JSI Tip 8794. How can I permanently add the optional columns to the Internet Explorer Manage Add-Ons dialog on Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2)?

When you open Internet Explorer on Windows XP SP2, and press the Tools / Manage Add-Ons menu, the Manage Add-ons dialog displays the following columns:

NamePublisherStatusTypeFile

If you right-click a heading, you can select the following optional columns:

Last AccessedUsedBlockedClass IDIn FolderVersion

Unfortunately, the next time you open the Manage Add-ons dialog, the optional columns are NOT remembered.

I have scripted ManageAddonColumns.bat to force Internet Explorer to remember your selection.

To use ManageAddonColumns.bat, first close all instances of Internet Explorer. Then open a CMD.EXE window and run:

ManageAddonColumns ColumnLetter1 [ColumnLetter2 ... ColumnLetterN]

Where each ColumnLetter is the first letter of the optional column heading that you want remembered. The case and sequence of the ColumnLetter is NOT important. To remember all the optional columns, run:

ManageAddonColumns L U B C I V

NOTE: An optional Z ColumnLetter will cause Internet Explorer to Zero (forget) all the previously remembered optional columns (ManageAddonColumns Z).

ManageAddonColumns.bat contains:

@echo onif {%1}

{} @echo Syntax: ManageAddonColumns ColumnLetter1 [ColumnLetter2 ... ColumnLetterN]&goto :EOFsetlocalset /a sum=0set table=L0016U0032B0064C0128I0512V1024Z0000:Parmsif {%1}

{} goto setitset /a cnt=0:Colsif %cnt% GTR 6 goto errset /a pos=%cnt% * 5call set char=%%table:~%pos%^,1%%if /i "%1" NEQ "%char%" set /a cnt=%cnt% + 1&goto Colsif /i "%1" EQU "Z" set /a sum=0set /a pos=%pos% + 1call set numw=%%table:~%pos%^,4%%set /a num=10000%numw%%%10000set /a sum=%sum% + %num%shiftgoto Parms:setitreg add "HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain" /V ManageAddonColumns /T REG_DWORD /D %sum% /F@echo Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")>"%TEMP%ManageAddonColumns.vbs"@echo oShell.Run "%SystemRoot%System32RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters", 1, True>>"%TEMP%ManageAddonColumns.vbs"cscript //nologo "%TEMP%ManageAddonColumns.vbs"del /q "%TEMP%ManageAddonColumns.vbs"endlocalgoto :EOF:err@echo Syntax: ManageAddonColumns - Invalid column letter.endlocal