Question About Customizing Internet Explorer Favorites

[spywriter007]

Hi All

I am using Windows Internet Explorer 8 and Windows XP and I have a question about Internet Explorer.

How do I remove or change the description information of a bookmark?

I am not sure if "description" is the right term to explain the issue... but it's basically this:

When you hover over a bookmark in your favorites... you will see that it will give the URL and it will also sometimes list other info -- like for example: "World's Biggest Superstore..."

So my questions are:

1. How do I get rid of this "World's Biggest Superstore..." stuff ?
2. Is there a way to replace "Worlds Biggest Superstore" stuff with my own info?

Cricket

 

[Anak]

Right click on the Bookmark you are interested in customizing.

Left click on properties at the bottom of the context menu.

Select the General tab. At the top you will see the description of the bookmark.

You can make your customization there.

Click OK, and you are finished.

   Note

Be forewarned, the bookmark will move from its accustomed position because of alphabetization.

 

[Roderunner]

Click Favourites then right click your bookmark and select 'Rename'

 

[Anak]

Thanks RR, that is even better!


EDIT:
As a side note to spywriter007, I notice your system specs don't include Service Pack 1 (SP1).
If your not, you should be fully updated.

 

[spywriter007]

Hi Guys,

That's still not working -- at least not with some of my favorites. It's almost like it will read the descriptions sometimes and other times it won't.

See the attachments.

Ideally, I would like to customize my favorites, so when I hover over them.... they will look like the image on the left.

Anyway... I am puzzled as to why Internet Explorer picks up this info for this particular bookmark (see image on left), but it won't pick up the info for the second favorite (see image on right) even after I renamed it-- it only shows the URL only--- rather than the bookmark name and the URL.

Cricket

 

[Anak]

Are you getting any warning or error messages when you click on ok to start the name change?

May I presume you have administrator rights when you are using your machine?

Let's see if we can make the change stick where it resides in the C: Folder.

• Go to C:/Users/<Your User account>/favorites
• If you see a folder with a lock on it, left click on it. If it says you need more rights, click on Continue.
• Open the Favorites Folder.
• Navigate to the Folder where cutcast is located, right click on it, then click on rename.
• Make your change, click on OK.
• Did the change stick?

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that 2k stock has a favorites icon, and cutcast doesn't?
There is a different reason for this discrepancy, and would have to be investigated further, if the above doesn't work.

 

[Anak]

FYI: I have to go out, be back in a bit.

 

[spywriter007]

Hi Anak,

I followed your directions in your most recent email but it's not making any difference. It's weird that Internet Explorer will show on some favorites the correct info when you hover over the bookmark (see the areas circled in red in the .jpg files I previously provided in my earlier post) but not in others.

I even deleted all my favorites and re-imported them... thinking that would re-set Internet Explorer... but that didn't work either in getting them to display the correct info upon hovering.

I also thought that maybe the bookmark.htm file I created when I exported my bookmarks would show something different in its code for these links.

I used to code in HTML and I remember the <alt> tag being used to create text that shows up when hovering on an image ... so I was thinking I would find something like that.... but no... there's nothing different that I could see when I opened up the bookmark.htm file in Notepad.

So at this point, I am postively stumped....

Cricket

 

[Roderunner]

Thanks RR, that is even better!

I notice your system specs don't include Service Pack 1 (SP1).
If your not, you should be fully updated.

My PC Specs were made before SP1 was released & can't remember how I did it.

 

[Anak]

My little bit turned into an all day affair, and I am reminded about a quote from John Lennon "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Now,

I also thought that maybe the bookmark.htm file I created when I exported my bookmarks would show something different in its code for these links.

I used to code in HTML and I remember the <alt> tag being used to create text that shows up when hovering on an image ... so I was thinking I would find something like that.... but no... there's nothing different that I could see when I opened up the bookmark.htm file in Notepad.

So at this point, I am postively stumped....

Cricket

Did you try looking at both the 2k and cutcast HTML's simultaneously? it might be in the <div> tag.

