There are two sets of registry settings that I think greatly impact the usability of IE in WM 6.5.3 (and possibly newer builds).
Enable Auto Font Resize
With the introduction of WM 6.5.3, Microsoft made several changes to Internet Explorer. A big one is the ability to automatically resize fonts.
Example:
WM 6.5
WM 6.5.3
Notice that the useless links at the bottom of the page have giant fonts. Once you zoom in, they take up most of the screen.
I personally hate this feature and I disable it.
Result:
Viewport Settings
Notice in the above screenshots that in WM 6.5 the text is clearly readable, though not all of the page fits on the screen.
The changes in 6.5.3 now allow the entire page to fit, but the text is smaller and less readable. Perhaps you would assume that this is unavoidable if you want to fit the entire page, but that is not the problem.
IE is actually very good at page rendering if it knows what size of screen you have.
Microsoft sets the default viewport size to 800x600. This means that IE will render the page for an 800x600 screen and then zoom out to fit the entire page. Note that the default for WM 6.5 is 1024x768.
Check out what happens if you change the viewport settings to match your screen size......
WM 6.5.3 - default viewport settings (800x600) - VGA screen
WM 6.5.3 - modified viewport settings (640x480) - VGA screen
These were taken with the default zoom settings.
With the correct viewport settings, you can now easily navigate a web page while zoomed out.
Landscape vs. Portrait
Unfortunately, IE6 is not intelligent enough to change page render settings based on orientation. If you specify viewport settings of 640x480 on a VGA screen, it will look great in landscape but not in portrait.
Viewport settings - 640x480 - Portrait
In order to avoid zooming/scaling in Portrait mode, you would need to specify a max width of 480 pixels.
Viewport settings - 480x640 - Portrait
With a width of 480 pixels, you will still avoid zooming/scaling in landscape mode but formatting will appear a little off since the target width is less then the available screen width.
Viewport settings - 480x640 - Landscape
In the end, only the width value actually matters since it is assumed that you will have to scroll down to view the entire page.
An argument could me made to simply set the width to 480 pixels to prevent scaling in Portrait and Landscape modes.
Either way, the registry values are here....
TG
Enable Auto Font Resize
With the introduction of WM 6.5.3, Microsoft made several changes to Internet Explorer. A big one is the ability to automatically resize fonts.
Example:
WM 6.5
WM 6.5.3
Notice that the useless links at the bottom of the page have giant fonts. Once you zoom in, they take up most of the screen.
I personally hate this feature and I disable it.
Code:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Enable Auto Font Resize = dword:00000000 ;Default = 1
Result:
Viewport Settings
Notice in the above screenshots that in WM 6.5 the text is clearly readable, though not all of the page fits on the screen.
The changes in 6.5.3 now allow the entire page to fit, but the text is smaller and less readable. Perhaps you would assume that this is unavoidable if you want to fit the entire page, but that is not the problem.
IE is actually very good at page rendering if it knows what size of screen you have.
Microsoft sets the default viewport size to 800x600. This means that IE will render the page for an 800x600 screen and then zoom out to fit the entire page. Note that the default for WM 6.5 is 1024x768.
Check out what happens if you change the viewport settings to match your screen size......
WM 6.5.3 - default viewport settings (800x600) - VGA screen
WM 6.5.3 - modified viewport settings (640x480) - VGA screen
These were taken with the default zoom settings.
With the correct viewport settings, you can now easily navigate a web page while zoomed out.
Landscape vs. Portrait
Unfortunately, IE6 is not intelligent enough to change page render settings based on orientation. If you specify viewport settings of 640x480 on a VGA screen, it will look great in landscape but not in portrait.
Viewport settings - 640x480 - Portrait
In order to avoid zooming/scaling in Portrait mode, you would need to specify a max width of 480 pixels.
Viewport settings - 480x640 - Portrait
With a width of 480 pixels, you will still avoid zooming/scaling in landscape mode but formatting will appear a little off since the target width is less then the available screen width.
Viewport settings - 480x640 - Landscape
In the end, only the width value actually matters since it is assumed that you will have to scroll down to view the entire page.
An argument could me made to simply set the width to 480 pixels to prevent scaling in Portrait and Landscape modes.
Either way, the registry values are here....
Code:
Default:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000258(600)
Viewport Width = dword:00000320(800)
Landscape optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:000001e0(480)
Viewport Width = dword:00000280(640)
Portrait optimized (VGA)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Viewport Height = dword:00000280(640)
Viewport Width = dword:000001e0(480)
TG
Last edited: