How to use RefreshIE 2 (beta test version)
RefreshIE reloads a Web page into Internet Explorer at regular intervals, as if you were hitting the Refresh button.
The refresh list shows the titles of windows the program is managing. When you first start RefreshIE the list will be empty:
Click the down-arrow button and the list of found Internet Explorer windows is revealed, showing running copies of Internet Explorer.
Click an item to open its menu. Select Add to refresh list to place the window on the refresh list. Note the other options: Bring to front brings the selected window to the foreground. Close shuts that copy of Internet Explorer.
Here the window entitled PC Plus has been placed on the refresh list. It remains in the found windows list because it is still running but the paler text indicates that it has an entry in the refresh list.
On the left of a refresh list item is a countdown (minutes and seconds) showing the time until the next page reload. Click an item to open its menu. Remove takes it off the refresh list. The next three options have the functions described above. Interval enables you to change settings relating to this item. This dialog appears when you choose Interval:
Here you can change the time between page reloads. It must be five seconds or more.
Unlimited is the default setting under Number of refreshes. Pages will reload at the specified interval until you stop the program. Selecting Once only means that the page will reload after the specified interval and no further reloads will take place. This feature was requested by someone who wants to take a delayed snapshot of a Web page. Click OK to accept changes or Cancel to discard them.
This grab shows the dialog opened by pressing the Options button:
Items newly added to the refresh list are given a default refresh interval. You can change the default here and it must be five seconds or more. Note that changing this setting does not affect items already in the refresh list, only ones added thereafter.
Tick Open refresh list items on start-up to specify that when RefreshIE is started, any pages on the refresh list not already open will be opened automatically.
Ticking Always on top causes the RefreshIE window to always sit in front of other windows, even if you bring them to the front.
Close windows without menu bar is a rudimentary pop-up ad killer. With this setting enabled, RefreshIE will automatically close any IE window that lacks a menu bar. Many pop-up ads do not have one. Some do, and of course some wanted pop-up windows do not. I may develop this feature in a future release.
With Check for upgrade every 30 days turned on, RefreshIE will periodically check with iansharpe.com for a newer version of the program. If available, you will be notified. Although RefreshIE is technically "phoning home" and may trigger a firewall alert, it does not transmit any information. It simply requests a text file containing the latest version data. This is not spyware!
That said, I prefer you to disable this option. I can't see that I will have the time to work on this program further, so upgrades are highly unlikely. A few people also report that having this turned on causes a program failure. I believe them, but have never been able to reproduce the bug and most people don't have problems.
Click the OK button to accept changes or Cancel to discard them.
This shot illustrates features of the refresh list:
You will notice that the countdown for the first item is shown as **:** meaning that the window was set to refresh once only and this has now happened.
The second item is seen to be active because the countdown is displayed and there is a corresponding (pale) entry in the found windows list (currently hidden).
An empty countdown indicates that no open copy of Internet Explorer is displaying this page. If you want to open the page in a new copy of Internet Explorer, click the item and select Open.
The grip on the lower left of the list enables you to resize it (1–10 rows).
No refreshes suspends page reloads for all items.
Refresh all forces an instant refresh on all active entries.
Don't miss the RefreshIE icon in the system tray (far right of the Windows task bar). Left-click to toggle RefreshIE between maximised and minimised. Right-click to see a menu. Hover the mouse pointer over it to see the amount of time until the next refresh is due and the title of the window to which it will apply. Note that the displayed time does not update until you take the pointer away and move it back on to the icon. Only one title will be shown even if several windows will be refreshed at the same moment.
If you find that refreshing a page does not bring up the latest content, it is probably being taken from the cache rather than freshly served from the Web site. RefreshIE tries to make Internet Explorer load a new copy of the page but the cache settings may prevent it happening. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools / Internet Options / General. Under 'Temporary Internet Files' there is a Settings button that leads to this dialog:
'Every visit to the page' should force a full page refresh in every case. You may find the next option works also. The result will partly depend on the cache size and the nature of the page.
Further information
When you close RefreshIE it saves settings such as the contents of the refresh list and the state of options and list sizes. These are stored in the file RefreshIESettings in RefreshIE's home folder. Settings will be read when you next start the program.
If you navigate to another page in a copy of Internet Explorer being managed by RefreshIE, the link between the refresh list item and that copy of IE is broken. No further refreshes will take place in that window. If you navigate back to the page being monitored, RefreshIE will remake the link and automatic refreshes will continue.
There will be other occasions when an entry in the refresh list has no running copy of Internet Explorer to look after. RefreshIE constantly looks for running copies of IE to match up with inactive refresh list entries. Links are made when the window title and URL are the same as the refresh list entry, but no other entry is already managing that window.
RefreshIE can only monitor a page whose URL begins with "http". This is deliberate and avoids having to work round problems with Internet Explorer windows that do not contain HTML documents. If this is a disadvantage to you, let me know and I will consider trying to solve it in a future upgrade.
Removal of RefreshIE v2
To deinstall RefreshIE v2 from your computer use its entry in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Note to users of version 1
The set-up program for version 2 does not remove version 1.x. If you want to remove version 1, use the entry in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Known problems
(1) One beta tester reports that RefreshIE does not always reload pages when IE's Refresh button does.
I have been unable to reproduce this. Please tell me if it happens to you so I can get an idea of how common it is.
(2) I have a Windows Me installation on which RefreshIE fails after a few minutes. It locks up and starts opening new copies
of Internet Explorer. Sometimes there is other strange behaviour. I have been unable to locate the cause of this or
reproduce it on other Windows installations (98, 2000, XP).
(3) Occasional Error 13 for some people when 30-day update checking is turned on.
