Getting Started with IEAK 9

  • Overview

  • Components

  • Changes in IEAK 9

  • Requirements

Overview

Windows® Internet Explorer® Administration Kit 9 (IEAK 9) contains programs and tools to help you customize, deploy, and administer Internet Explorer 9 within an organization or, if you are an Internet service provider or Internet content provider, for your customers. IEAK can be used in network environments, with or without the Active Directory directory service.

Key features

The following are some of the key capabilities and features in this version of IEAK:

  • Distribution options. You can specify how you want to distribute Internet Explorer — either using a product CD or the local area network (LAN). You can also create a configuration-only package to update Internet Explorer settings without installing code on your customers' or users' computers.

  • Custom components. You can include in-house applications and other programs in the custom package to distribute to your users and computers.

  • Setup experience. Depending on your license type, you can set the level of user interaction during the installation, and specify settings for the Microsoft® Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, the default browser, and Internet Explorer updates.

  • Search experience. You can customize the list of search providers for your users.

  • Browser experience. You can customize where your users are directed for support; the display of home pages and a welcome page; the list populating Favorites, Links, and Web Feeds; and toolbar buttons.

  • Administrator-approved Microsoft ActiveX® controls. You can specify the controls to run while locking out all others, which reduces overhead and troubleshooting issues. The approved set of ActiveX controls can be enabled and administered dynamically by using the options in Additional Settings in IEAK Profile Manager.

  • Automatic configuration. You can automatically refresh your users' Internet Explorer settings at regular intervals, or every time the browser is started.

User roles

During installation of IEAK 9 you are asked to pick a version, based on your license agreement. This version determines what options are available for you to customize for your Internet Explorer package, the steps you need to take to deploy that package fully, and how you can manage the browser after deployment. A version is available for the following groups:

  • Internet service provider (ISP)

  • Internet content provider (ICP)

  • Corporate administrator

Important

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are not allowed to use IEAK 9 to customize Internet Explorer 9. OEMs that install Internet Explorer 9 as part of a Windows product, under an OEM license agreement with Microsoft, should use the OEM Preinstallation Kit’s (OPK) Addendum for Internet Explorer 9 as their guide for customizations that are allowed for Internet Explorer 9.

The Internet Explorer Customization Wizard 9 displays the version that you installed in the title area.

Components

Before using IEAK 9, you should familiarize yourself with the programs and tools included in this product to help you customize and administer Internet Explorer 9. IEAK 9 contains the following:

Internet Explorer Customization Wizard 9

The Internet Explorer Customization Wizard 9 provides step-by-step screens that you can use to create custom packages to deploy and configure Internet Explorer for the users and computers in your organization. If Internet Explorer is already installed, you can also use this wizard to create a package that contains configuration information only.

For more information and instructions, see Run the Internet Explorer Customization Wizard 9.

IEAK Profile Manager

If you are a corporate administrator, you can use IEAK Profile Manager to maintain browser configuration settings on your users' computers after Internet Explorer is deployed.

With IEAK Profile Manager, you can open any automatic configuration .ins file, change settings, save the file, and then use the Automatic Configuration feature to refresh the settings for your users and computers. You can also use IEAK Profile Manager to enable automatic configuration if you did not set up this feature before installation.

For more information and instructions, see Use IEAK Profile Manager.

Changes in IEAK 9

Partly because of changes in Internet Explorer, you will not be able to perform the following tasks with IEAK 9 that you were able to perform with earlier versions of IEAK:

  • Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot use the server-based sign-up feature to sign up customers over the Internet.

  • The IEAK Toolkit is not available with IEAK 9.

Requirements

You must have Internet Explorer 9 installed to run IEAK 9. To learn more about the requirements for this version of Internet Explorer, see https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8286502.

Hardware requirements for creating custom packages

Before you start the Internet Explorer Customization Wizard 9, check the amount of disk space available on the destination drive where you will build the custom package. The destination drive can be on the same computer from which you are running the customization wizard, but this is not a requirement. However, it is important that the destination folder is secure.

Before you build IEAK 9 packages, you must meet the following requirements, in addition to the system requirements for Internet Explorer:

  • Depending on the number of components you download to include in an installation package, you will need up to 100 megabytes (MB) of disk space.

  • For every custom package you build, you might need up to an additional 100 MB of disk space. When you build a package for a different media type, such as CD-ROMs, it is considered to be a separate package.

Operating system requirements

IEAK 9 has the following operating system requirements:

  • You must build the IEAK packages from a computer with Internet Explorer 9 installed. You must also be using one of the following: Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2), or Windows Server 2008 with SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP2, or Windows 7. If possible, you should install IEAK on the same version of operating system as the destination computer or computers for which you are creating a package.

  • This version of the IEAK only builds custom browser packages for 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows. If you want to build a custom package for a 16-bit version of Windows or for a UNIX operating system, use IEAK 5.

This version of Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) has been updated to help you customize, deploy, and maintain Internet Explorer 9 in your organization. This includes the addition of some features to support new features in Internet Explorer, as well as the removal of some features due to changed functionality in Internet Explorer. For more information about new features in Internet Explorer 9, see https://go.microsoft.com/?LinkId=8286502.

Additional references