There may be one other place that the re-name might stick:
In IE8 >Go to Tools >Internet options >General Tab >Browsing History >Settings >View Files.

Make your change to cutcast there, >OK back out >restart IE8 >Check to see if the re-name stuck.

If not the only other things that come to mind are either repairing or re-installing IE.

Note my response to RoadRunner, do you have XP updated fully (XP SP3)?

I'm going to check with other members to see if they have any ideas so you may see some fresh faces, hang in there.




RoadRunner I think you may have mis-understood me, this edit was for spywriter:

EDIT:
As a side note to spywriter007, I notice your system specs don't include Service Pack 1 (SP1).
If your not, you should be fully updated.

I would like to add for spywriter that this would also include the IE8 hover problem in XP we need to make sure XP is updated to SP3.

 

[Britton30]

I am running IE9 in w7 and none of the Favorites I checked (20-30) have the extra "Worlds Biggest Superstore" bit in the hover pop up. I suspect that info is encoded by the particular website as an extra kind of ad and can't be changed by the user. As always I could be wrong.

 

[spywriter007]

Hi Guys,

I suspect you are right Britton.... If you bookmark Amazon for example, you will see when you hover over it... that it picks up extra information beside just the URL. It seems to load this extra info upon visiting the website.

I think this is defintely just an Internet Explorer thing... because I notice Firefox Version 19.0 doesn't do this at all.

If you right click on an Amazon bookmark in Firefox and go to the properties... it has this information loaded in the description. but it doesn't show this info when you hover over the boomark.... it merely shows the URL and the name you gave for the bookmark... so if you want to change the word "Amazon" to "Cheap Book Site" it will show it exactly as you have labeled it.... Cheap Book Site.

I don't have Chrome installed on my machine, but I wonder if it is like Firefox or if it is like IE in this regard??

Cricket

P.S. Anak -- I didn't see any div tags when I opened up bookmarks.htm in Notepad.

 

[Anak]

I don't have Chrome installed on my machine, but I wonder if it is like Firefox or if it is like IE in this regard??

There is only one way to find out.

 

[Britton30]

It may be something unique to IE8 too. I forget if IE9 is available to XP users. Speaking of Amazon this is all the popup shows: http://amazon.com/

 

[Anak]

XP can only handle up to IE8, I know I wanted to put IE9 on our XP box, but it was a no go, and XP should be updated to SP3 for IE8.

 

[Britton30]

XP can only handle up to IE8, I know I wanted to put IE9 on our XP box, but it was a no go, and XP should be updated to SP3 for IE8.

Thanks, I thought that's how it was, but not sure.

 

[Slartybart]

If you right click the favorite and select properties, do you see a Details tab?

Is there text in the Description? The same text as displayed in the hover?
If so, there's your answer.

If not, try copying the favorite (or creating a new one from the same site with a different name) and then click on remove properties / personal data from the COPY.

In a normal shortcut (.lnk) the decriptive text is on the Shortcut Tab comment field.

 

[Anak]

I used the cutcaster.com site and tried to duplicate your problem on my XP box, IE8 system, I was successful in changing the name of the link, and it stuck after a restart of IE8.

Cricket, you haven't answered my questions about whether or not your XP is fully updated.
I know this doesn't have a bearing on your problem, but is your Windows 7 fully updated also?

Here are screenshots of the cutcaster link properties on my XP system:




There could be problems with the HDD and/or HDD file system on your XP system.

You can run, in this order, and make sure you use an elevated CMD prompt:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html For the disk error check. This can take up to three hours or more be patient.

And: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html This one only takes 10 to 15" If it comes back Okay, good.
If it comes back that it couldn't fix some problems, run it until it does say everything is okay.

Then try and re-name your link(s).

Steve

 

[Slartybart]

Check your add-ons - disable any extra toolbars

If that doesn't rid IE8 of the mouse overs, then try disabling Microsoft Research

Are you using Web slices?