Favorites Icons in browsers... how 2?

M

MacLuv

Reloaded
On the PC platform "favorites" icons are displayed in the link bar as well as bookmarks... I've seen a few llinks of how to set it up in a page to make these appear--I'd just like to know if there's a "standard" way I haven't seen yet...

Why doesn't Explorer for Mac show these favorites icons? Sheesh...
 
Oh yeah, you can see these icons in Chimera as well! I'm not sure about OmniWeb as I don't use it...
 
Not in OmniWeb yet, but they are also visible in Mozilla and Netscape.
I've been wondering how these are created / put into the site, but have no idea where to look for the information. I figure it is a standard file stored on the server, but who is responsible for this feature? Is it a HTML feature or part of some extension by some group or other?
 
Haha! found this and just had to put it in:

Patch Available for "Malformed Favorites Icon" Vulnerability

Originally Posted: May 27, 1999

Summary

Microsoft has released a single patch that eliminates two security vulnerabilities in Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 and 5. The first potentially could allow arbitrary code to be run on a user's computer. The second potentially could allow the local hard drive to be read. A fully supported patch is available to eliminate both vulnerabilities, and Microsoft recommends that affected customers download and install it, if appropriate.

Issue

This update eliminates two vulnerabilities:

* The "Malformed Favorites Icon" vulnerability. The Favorites feature allows IE users to keep a list of their favorite web sites. In IE 5, the Favorites list can contain icons that are supplied by the associated web sites. However, there is an unchecked buffer in the implementation. A specially-malformed icon could overrun the buffer and be used to run arbitrary code on the user's computer. This vulnerability only affects IE 5 when run on Windows 95 or 98; it does not affect Windows NT systems.
Click to expand...

Seems those nifty little favourite icons are a microsoft invention that the mozilla project has adopted. Its hardly surprising that theres a bug, but its a good sign that it only affects win 9x.

:p
 
Okay, here's a quick MINI-HOW-TO for favourites icons:

The file is in windows ICO format (I think Iconographer will allow you to create this format).
It can be 32 x 32 or 16 x 16 pixels.
It can use 4-bit (16) or 8-bit (256) colour modes.
The maximum allowable file size is 1,046 bytes (a little more than 1k).
The file name must end in .ico (eg: favicon.ico)
The following tag is inserted into the <HEAD> portion of the HTML document.

<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON"
HREF="http://www.mysite.com/pathtoicon/favicon.ico">

That's it!
 
I like them. However they dont show up in all browsers. I spend 1/2 a day figuring out how to create them though. Actually 1/2 a day finding a link that tought me in 5 minutes.

Twister
 
How to make them appear in Chimera:

Open the
user.js document located in ~/library/app support/chimera/profiles/default/random.slt/

and make sure these lines are set to "true".

user_pref("browser.chrome.site_icons", true);
user_pref("browser.chrome.favicons", true);

You might have to empty the browser's cache and delete bookmarks and history to make them appear.

from: www.efritz.net/chimeratricks.html


How to make one:

Q) How can I create a custom bookmark (favorites) icon for my website?

A) With the addition of 32-bit icons for Windows XP, web favorite icons never looked so good. Creating it is easy, just build an XP icon as you normally would, and when you save the file, simply name it "favicon.ico". Then just upload this file into the root directory of your web server. This way, when someone bookmarks your web site, they will see your custom icon instead of the standard IE bookmark. Neat heh?

from: www.iconfactory.com
 
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