Anyone who has Internet Explorer 8 in their environment, especially on XP, has probably run into this problem: every so often, you'll go to start the browser and get a screen welcoming you to Internet Explorer 8 and asking you set up various options.  The thing is, you've probably done this before.  Or perhaps this is a new computer for a new employee, who isn't a technical person and doesn't care about these questions or even necessarily understand them.

Well, you can make them go away.  There's a Windows Group Policy option that disables this dialog.  There's actually two of them, one under Computer Configuration and one under User Configuration.  Setting the "Prevent performance of First Run Customize settings" to "Enabled" (with the option of "Go directly to homepage") in the Internet Explorer policies (under Policies, Administrative Templates, Windows Components) will prevent this dialog from being displayed.  Either set the option in the Local Computer Policy (using gpedit.msc) or create a Group Policy Object and apply it to the computers (or users) you want to make this dialog go away, forever.  (Or at least until you install Internet Explorer 9.)

Still confused?  That's ok.  Contact us and we'll be glad to explain how we can use knowledge like this to make your business IT environment more efficient.