Using Secure IE
After I installed Secure IE, I opened Internet Explorer and didn't notice anything different. Once I did a little poking around, I figured out that Secure IE installs itself as a separate browser. Although Internet Explorer is still the default browser, you can make Secure IE the default if you so desire. Much of what's shown in the figure should look familiar because it comes directly from Internet Explorer. The main differences are a few extra icons and the Secure IE Tools menu. You might also notice that the Web browser is now tabbed so that you can switch between multiple Web pages without having to load multiple browser instances. Security
As the name implies, security is Secure IE's biggest selling point. What I like about the security features is they are really easy to tailor to your needs. Simply choose the Options command from the Secure IE Tools menu to open the Secure IE Options dialog box. The left side of the dialog box is divided into categories. As you click on each category, the right side of the dialog box displays the corresponding options. If you select the Browser General category, you'll find options to enable or disable multimedia content and pop-up windows or options to display a message every time Secure IE blocks those features. The File Downloads category offers an option to automatically scan downloaded files for viruses. The catch to using this feature is that you must configure antivirus support at the command line. Of course, the command differs depending on what antivirus software you're using. There's an understated feature in the File Downloads category that I really like -- a check box that allows you to automatically roll back interrupted downloads. This is a great feature because if a download fails, you can resume the download at the point where the failure occurred rather than starting completely from scratch. This feature would have been great to have when I recently downloaded Windows XP Service Pack 1, which was more than 100 MB. The download failed at 80 MB, and I had to start over. Speed tests
Secure IE claims to be able to boost your Internet speed by blocking pop-ups and Flash animations, by using five times the normal number of sockets, and by optimizing your Web browser to take advantage of your true connection speed. Like any good product reviewer, I decided to put these claims to the test. I selected the Secure IE Options command from the Secure IE Tools menu. I then selected the Internet Options (Advanced) category on the resulting dialog box and tuned Secure IE to use the maximum number of HTTP connections per server. I also told Secure IE that I wanted to optimize my browser to take advantage of my broadband connection. An example of these settings appears in Figure A.

Figure A

You can use Secure IE to boost your browser speed.

After making the speed-related adjustments, I saw an improvement in the speed at which various Web pages loaded. I decided to do some checking to see how fast my connection was actually performing. To do so, I visited Broadband Reports Web site and performed a DSL speed test.