IE Add-Ons
Internet Explorer allows software to expand the functionality of the web browser by installing various kinds of add-ons. These add-ons can include toolbars, browser helper objects (BHO), extensions, and more. While there are many legitimate add-ons that you may wish to install to make Internet Explorer easier, safer, or more fun to use, adware and spyware also installs add-ons to capture your personal information, display advertisements, or any number of undesirable or outright malicious actions.
Online Armor will monitor your system and alert you if a potentially malicious Internet Explorer add-on is being installed. Online Armor uses OASIS to automatically Allow known safe add-ons and Block known malicious ones whenever possible. If an attempt is made to install an Unknown add-on then Online Armor will pop-up and ask you if you want to Allow or Block it.
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Pop-ups for Internet Explorer add-ons are very simple. The pop-up will show the name of the add-on being installed, the program that is attempting to install it, and any file information included by the maker of the add-on such as the name, version, the company that made it, copyright information, and any description and/or comments. You can click the small blue information bubble next to a program's name to take you to the Online Armor website where you can view any information Online Armor has collected about this particular program. |
Once an add-on has been Allowed or Blocked it will be added to the IE Add-Ons list. You can access this list by opening the Online Armor Control Panel and selecting IE Add-Ons from the main menu.
The IE Add-Ons list is organized using a table with the following columns:
- Status – Shows whether the add-on was Allowed or Blocked.
- Type – Shows whether the add-on is a menu extension, toolbar, browser helper object, or other type of add-on.
- Program Name – The filename of the program file that was installed as an add-on.
- Name – Shows the name of the add-on.
- Trust Level – Shows whether the add-on is Trusted, Unknown, or Untrusted.
Each row is color coded to indicate whether the program is Trusted (green), Untrusted (red), Unknown (salmon), or is no longer present (gray).
A legend showing the colors and their corresponding status can be found in the Options tab of the IE Add-Ons list.
Underneath the list are the following buttons:
- Allow All – Sets all add-ons in the list to Allowed.
- Allow – If an add-on has been Blocked then this button will be enabled and will change the add-on to Allowed.
- Block – Uninstalls the selected add-on and configures Online Armor to automatically block any attempts to install the add-on again in the future.
- Delete – Uninstalls the add-on. Deleting the item will cause Online Armor to pop up again if there is an attempt to install the add-on again in the future.
Online Armor does not show Trusted add-ons by default to keep the IE Add-Ons list more manageable. Remove the check next to the “Hide Trusted” box to the left of the buttons at the bottom to see the Trusted add-ons in the list.
You can
right-click any item in the IE Add-Ons list to access the following additional
options:
- Show file information – Shows any information about the file that was included by the maker of the add-on, including the full path to the file on your hard drive, the name of the program, the program version, the company that made it, the date it was created, the description, and any copyright information. Most programmers include all of this information with their files, but some may omit some of this information. You can also click More to be taken to the Online Armor website for any information Online Armor has collected about this particular program. Clicking the arrow buttons will show the file information for the previous or next file in the list.
- Autosize columns – Sets the IE Add-Ons list to automatically resize all columns in the table to accommodate the longest string of text in each column. This makes it so that you can see all the text in the table without any information being truncated by the width of the columns and without having to resize the columns manually. This setting is enabled by default.