What does “recommended security and compatibility settings” in IE 9 first-run wizard mean?

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By default, each user is prompted to choose 1 of below 2 options at the first run of IE 9.

· “Use recommended security and compatibility settings”

· “Don’t use recommended settings”

 

If you choose the first option, below 2 registry key values will be set to 1,

 

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\BrowserEmulation\MSCompatibilityMode

If this key is set to 1, IE will download a site compatibility list from Microsoft website. The list contains compatibility information of some websites. IE renders the websites in a specific compatibility mode based on the list. See https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff716425.aspx

 

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PhishingFilter\EnabledV9

If this key is set to 1, IE9 will enable SmartScreen filter version 9(compared to version 8 in IE 8). For more information regarding SmartScreen, refer https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/SmartScreen-Filter-frequently-asked-questions-IE9

 

Note that both keys are set to HKCU, so that users can have isolated settings.

 

In case the second option is chosen, IE will set the above 2 key values to 0.

 

Regards,

Juntao Zhu from APGC DSI Team