Auto refresh is a useful feature of Internet Explorer. It allows websites to refresh their page automatically and reload with the latest content. It is especially useful for websites with fast changing content such as a live scorecard of a match. However, sites using this feature unreasonably end up annoying the user rather than providing them with a better user experience. If you are experiencing this issue, you might wish Internet Explorer didn’t have any auto refresh feature or you could find a way to disable it.
Browser like Firefox are known for their resource of extensions. These come handy for solving many small issues. Internet Explorer is not known to be an add-on friendly browser, in the sense that it is nowhere near Firefox in the number of extensions available for it. Although a Google search may result in many tools that you can install to disable auto refresh in Internet Explorer, it is important to note that you don’t need any special add-on. Disabling auto refresh can be accomplished just by changing a simple Internet Explorer setting. Yes, it is that easy! Now, let’s take a look on how to do it.
Step 1: Start Internet Explorer if it is not running already. Click on Tools and then Internet Options.
Step 2: In the Internet Options dialog box, click on the Security tab and select Internet Zone. Click on the button below labeled Custom Level.
Step 3: Scroll down the list that pops up until you find the entry called Allow Meta Refresh. You can see two option buttons below the entry: Disable and Enable. By default, it should be enabled. Disable it and click OK.
Step 4: Click Apply and Ok on the Internet Options dialog box. That is it! Your page will not auto refresh anymore.
Although this solves the annoying problem of a webpage refreshing automatically every few seconds, let me make it clear that meta refresh is important. Many websites use it to direct the visitors to the correct web page, though the use of meta refresh is discouraged by the W3C. The use of Meta refresh by websites is decreasing day by day and is being replaced by JavaScript functions or HTTP redirection headers.
For more help and how to's, visit the Bright Hub collection of Internet Explorer articles and tutorials.
