URLs of type “http://user:[e-mail]” in

Question

I had a web page in which the user specify an username and a password to make queries to a third site. In Firefox and Chrome I can make an URL of the form http://user:[e-mail], but Internet Explorer 7 says that it can not find the address.

Is there any form of setting user and password in the URL for Internet Explorer 7?

Answer 1

If you don't want to mess with the registry yourself or are finding it difficult/still having trouble, Microsoft's got something called "microsoft fixit" .. seems a little gimmicky but it worked for me.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834489#FixItForMeAlways

EDIT: Upon inspection the fixit installer also added a local key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_LOCALMACHINE_LOCKDOWN - iexplore.exe DWORD 1

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_LOCALMACHINE_LOCKDOWN\Settings - LOCALMACHINE_CD_UNLOCK DWORD 0

hope this helps someone.

Answer 2

A quick google search for "username password url internet explorer" turns up this Microsoft KB article, which mentions the issue and describes workarounds.

Answer 3

You are correct: IE 7 does not support user names and passwords in HTTP or HTTPS URLs.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834489

The following workaround is given:

To disable the new default behavior in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer, create iexplore.exe and explorer.exe DWORD values in one of the following registry keys and set their value data to 0.

For all users of the program, set the value in the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME_PASSWORD_DISABLE

For the current user of the program only, set the value in the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME_PASSWORD_DISABLE

Answer 4

Is there any form of setting user and password in the URL for Internet Explorer 7?

No. This was disabled for security reasons: It was misused by phishers to obfuscate the real site address.

Reference:

• Internet Explorer does not support user names and passwords in Web site addresses (MSDN)