Internet Explorer 9: Allow single word intranet sites in address bar

This guide will explain how to enable the single word intranet setting in IE9. This basically will allow you to type in a single word address (also know as a portal) into the web address bar and have it bring you directly to your corporate intranet page.

By default, IE9 will prompt you to go to the intranet site versus going directly to the url when you place a single word in the address bar.   For example, at my work place we have a corporate intranet page setup with a http://portal URL. If I place this in the address bar, Internet Explorer will prompt me instead of going straight to the http://portal URL.

This can get very annoying when you access an intranet site daily.  We can change this by doing the following.

1. Open up Internet Explorer 9

2. Go to Tools by clicking on the gear icon or by hitting ALT+X, then go to Internet Options

3.  Next, go to the Advanced tab.  Underneath the Browsing section, find the Go to an intranet site for a single word entry in the Address Bar and put a check next to it and then click on OK.

4. Once you enter back in the single word intranet site (ie http://portal), it will automatically redirect you to the intranet site. If the site does not exist, it will do the normal web search from the address bar.