Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I like to give my users choices when it comes to web browsers. All of our computers at HHS have both Internet Explorer and Netscape/Mozilla installed on them.

When we switched our Windows based machines to Windows XP, I noticed something I hadn’t expected for my installations of Netscape/Mozilla: the browser preferences were not global. Each user had their own set of custom preferences — things like proxy server settings, registration, wallet, etc. In some cases, like the proxy settings, I wanted the settings to be the same for every user. After a bit of digging, I found my answer.

Netscape/Mozilla include a set of preferences files that the user preferences are based off of. The most important file is called all.js. It is a text file located in the the Netscape/Mozilla folder. It’s exact location will vary slightly depending on whether you are in Windows, Linux, or Mac OSX. If you open this file with a text editor, you can edit it and change the default behavior for all users for certain parameters.

In my case, we are mostly still using Netscape 7.1. I edited the all.js file so that it forced the proxy server settings for all users and also so it never asked them to register with the Netscape.com site. Very useful.

–Pete