Overview of Web Folders in Internet Explorer 5

This article provides an overview of Web Folders including installation, creation, use with Internet Explorer 5 and additional information about some of the common error messages that you may receive when you use Web Folders.

Web Folders is a Web authoring component that is included with Internet Explorer 5. When you use this component, you can manage files on a WWW Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) or Web Extender Client (WEC) server by using a familiar Windows Explorer or My Computer interface. WebDAV is an extension to Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that defines how basic file functions such as copy, move, delete, and create folder are performed by using HTTP. WEC is a Microsoft FrontPage protocol that is used for Web publishing.

Note Web Folders is automatically installed on Windows 2000 systems. When a user logs on for the first time, one of the following Application Event IDs is logged:

• Application Event ID 11707: Product: WebFldrs -- Installation operation completed successfully.
• Application Event ID 11728: Product: WebFldrs -- Configuration completed successfully.

To install Web Folders while you install Internet Explorer 5, choose the Customize option, and then select Web Folders under Web Authoring Components. If Internet Explorer 5 is already installed, you can add Web Folders by following these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. On the Install/Uninstall tab, click Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, and then click Add/Remove.
4. Click Add a component to Internet Explorer, and then click OK.
5. Under Web Authoring Components, click to select the Web Folders check box.
6. Click Next, and then follow the instructions to complete the installation of Web Folders.

How to Create Web Folders

To create a Web Folder, use one of the following methods.

Method 1

1. In Internet Explorer, click Open on the File menu.
2. In the Open box, type http://server_name/folder_name, where server_name is the name of the appropriate server, and folder_name is the name of the appropriate folder.
3. Click to select the Open As Web Folder check box, and then click OK.

Method 2

1. In My Computer, double-click Web Folders, and then double-click Add Web Folder.
2. In the Type The Location To Add box, type http://server_name/folder_name, where server_name is the name of the appropriate server, and folder_name is the name of the appropriate folder, and then click Next.
3. Type a descriptive name for your Web Folder shortcut, and then click Finish.

How to Use Web Folders to Manage Files

Web Folders installs as a namespace (or shell) extension with an icon in My Computer (root object in Windows Explorer). This root object is a container for shortcuts to your Web publishing sites. You can use Windows Explorer to view, move, copy, rename, delete, create new, sort or group files by properties, and view property sheet information for files in a Web folder, depending on your authoring and security permissions on the Web server.

The namespace extension observes the viewing preferences that you set in the Folder Options dialog box in Windows Explorer. If you choose not to view files with registered extensions (for example, .dll, .drv, .pnf, and so on), files in a Web Folder with one of these extensions are not shown.

Note Files that generate a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) view of the folder (for example, scripts with a .asp or .cgi extension), and other files that may not be intended to be edited by users (for example, program files with either a .exe or .dll extension), may appear in the Web Folders view of a folder. Administrators may want to use NT file system (NTFS) permissions or some other method to prevent users from editing these files.

Supported Web Servers

You can use Web Folders with servers that meet the following requirements:

• The server must support WEC (FrontPage Extensions 97, 98, or 99) or it must be a WebDAV server. WebDAV, or Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning, is a set of extensions to HTTP 1.1 that enable users to read and write documents over the Web.
  
  For additional information about WebDAV, view the following The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Web site:
  http://www3.ietf.org/proceedings/05mar/webdav.html (http://www3.ietf.org/proceedings/05mar/webdav.html)
• You must have at least Author and Browse permission on the server (for example, in FrontPage Explorer). In addition, you must have the appropriate NTFS permissions to view or modify files if the Web Folder is on an NTFS volume.

Important Web Folders enable authorized users to browse and modify content on a supported Web server. Administrators of supported Web servers who want to protect their computers from access by unauthorized users should consult the documentation that is included with the Web server software.

Known Issues With Web Folders

• Web Folders is not removed when you uninstall Internet Explorer 5 and you cannot uninstall Web Folders separately.
  
  To remove the Web Folders icon from My Computer, delete the following registry key:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Clsid\{BDEADF00-C265-11d0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F}
• Web Folders does not work after you uninstall of Internet Explorer 5 back to Internet Explorer 2.0. Note that Web Folders does work with Internet Explorer 3.0 or later.

Common Web Folder Error Messages

• If you add a Web Folder for a site that is not available or not publishable (for example, if FrontPage Extensions is installed but Authoring is disabled), you may receive the following error message:
  Error
  Cannot connect to the Web server. The server could not be located, or may be too busy to respond. Please check your typing or check to make sure the Web server is available. For details, see c:\windows\TEMP\wecerr.txt.
  
  Verify the server is available using Internet Explorer. If the server can be opened in Internet Explorer, contact the server administrator to request that publishing be enabled.
• If you add a Web Folder for a site that is publishable (for example, if FrontPage Server Extensions are present and authoring is enabled) but you do not have rights to view or modify files, you are prompted for your user name and password and you may receive the following error message:
  Error
  You do not have permission to access this Web Folder location.
  
  Contact your server administrator to grant you the necessary permissions.
• If you specify a non-HTTP Uniform Resource Locator (URL) when you add a Web Folder by using the Add Web Folder Wizard, you receive the following error message:
  Error
  
  The location you have entered is not an HTTP URL. Web Folder locations must be HTTP URL's which point to a folder on a Web server.
  
  Specify a valid HTTP URL.
• When any non-specific error message occurs when you attempt to open a Web Folder, you receive the following prompt to browse to the URL:
  Internet Explorer could not open Web_address as a Web Folder. Would you like to see its default view instead?
  If you click No, the procedure is canceled. If you click Yes, Internet Explorer attempts to open the Web site. If Internet Explorer is unable to open the Web site, you may have specified a server that does not exist. If Internet Explorer can open the Web site, you may have specified a protocol that is not supported by Web Folders, or the server does not support the WebDAV protocol or does not have FrontPage Extensions installed.