Internet Explorer security zones registry entries for advanced users

This article describes how and where Internet Explorer security zones and privacy settings are stored and managed in the registry. You can use Group Policy or the Microsoft Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) to set security zones and privacy settings. If you are using Group Policy or IEAK on a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer, you may have to install several hotfixes to set security zones and privacy settings. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To have us fix adjust the security zones for you, go to the "Fix it for me" section. If you would rather fix this problem yourself, go to the "Let me fix it myself" section.

To adjust the security zones automatically, click the Fix this problem link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in this wizard.



Note This wizard may be in English only; however, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.

Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD, and then you can run it on the computer that has the problem.

Privacy in Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer 6 added a Privacy tab to give users more control over cookies. There are different levels of privacy on the Internet zone, and they are stored in the registry at the same location as the security zones.

You can also add a Web site to enable or to block cookies based on the Web site, regardless of the privacy policy on the Web site. Those registry keys are stored in the following registry subkey: Domains that have been added as a managed site are listed under this subkey. These domains can carry either of the following DWORD values:

Internet Explorer 5.0 and later versions of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer security zones settings are stored under the following registry subkeys: These registry keys contain the following keys:

• TemplatePolicies
• ZoneMap
• Zones

Note By default, security zones settings are stored in the registry subtree. Because this subtree is dynamically loaded for each user, the settings for one user do not affect the settings for another.

If the Security Zones: Use only machine settings setting in Group Policy is enabled, or if the Security_HKLM_only DWORD value is present and has a value of 1 in the following registry subkey, only local computer settings are used and all users have the same security settings: With the Security_HKLM_only policy enabled, HKLM values will be used by Internet Explorer. However, the HKCU values will still be displayed in the zone settings on the Security tab in Internet Explorer. In Internet Explorer 7, the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box displays the following message to indicate that settings are managed by the system administrator: If the Security Zones: Use only machine settings setting is not enabled in Group Policy, or if the Security_HKLM_only DWORD value does not exist or is set to 0, computer settings are used together with user settings. However, only user settings appear in the Internet Options. For example, when this DWORD value does not exist or is set to 0, settings are read together with settings, but only settings appear in the Internet Options.

TemplatePolicies

The key determines the settings of the default security zone levels. These levels are Low, Medium Low, Medium, and High. You can change the security level settings from the default settings. However, you cannot add more security levels. The keys contain values that determine the setting for the security zone. Each key contains a Description string value and a Display Name string value that determine the text that appears on the Security tab for each security level.

ZoneMap

The key contains the following keys:

• Domains
• EscDomains
• ProtocolDefaults
• Ranges

The Domains key contains domains and protocols that have been added to change their behavior from the default behavior. When a domain is added, a key is added to the key. Subdomains appear as keys under the domain where they belong. Each key that lists a domain contains a DWORD with a value name of the affected protocol. The value of the DWORD is the same as the numeric value of the security zone where the domain is added.

The key resembles the key except that the key applies to those protocols that are affected by the Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC). ESC is introduced in Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

The ProtocolDefaults key specifies the default security zone that is used for a particular protocol (ftp, http, https). To change the default setting, you can either add a protocol to a security zone by clicking Add Sites on the Security tab, or you can add a DWORD value under the key. The name of the DWORD value must match the protocol name, and it must not contain any colons (:) or slashes (/).

The key also contains DWORD values that specify the default security zones where a protocol is used. You cannot use the controls on the Security tab to change these values. This setting is used when a particular Web site does not fall in a security zone.

The key contains ranges of TCP/IP addresses. Each TCP/IP range that you specify appears in an arbitrarily named key. This key contains a :Range string value that contains the specified TCP/IP range. For each protocol, a DWORD value is added that contains the numeric value of the security zone for the specified IP range.

When the Urlmon.dll file uses the MapUrlToZone public function to resolve a particular URL to a security zone, it uses one of the following methods:

• If the URL contains a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), the
  Domains
  key is processed.
  
  In this method, an exact site match overrides a random match.
• If the URL contains an IP address, the
  Ranges
  key is processed. The IP address of the URL is compared to the :Range value that is contained in the arbitrarily named keys under the Ranges key.
  
