Content Advisor is the inbuilt feature of Internet Explorer that allows you to view the content across the web. It is a tool for controlling the types of content that your computer can access on the Internet. After you turn on Content Advisor, only rated content that meets or exceeds your criteria can be viewed. You can adjust the settings to suit your preferences. Parents who are worried about the inappropriate web content, which their children may come around, can use this feature to make the restriction. The tool uses the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) filtering to sweep out the non-suitable content from the Internet. In short, it is a safety mask to web browsing.
Enable Content Advisor In Internet Explorer
If you have used Internet Explorer 8 or below, then in those iterations, Content Advisor was available to configure the browser settings itself, but in newer editions of Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11, the feature is not available in Internet Options > Content tab browser settings and you have to first enable it from a different section of Windows. Microsoft has made it this way because not many users made use of it.
This article talks about how to make Content Advisor available in Internet Options Settings, using the Group Policy Editor.
1. Press Windows Key + R combination, type put gpedit.msc in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate here:
User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Internet Control Panel -> Content Page
3. At this stage, your Group Policy window would resemble the one shown above. Here double click on the policy Show Content Advisor on Internet Options to get this:
4. In the above-shown window, firstly select Enabled and then click on Apply followed by OK. You may now close the Local Group Policy Editor window.
5. Now press Windows Key + R, type inetcpl.cpl in the Run dialog box and hit Enter. Now switch to the Content tab in the following window so appeared:
6. For the Content Advisor subheading in Internet Properties window, click Enable. Provide the administrative privileges if required. Now in the following window, you can select what kind of filtering you need according to your requirements. Click Apply, OK when you’re done.
Hope you’ll find the feature productive.
Related read: How to set, reset, change Content Advisor settings & password in Internet Options.
Can Family Safety not be used for filtering etc?? You can also just Run (Winkey+R) ‘RunDll32.exe msrating.dll,RatingSetupUI’ or create a shortcut for the same to get Content advisor window
^^ AFAIK, Yes. You can read more about it here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd361897.aspx
By the way, thanks for sharing the direct command :)
Any advice on what to do when there is no ‘Content Policy’ folder, only Advanced and Security Page? Have about 25 of these systems around the town, I’d rather not start over with Family Safety if I could avoid it. Just want to enforce a whitelist on them.
^^ Can you be more specific please, which Content Policy folder you’re referring to? Is it Rating?
I am having the same problem.
2. Navigate here : User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Internet Control Panel -> Content Page
The “Content page” folder does not exist. Internet Control Panel has only “security page” and “advanced page” folders.
^^ This is most probably due to variation of Windows 8 editions. Well, I have tested it on Windows 8 Pro and things exist there, btw which edition you’re using?
I hv same problem also,
I’m using windows 7 home premium.
can’t find Contect Page in “Internet Control Panel” as mentioned by Jack
THNK ALOT
When I try and do this is “Run” it says it cannot be found so now I am really stuck. It says there is no such location for gpedit.msc
did not work on my IE 11
^^ What error you see exactly when you press Windows Key + R. Group Policy is not available on Home edition.
^^ It should have work, please retry the procedure once again :)
Well that explains ALOT…. well then how do I do this on Home edition???
^^ Open Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain.
Here create a DWORD in the right pane named as ShowContentAdvisor.
Put its Value data 1 to show Content Advisor or 0 to hide it.
Finally one tutorial that had all the steps correctly mentioned and it worked.
^^ Thanks for feedback :)
Thanx a million. You helped make my life a lot easier!!
^^ Glad we could help :)
Check your ie version this will aply on ie 10 or later
Thank you!! Had a hard time trying to find and disable the contents advisor!! Help desk was no help at all! Prollie going thru instruction manuals like robots. Thank you!!
^^ Cool :)
thank you , very helpful
It states I do not have Administrator rights. I am the owner of the business and this is a new computer I had my IT team install. How do I log in as the Administrator?
Thanks a lot. You really helped me out!
when I try to save something on content advisor, something pops up saying must log on to administrator to modify changes but I already am?
