Netscape question

[Andrew J. Mutch]

Louise,

There is a fairly quick and easy way to fix this in Netscape 4.x.

This is for Windows95.  I can't vouch for other OS's but I imagine it is
fairly similar.

Open up Navigator and check to see that all your preferences are set as
you want them to be: Cache size, home location, etc.

Open up Notepad:

Find the file prefs.js in the Netscape Users Directory -- typically you'll
find it in c:/Program Files/Netscape/Users/Default/prefs.js. -- and open
it up.  Look for lines in the file that look like this:

user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_1", "www.cnn.com/");

Either delete the line or modify it by removing the url so that it looks
like this:

user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_1", "");

You should probably leave the first couple although I'm not sure if it
makes a difference or not.  If you want a default in the location box,
change one of the URL's to that location -- typically your home page --
our workstations include the line 

user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_1", "tln.lib.mi.us/~nort/");

so that our homepage URL is always in the location box.

If you scroll through prefs.js, you'll see other settings, like Cache size
that can be changed as well.  You can adjust these as necessary -- a good
one to check on is:

user_pref("browser.window_rect", "22,22,584,458");

This sets the size that Navigator opens to.  To make sure that it opens to
a full screen each time, adjust this to:

user_pref("browser.window_rect", "0,0,640,480");

Once your done with your adjustments, save the file.

BTW, there is a "warning" at the top of the file that states:

// Netscape User Preferences
// This is a generated file!  Do not edit.

Well, disregard it .. I have yet to encounter problems in editing it --
although if you get too careless and delete things at random, you may
cause problems.

Now, open up Windows Explorer and find the prefs.js file again.

Open up the Properties and select the read-only box.

Find the file netscape.hst -- its in the same location.  Set its
properties as read-only.

Your done!

Now, as each user surfs through their session, locations will be "saved"
in the location box.  However, once you exit out of Navigator and re-open
it, the location box will be empty.  

If you have problems with Bookmarks, clear the bookmarks file -- you can
do this in Navigator -- and set its properties to read-only as well.

Good Luck!

Andrew Mutch
Northville District Library
Northville, MI




On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Louise McGillis wrote:

> 
> There is an drop arrow on the location box of Netscape, if you click on 
> it you will see the urls of sites you most recently visited.  Does anyone 
> know how to remove these urls?  I have tried clearing the cache, setting 
> the history to zero, gone through all the preferences and options and 
> have found no solution.  This problem occurs in both Netscape 3 and 4.  
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Louise McGillis
> Librarian, Ferriss Hodgett Library      phone:  (709) 637-6236
> Sir Wilfred Grenfell College            fax:    (709) 639-8125
> Memorial University of Newfoundland     email:  mcgillis at beothuk.swgc.mun.ca
> Corner Brook, Newfoundland
> A2H 6P9
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>    
> 
>  
>