Need Microsoft Expertise (Vanity)

2/15/03 | ArGee

[ArGee]

I need to know if there is any way a URL could show up in the IE 5.5 history list without the browser having actually visited that page. I also need to know if a document URL could show up in the recent Document folder without the browser having browsed to that URL.

[ArGee]

I have seen locations in one of my children's history list and recent document list that I want to know about. The child swears up and down that he never went to any of those sites. I want to exhaust every possibility that he may be telling the truth. If anyone knows how this could happen I would appreciate your help.

Everyone in the family has his own login to Windows 98. We each get our own history list in IE. Strange locations have not shown up in any other IE history lists or in any other recent document folders.

Please ping any Microsoft experts you know.

Thanks so much for all you help.

[ArGee]

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

[waspguy]

If someone else used the computer while your child was logged in - then that person could have visited the pages and your child did not.

Do friends ever come over to visit and play on the computer? We have that concern here. The best solution I found was to give my daughter's accounts enough restrictions in what it can access through the firewall that I don't have to worry that she or her friends are going to find their way to an inappropriate web page.

[Jean S]

Is it possible that a pop-up ad could have added the url to the history?

[Imperialist]

Win 98's login can be defeated by hitting the cancel button, if remembered correctly.

[wireplay]

A pop-up is a separate site so it shows as a different URL. If the pop-up contained offensive material then yes, it would show up as an offensive site.

[KarlInOhio]

It looks like popup ads can be added to the history list. Any chance that this might be the cause?

[First_Salute]

There's a feature of web page creation, which can invoke the creation of a new webpage in addition to the webpage you entered as the URL. If that feature was employed, then yes, you can have many listings in the history file which you did not see as the "top" webpage.

[South40]

If you think pop-ups are the cause Go here

Personally...I think the site was visited.

[Normal4me]

I think in order to get something into the 'Recent Documents' list, that something has to open an external program like Media player or Image viewer (XP) Are there any other related links?

[space-c]

Recent Document list? thats a wee bit tougher to mangle with. The files had to be opened outside of the browser environment in Win 98 IIRC for it to show up there. Experiment and i'm sure you'll see that is the case.

[supercat]

It looks like popup ads can be added to the history list. Any chance that this might be the cause?

In IE6, sites that are visited within a frameset generally show up on the history list; someone who wanted to could easily create javascript that would open up a 1x1-pixel window containing any particular site. Most likely this would be done by an unscrupulous "advertiser" to falsify click-through counts.

[supercat]

By the way, if you wish to block material from any particular site, you can create a "hosts" file with a 0.0.0.0 entry for that site. I think the procedure differs in different version of windows; perhaps someone else can fill in the blanks.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Anyone got answers?

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[PackerBoy]

Had this same question come up in a lawsuit I was handling.

The computer definitely loaded the page. Now, exactly who loaded it is the question. I recall that you can discern when then page was loaded and, comparing that to the time when other pages were visited and/or who was logged in at the time, you can "tell" who was on the PC when the PC was loaded. I do not remember how this is done, though.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Lots of kids (and even adults! ha) get pop-ups that they reflexively click on, which are then included in history even if they are immediately closed. Cookies pose the same sort of question... but most often they are attached to legitimate sites who are funded by advertisers who plant cookies on the machines that visit those sites. That doesn't mean one necessarily pays any attention to the advertisements.

But back to the kid who says he hasn't been there. Content Advisor (included in Windows) works fairly well to control viewed content. Use the Help feature to set it up. Some other software is out there that also limits your kids' time online per day. Good luck.

When you get a chance, enjoy this Free Republic Microsoft Haiku poetry link.

Yesterday it work'd.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

[LibKill]

I can't answer the technical question, but I can say this. Put the internet-capable computer in the living room. Keep the computer and your kids under your watchful eye.

Also, set the computer up with a password at boot-up time, do not give your kids the password. (If you don't know how to do this, make friends with a computer geek.)

Parents have control, if they only know that they do.

[wireplay]

You can pretty much program web sites to do a lot of stuff with the browser: I do advanced web site work everyday. Now the real question is: would a fairly standard site (i.e. disney.com) do this type of unscrupulous stuff? Probably not. Hence, I would lean toward the fact that someone on that browser surfed that site. Could you say for sure? Again, probably not due to the tricks that can be played but bet on the fact that someone went there and you are almost 100% chance of being correct.

The 1x1 pixel images are typically used to track site activity and not to hide unscrupulous sites. A site, such as a porno site, WANTS you to see it since that is how they get money.

[RnMomof7]

I have not used Windows98 in a very long time, but if I remember correctly:

Windows 98 does not do true user seperation (ie all users use c:\my_documents not c:\profiles\john_doe\my_documents, so that the recent documents shown could be for *all* users of the computer. This could mean the URL history could also be for all users.

I may be wrong on this but a quick way to check would be to log in as yourself and check your own history if they show up there it only means that some user of your computer was there, if not than it was on his account.

-Hope this helps
-Tim (RNMOMOF7's Son, on FR I am N3WBI3)

[wireplay]

Step 1 would be to ditch 98 and get XP instead. Then you know you have true separation and a secure O/S. I would also put in a firewall product and a NetNanny product to stop surfing to unauthorized sites.