  Note Because arbitrarily named keys are processed in the order that they were added to the registry, this method may find a random match before it finds a match. If this method does find a random match first, the URL may be executed in a different security zone than the zone where it is typically assigned. This behavior is by design.

Zones

Note By default, starting with Windows XP SP2, the Local Machine Zone is locked down to help improve security. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information, visit the following Microsoft Web site: The key contains keys that represent each security zone that is defined for the computer. By default, the following five zones are defined (numbered zero through four): Note By default, My Computer does not appear in the Zone box on the Security tab.

Each of these keys contains the following DWORD values that represent corresponding settings on the custom Security tab.

Note Unless stated otherwise, each DWORD value is equal to zero, one, or three. Typically, a setting of zero sets a specific action as permitted, a setting of one causes a prompt to appear, and a setting of three prohibits the specific action.

Notes about 1200, 1A00, 1A10, 1E05, 1C00, and 2000

The following two registry entries affect whether you can run ActiveX controls in a particular zone:

• 1200 This registry entry affects whether you can run ActiveX controls or plug-ins.
• 2000 This registry entry controls binary behavior and script behavior for ActiveX controls or plug-ins.

Notes about 1A02, 1A03, 1A05, and 1A06

The following four registry entries take only effect if the following keys are present:

• {AEBA21FA-782A-4A90-978D-B72164C80120} First Party Cookie *
• {A8A88C49-5EB2-4990-A1A2-0876022C854F} Third Party Cookie *

Registry entries

• 1A02 Allow persistent cookies that are stored on your computer #
• 1A03 Allow per-session cookies (not stored) #
• 1A05 Allow 3rd party persistent cookies *
• 1A06 Allow 3rd party session cookies *

These registry entries are located in the following registry subkey: In this registry subkey, <ZoneNumber> is a zone such as 0 (zero). The 1200 registry entry and the 2000 registry entry each contain a setting that is named Administrator approved. When this setting is enabled, the value for the particular registry entry is set to 00010000. When the Administrator approved setting is enabled, Windows examines the following registry subkey to locate a list of approved controls: Logon setting (1A00) may have any one of the following values (hexadecimal): Privacy Settings (1A10) is used by the Privacy tab slider. The DWORD values are as follows: Based on the settings in the slider, it will also modify the values in {A8A88C49-5EB2-4990-A1A2-0876022C854F}, {AEBA21Fa-782A-4A90-978D-B72164C80120}, or both.
Software channel permissions (1E05) has 3 different values; high, low, and medium safety. The values for these are as follows: The Java Permissions setting (1C00) has the following five possible values (binary): If Custom is selected, it uses {7839DA25-F5FE-11D0-883B-0080C726DCBB} (that is located in the same registry location) to store the custom information in a binary.

Each security zone contains the Description string value and the Display Name string value. The text of these values appears on the Security tab when you click a zone in the Zone box. There is also an Icon string value that sets the icon that appears for each zone. Except for the My Computer zone, each zone contains a CurrentLevel, MinLevel, and RecommendedLevel DWORD value. The MinLevel value sets the lowest setting that can be used before you receive a warning message, CurrentLevel is the current setting for the zone, and RecommendedLevel is the recommended level for the zone.

What values for Minlevel, RecommendedLevel, and CurrentLevel mean the following: The Flags DWORD value determines the ability of the user to modify the security zone's properties. To determine the Flags value, add the numbers of the appropriate settings together. The following Flags values are available (decimal): If you add settings to both the and the subtrees, the settings are additive. If you add Web sites to both subtrees, only those Web sites in the are visible. The Web sites in the subtree are still enforced according to their settings. However, they are not available, and you cannot modify them. This situation can be confusing because a Web site may be listed in only one security zone for each protocol.

For more information about changes to functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), visit the following Microsoft Web site:For more information about URL security zones, visit the following Microsoft Web site:For more information about how to run a local or an intranet Web page in the Internet zone, visit the following MSDN blog Web site:For more information about how to set up security zones, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about how to change Internet Explorer security settings, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about Internet Explorer Local Machine Zone Lockdown, visit the following Microsoft Web site: