Can't change my Internet Explorer homepage?

headcovers

Download and install the Beta Internet Explorer 7.0. That's what I did recently when 6.0 started playing up - worked a treat.

alanrowell

It could be Ewido, Windows Defender, Zonealarm or any other security package that's installed that's causing your problem

Some security software prevents "homepage hijacking" unless you specifically allow it.

But normally you'll get a message asking you if you want to allow the change. Perhaps you've got it at a setting where it doesn't ask you and automatically stops any permanent change?

BTW couldn't spot the anti-virus software in the Hijackthis log.

danmanchester

alanrowell wrote:

Install Firefox

Done that already :money: , I like Firefox and use it a lot but still need IE as back up to download Windows updates - plus I can never do ebay listings in Firefox I always have to use IE.

Plus Thunderbird - faster and cleaner than Outlook/Outlook Express.

headcovers wrote:

Download and install the Beta Internet Explorer 7.0. That's what I did recently when 6.0 started playing up - worked a treat.

I don't fancy trying IE7 beta yet, I was going to install Vista beta on this machine but chickened out after reading out all the various problems the "beta pioneers" have been having !

danmanchester

alanrowell wrote:

BTW couldn't spot the anti-virus software in the Hijackthis log.

C:\Program Files\Eset\nod32krn.exe
C:\Program Files\Eset\nod32kui.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nod32kui] "C:\Program Files\Eset\nod32kui.exe" /WAITSERVICE

That's my AV software, I'll have a look again at Ewido and Zonealarm in their settings cheers.

Flexible_Friend

Fasthosts website is down .... time is 20.09 Sunday

nilocmac

Same thing has happened to me. Since I started using IE7 I have not been able to change my home page...

danmanchester

Just tried to get into Internet Explorer options again, from Tools/Internet Options and was met with that annoying booming warning noise and



I am the administrator! Only a 1 user machine and I have not set anything as restricted ...

Any ideas what's caused this anyone?
I'm 100% positive that I've not been infected/or hijacked by anything as I've scanned everything possible and everything's showing as clean.

albertross_2

Could be group policy restrictions. Is it a legit copy of XP..? Just wondering if there is any connection with WPA/WGA issues.

Following registry trees are relevant.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Funnily enough after posting my post earlier, I noticed that I have the same problem.. Could be a patch Tuesday issue?

Have you tried resetting IE to defaults?

danmanchester

Yes it's a legit XP pro with SP2 - reinstalled it and activated it no problems and downloaded all the windows updates (including WPA/WGA).

I'll have a look at those reg keys cheers.

I can't get into IE tools to reset it to defaults now.

danmanchester

Just looking at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Inte rnet Explorer\Control Panel key -
For administrator the permissions are greyed out but ticked Allow:Full Control/Read

For Me (Dan Home blahblah) The permissions - on Allow: only the Read is ticked and the Full Control is unticked..should I tick it and try or will I c**k something up if I do?

On the HKLM group permissions Administrator same as above full control/read set to allow. Everything else:
Creator Owner = nothing's ticked
Power users = Nothing ticked (Read is greyed ticked in Allow)
System = Greyed out but both Full Control/Read are ticked)
Users - Nothing ticked but Allow/Read is greyed in ticked.

Hope that makes sense??? if not I can screenshot it.

What's puzzling me is the last time I installed this XP disc on this machine about a year ago....I had no problems at all with internet explorer...so I'm coming round to thinking that "recent updates/patches" have bu**ered up bigtime too.