block web pages or content, maintain security on certain pages...
Of course, this does not protect you 100% from viruses or possible hackers. But at least they will make things more difficult for you.
How to access Internet options in Windows
If you've never seen this applet before, you might be wondering where it is or how to get to it. To this we add that each version of Windows offers different paths, it may be a problem for you. But it's actually very easy and you would get to these options in different ways. For example:
- En Windows 10 y Windows 8 you can access from the bottom right of the screen. If you give the right mouse button on the connection icon, you will see that you get “Open network and internet settings«. Once there you go to «Center network and sharing«. And there, to «Internet Options«.
- En Windows 7, right-clicking on the connections button gives you direct access to «Open the Network and Sharing Center«. And from there to “Internet Options”.
But it can even be done even faster, because if you put Internet Options in the Windows search engine, it should give you the direct access without doing anything and in any version of Windows.
How to configure this applet
You have entered the Internet options in Windows. You've seen all the tabs, you know what they have... now what? Calm, we help you understand each tab and how to configure it.
When you go into internet options you will find 7 tabs. And each of them has other different sections or subsections. Let's see them carefully.
General
This is the tab that changes the most depending on the version of Windows you have.
If you have Windows 10, it will be made up of:
- A main page where you can set the URL for the browser.
- a start, to determine if when you open the browser you want a blank page to appear, the last page you saw, a search engine...
- Tabs, to change the way tabs appear on the web.
- browsing history, where you can delete it, along with cookies, form information, passwords... If you mark it, everything is deleted when you close the browser.
- Appearance, where you can customize the language, font, accessibility...
If you have Windows 11, then you will only have two options: Exploration history, where you will do the same thing that we have explained to you; Y appearance, to personalize.
Security
We go to the Security section. This is where you will configure what is your level for internet.
In general, you will find four categories: Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites and Restricted sites.
In each one you can set a security pattern. For example, that the local intranet does not allow access, or say which websites you cannot enter.
Privacy
Are you one of those who gets annoyed when you are browsing and you get pop-up ads? Well here you can block it. You can also set not to ask for your physical location. Or even optimize everything so that you browse privately or in incognito mode.
The good news is that you can specify specific web pages so that they are not displayed.
Contents
In this tab we will find the following:
- Certificates, where you can add or manage the certificates you have. What are they? Those that allow you to identify yourself as a natural person or sign virtually for online forms.
- Autocomplete. It refers to allowing it to store what you write on web pages, such as in search engines, in forms, etc.
- Fonts. Where it will give us updated content of the web pages.
Local
The main purpose of this tab is to configure Internet access, either by a mobile, by a router, WiFi... Even you can add a proxy server or a VPN service.
Programs
Here, as happened in the General tab, there are differences between Windows 10 and 11. Specifically, in Windows 10 we have:
- Opening Internet Explorer, where it will allow us to configure how to open links.
- Manage add-ons, to enable or disable the plugins that are installed on the computer.
- HTML editing, to find out what program to use to edit HTML files.
- Internet Programs, where we will set the program to use other Internet services (email, for example).
- File Associations, to choose file types and how to open them by default.
In Windows 11 we will only have two of those options: Manage add-ons; and Internet Programs.
Advanced
The last tab aims to give you the tools so that you can activate or not activate different functions of the browser. For example, configuring an HTTP protocol, accessibility, working with graphics, configuring TLS, managing multimedia elements...
Now that you know what Internet options are in Windows and how to manage them, it's time for you to do some testing. If you have doubts, tell us and we will try to help you.