Similarly, the shell update was also made available as part of IE 4.0 for Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 3 or later).
While the Windows Desktop Update was officially only an optional user component under Internet Explorer 4.0 releases and was not formally included in later versions of Internet Explorer, users can extract the Windows Desktop Update installer from the IE4 setup files using standard .CAB extraction tools or use IEAK to generate a version of the IE 5.0x, 5.5 or 6.0 setup which included the update.
Also, command line parameters or edits to a temporary configuration file can be used to instruct installer of those versions of IE to install the Desktop Update.
For example, in the case of IE 5.0x and 5.5, the IE5 setup will install some new shell features if the Windows Desktop Update is installed, such as sorting by name in a context menu and drop down/overflow menu buttons whenever menus or toolbar buttons did not fit in the Explorer window on the screen.
The Windows Desktop Update also added the ability to create desk-bands like the Quick Launch bar.