Stage 5: UNIX Programs

These settings specify which programs will run when the user performs tasks related to electronic mail, newsgroups, or printing, or when the user views the HTML source of a page.

Mail
Enter the program to use as a default e-mail client, or select the Use Outlook Express as default e-mail client check box.

News
Enter the program to use for reading and posting (sending) newsgroup messages.

View Source
Enter the program to use when the user views the HTML source of Web pages.

Font directory
Enter the directory which contains additional font caches you would like to install with this browser package. For more details about the font cache, see the following two sections: "What are font caches?" and "Adding prebuilt font caches."

Printing
Enter the program to use for printing tasks.

What are font caches?

A font cache is a summary of the characteristics of the fonts that are available on a display. A font cache is used by Internet Explorer for UNIX to efficiently determine the best match for the fonts requested by each page of content. There is a different font cache for each combination of server release and font path. A number of pre-built font caches are supplied with the product. They are installed into the <path>/common/fontcache subdirectory and listed in the Readme file located there.

When Internet Explorer starts for the first time, the program checks the <path>/common/fontcache subdirectory for the appropriate font cache file. If Internet Explorer is started with an X server or font path that is not represented in the pre-installed set, the program enumerates the fonts and creates a new font cache for that configuration.

The first time the user runs Internet Explorer, it starts more slowly if a prebuilt font cache is not available. After Internet Explorer is started again with the same configuration, it uses the same font cache. To reduce initial startup time, you can create font caches in advance for your most common configurations, and add them to your custom package with the IEAK.

Adding prebuilt font caches

If you would like to add additional font caches to your browser package, carry out the following procedure:

  1. Install and run the browser using the configurations you want to create font caches for.
  2. For each configuration, identify the newest files in the <path>/common/fontcache directory. This is the font cache that was built automatically for your current configuration.
  3. Once you've created caches for your common configurations, move the caches to a place accessible from the Windows computer where you will be running the IEAK wizard.
  4. On the UNIX Programs screen in the IEAK wizard, enter the location of these font caches in the Font Directory box. These font caches will then be built into your custom package and installed in the <path>/common/fontcache directory at setup.

    Note
    To add font caches to your existing installations, you can copy them into the <path>/common/fontcache directories.