A vexing Web-browser security warning

[Kathleen Atkins]

LANGALIST PLUS A vexing Web-browser security warning By Fred Langa Web pages that mix secure (https) and unsecure (http) elements are a problem. Here's how to reduce repetition of "Security warning: Do you want to view only the Web-page content that was delivered securely?" The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/a-vexing-Web-browser-security-warning/ (paid content, opens in a new window/tab). Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.

[BruceR]

You can also tell your browser that you trust a specific site (say, again, your bank’s) and it should be allowed to load, even with security errors.
All recent versions of all major browsers let you safe-list or white-list or allow specific websites, though the methods vary somewhat. (Check your browser’s Help.) Here’s how in IE 9:

• Open Internet Explorer.
  
• Click the Settings icon (the gear) and select Internet options.
  
• When the dialog box opens, click on the Privacy tab.
  
• Click the Sites button.
  
• Type or paste the exact URL (Web address) of the site you wish to allow.
  
• Click Allow.
  
• Click OK.

I don't believe this is the correct place to attempt whitelisting of a trusted site regarding mixed content (https/http). Privacy settings only affect cookies, not security issues.

You can turn off the warnings for all sites, not just for ones you believe to be safe. I don’t recommend doing that because you’ll stop valid alarms along with the false ones. But if you want to take your chances, there are two ways to disable the warnings in IE 9 (or use similar steps in other browsers).

► Go to Internet options, as described previously. On the Security tab, click the Custom level button, scroll down to the Miscellaneous section, and enable the Display mixed content setting.

► Or you can proceed even more globally. On the Security tab of Internet Options, change the Internet Zone to the lowest setting, which for some odd reason is called Medium (and which lowers other security options).

To turn off the warnings for all sites, it's much safer to Disable Display mixed content, instead of the default Prompt, rather than enable any mixed content without warning:

End users may choose to suppress mixed content warnings by adjusting browser security settings. Inside the Tools / Internet Options / Security / Internet Zone / Custom dialog box, the "Display mixed content" option can be set to "Disable." This option will automatically block unsecure content in secure pages without the annoyance of the prompt. In many cases the web page will not be seriously broken; in some cases, no user-visible change will occur, for instance, if the unsecure content was a tracking pixel or metrics-tracking script.
Suppressing the Mixed Content Warning (for End-users) MSDN Library


Bruce

[bobprimak]

Another way to go is, if there is sufficient hard drive space (about 60GB) to partition the drive of the netbook and install Windows 8 as a dual-boot. This makes all the RAM available to Windows 8 or the native OS (Windows 7 in this case) and you can choose which OS to use at Boot. Shrinking the Netbook's existing single partition is the only real risk here, and an Image Backup is strongly recommended before doing anything with Windows 8 on any device.

Windows 8 can be run on much less hardware than Windows 7, although some Legacy Desktop features might not perform as well.