Internet Explorer 7.0 Deployment Notes

These notes are focused around the deployment of IE7 on a Citrix/Terminal Server, but can quite easily be modified for a Windows XP deployment.

Surprisingly, IE7 is so easy to deploy.

Here is an example of the silent installation command line:

IE7-WindowsServer2003-x86-enu.exe /passive /norestart /update-no /nobackup /log:%SystemDrive%\Bldlogs

The server will need a reboot after the installation of IE7 in order for the setup to complete.

Important: There is a known issue where the login process is considerably slower after the installation of IE7. In fact, with verbose logon messages turned on, you will see it hang for exactly 20 seconds on the "Applying Internet Explorer Branding Policy" process. The current fix is to replace the IE7 branding dll with an IE6 version. You essentially copy the iedkcs32.dll version 16.0.3790.1830 (Windows 2003 SP1) or 16.0.3790.3959 (Windows 2003 SP2) back on to the server.
Only follow this procedure if you are experiencing the problem.
1) You will first need to rename the iedkcs32.dll in the Windows File Protection cache hidden folder (%SystemRoot%\system32\dllcache) to something else, say iedkcs32.dll.ie7.
2) Rename the iedkcs32.dll in the %SystemRoot%\system32 to something else, say iedkcs32.dll.ie7.
3) Copy the IE6 dll to %SystemRoot%\system32, which can be found in i386 source folder.

You can use the following administrative template to tweak IE and disable some of the first run user settings.

IE7.ADM

CLASS USER

CATEGORY "Internet Explorer Settings"

POLICY "Force offscreen composition under Terminal Server"
EXPLAIN "This policy may eliminate a 'flicker' effect when publishing certain Internet Explorer applications (such as applications that have client side VB Scripting) via Terminal Services and MetaFrame. For more information see Microsoft kb article 271246 at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=271246"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main"
VALUENAME "Force Offscreen Composition"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY

POLICY "Disable SmoothScroll"
EXPLAIN "This policy may prevents slow response when scrolling"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main"
VALUENAME "SmoothScroll"
VALUEON NUMERIC 0
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 1
END POLICY

POLICY "Increase simultaneous requests to a single HTTP Server"
EXPLAIN "These settings are supported in IE 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0. Unsure about the effects on IE7."
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings"
PART "By default connections to a single HTTP 1.1 server are limited to two" TEXT
END PART
PART "simultaneous connections." TEXT
END PART
PART "Increase simultaneous requests to a single HTTP 1.1 Server" NUMERIC REQUIRED
VALUENAME "MaxConnectionsPerServer"
MIN 2
MAX 20
SPIN 1
DEFAULT 8
END PART
PART " " TEXT
END PART
PART "By default connections to a single HTTP 1.0 server are limited to four" TEXT
END PART
PART "simultaneous connections." TEXT
END PART
PART "Increase simultaneous requests to a single HTTP 1.0 Server" NUMERIC REQUIRED
VALUENAME "MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"
MIN 4
MAX 20
SPIN 1
DEFAULT 8
END PART
END POLICY

POLICY "Disable Checking if IE is Default Browser"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main"
VALUENAME "Check_Associations"
VALUEON "no"
VALUEOFF "yes"
END POLICY

POLICY "IE7 - Disable Runonce Tasks for New Profiles"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main"
ACTIONLISTON
VALUENAME "RunOnceComplete" VALUE NUMERIC 1
VALUENAME "RunOnceHasShown" VALUE NUMERIC 1
END ACTIONLISTON
ACTIONLISTOFF
VALUENAME "RunOnceComplete" VALUE DELETE
VALUENAME "RunOnceHasShown" VALUE DELETE
END ACTIONLISTOFF
END POLICY ; IE7 - Disable Runonce Tasks for New Profiles

POLICY "IE7 - Disable Phishing Filter"
KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PhishingFilter"
VALUENAME "Enabled"
VALUEON NUMERIC 0
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 1
END POLICY ; IE7 - Disable Phishing Filter

END CATEGORY ; Internet Explorer Settings