The techniques described here are meant for use with Research-Desk 2.0 and newer, or with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and newer.

Scroll down to read more on the following topics:

• What are Security Zones?
• Changing Security Zone Privileges
• Adding Sites to Security Zones
• Limitations of Security Zones

You can assign any website to one of four zones:

     Local Intranet
     Trusted Sites
     Restricted Sites
     Internet (unclassified)

A fifth zone, My Computer, refers to all content stored on local hard drives (C: drive, D: drive, and so on). This zone is automatically managed by Windows and you cannot assign websites to it.  Any website that has not been explicitly assigned to a zone, belongs to the default Internet (unclassified) zone. So, if you have never used Internet Zone settings, all the websites you visit are in the Internet (unclassified) zone.

You can tell which zone the current Web page is in by looking at the right side of Research-Desk's status bar (see picture below)

Before assigning websites to Internet Zones, you should set security levels for each of the four customizable zones:

     Local Intranet
     Trusted Sites
     Restricted Sites
     Internet (unclassified)

You cannot set security levels for items in the My Computer zone as this zone is automatically managed by Windows and you cannot assign websites to it.

To access the security settings in Research-Desk, click on Research-Desk Tools, then Options. The Research-Desk settings screen will now appear. Click on Internet Options in the Category bar along the left side of the settings screen. Then click on the Show Internet Options button. The Internet Options window will now appear. Click on the Security tab along the top of this window.

You will now see a list of the four customizable zone icons along with a slider graduated in a scale that reads from Low to High.

Click on each of the four icons corresponding to the zones, then move the slider to a security level that you are comfortable with. We highly recommend that you set the security level for the Internet zone (which contains all web sites not explicitly assigned to a security zone) to either Medium or High. We also recommend that you take care to only assign the most highly trusted web sites to the Trusted zone.

Microsoft's recommended settings for the four zones should work well for most users:

     Local Intranet - Medium-Low
     Trusted Sites - Low
     Restricted Sites - High
     Internet (unclassified) - Medium

Research-Desk 3.0 and newer
With Research-Desk 3.0 and newer, you can add a web site to a security zone with just two mouse-clicks. When viewing a web site in Research-Desk, simply right-click on the zone information displayed at the right side of the status bar and select one of the four zones from the popup menu.

Research-Desk 1.0 to 2.3 or Microsoft Internet Explorer
The process to add sites to a security zone requires a few more steps with Research-Desk 1.0, Research-Desk 2.X and Microsoft Internet Explorer. You first need to open the click on Internet Options in the Control Panel (click on Settings in the Start Menu), then click on the Security tab, then use the Sites button to add or remove sites. Please refer to the graphic in the Changing Security Zones section of this page for details.

Security zones only control Research-Desk's or Microsoft Internet Explorer's settings for web browsing. This does not in anyway alleviate the need for a firewall (which controls and limits internet access for all programs on your computer), or a virus scanner (which scans incoming email and your hard drive for viruses).

We recommend that you use the zone settings described here in conjunction with a good firewall program and good anti-virus software.

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