Webdriver : how to set IE in virtual environment?

I am setting up the Virtual Environment for my grid-based Webdriver tests. And sure enough, there are problems with IE driver.

First of all, Internet Options → Security should have the same Protected Mode setting. It's an easy fix if you have an access to the browser, but in my case, I won't have physical access to the browser. In Webdriver's FAQ it says you can do the following:

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = DesiredCapabilities.internetExplorer();    
capabilities.set(InternetExplorerDriver.INTRODUCE_FLAKINESS_BY_IGNORING_SECURITY_DOMAINS, true);
WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver(capabilities);

Ruby bindings have no reference to setting up this capability in IE. It there a way to code it out in Ruby?

The other thing is what can be done against "unsecure connection" pop-ups? Again, they are easy to deal with manually after the first run, but what 开发者_如何转开发about running "clean" IE instance each time?

There are probably more concerns, I'd like to hear your opinion.

Thank you!