Protected Mode helps prevents malicious software from exploiting vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 7, protecting your computer from the most common ways that hackers can gain access to your system.
As important as Protected Mode is, it has been known to cause problems in specific situations so disabling the feature might be beneficial in troubleshooting certain issues.
Do not disable Protected Mode unless you have reason to believe it's causing a major problem in Internet Explorer 7.
Follow these easy steps to disable Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode.
Open Internet Explorer 7.
From the Internet Explorer 7 command bar, choose Tools and then Internet Options.
In the Internet Options window, click on the Security tab.
Below the Security level for this zone area, and directly above the Custom level... and Default level buttons, uncheck the Enable Protected Mode checkbox.
Note: Disabling Protected Mode requires a restart of Internet Explorer 7, as you may have seen next to the checkbox in this step.
Click OK on the Internet Options window.
If you're prompted with a Warning! dialog box, advising that The current security settings will put your computer at risk., click the OK button.
Close Internet Explorer 7 and then open it up again.
Try again to visit the web sites that were causing your problems to see if resetting the Internet Explorer 7 security settings on your computer helped.
Protected Mode in not available with Internet Explorer 7 when installed on Windows XP. Windows Vista is the earliest operating system that supports Protected Mode in IE7.