Hi, the Content Advisor is only useful in the Desktop Edition of the IE 11 but not the Modern Edition.
This does not work in Wndows 7 home, remember…
thank you very much for the contribution greetings from Argentina
hi, i need help. Ive forgotten my password for the content advisor and every time i log into skype this box appears. Is there any way around this?
THank you
Please see https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-set-reset-internet-explorer-8-content-advisor-in-windows-7
Hi Thank you for the link. How do I navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPolicies? do I search for it or do I have to perform a registry check ?
Just a question, is defragmentation useful for computers nowadays? I used to do it about 5-10years ago but haven’t done so recently as I’m not so update with computers now.
Thank you
Yes you will have to open the Registry Editor. Remember to create a system restore point first before your open the Registry Editor. If you have not touched Regedit yet, I suggest you get some tech-savvy friend to do it.
In Windows 8 / 7, the Disk Defragmenter runs as a low priority task in the background without affecting the performance of the computer. It runs only when the machine is idle ! It uses the Task Scheduler to automatically keep the hard disk defragmented. So you need not run it manually now. See this link for more: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disk-defragmenter-windows
Thanks a bunch! Helped me in dealing with a website that always pops up even though I didn’t open it. Thank you very much for the sincere help! :)
^^ Glad it helped! :)
How to do this on a RDS (Terminal Server). When I enable it, administrator is hit by the Content Advisor. It is as if veryone on server is hit. Its IE11 and Win2008R2 RDS.
You are a life saver!! Thanks so much.
Mine neither.
Mine too.
Same here.
I did this but it did not work. Any other suggestions?
In Windows 10, I tried this but when I hit Enable nothing happened.
I can confirm that this setting does NOTHING in Windows 10. Clicking Enable doesn’t do anything at all. Settings are still greyed out. Terrible.
Only do when is inside domain and it is Administrator user but cannot block sites.
How do I unblock Facebook?
When the computer blocked the website?
Hi kapil can u tell me how to unblock websites .. i tried all dis .. i think its might be from server..
Does this help you? https://www.thewindowsclub.com/unblock-access-blocked-restricted-websites
” in those iterations, Content Advisor was available to configure from the browser settings itself”—-please speak English, I do not understand this, I do not speak Techie. I do not use ANY INTERNET EXPLORER.I am using firefox—where’s the content advisor in WINDOWS 7?I looked all thru the browser, its not there.the windows search can’t find it. in Windows help, content advisor does not appear. All these places I looked, searched, cannot find it.and i don’t use internet explorer, where is it IN WINDOWS 7? home version?WHAT AREA?
PLEASE GIVE instructions in simple plain English, I do not understand techie. I am a senior who flunked computer in a class w/ young college kids–not fun.If this really works for windows 7 home version,I will ask my friend to come here, and see if she can understand this. thank you.(my cat is me-owing again, be back later)Also, this version always says I don’t have Administrator priviledes either .–no instructions on how to get them.–
My sister’s windows pc is so bad off, she’s giving up to buy an apple.–because they tell her it is SIMPLE. it sounds so nice, “simple”. :( I need another college degree to interpret this. sigh.
“htttp://www.thewindowsclub.com/…” says ACCESS DENIED. you tell me, how to get into ACCESS DENIED. I AM DENIED ACCESS. THANKS.
I am having a problem with secure sites (https) displaying properly when Content Advisor is enabled (Windows 8.1 Pro / IE 11). The one particular site displayed properly last week and no produces errors if you try to navigate past the home page of the site. Not sure if there was an update that changed things behind the scenes. Has anyone had similar problems and been able to locate a solution? Unfortunately, for our application disabling Content Advisor is not an option.
God, I hate these overseas dumbasses that all use some version of Windows Pro, completely oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of people use Windows Home Premium, which don’t have the wonderful tools they think are commonplace. If you have Windows Home Premium, you can ignore everything on this webpage by this idiot.
I followed the steps, enabled the content advisor, yet the option is not visible under the content. (There are still only Certificates, Auto-complete and Feeds and Web slices.) Can I do anything else to approach content advisor?