Address Search Bar History Emptied, IE Closes

[kp]

Last year I posted about a problem that would see IE, when left open
and unattended, periodically and unpredictably dump all of the URLs in
the address/search bar, leaving it blank, although if you looked using
the history button, the history remained. At the time I got the
following response:

These entries are stroed in the registry in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs. Are you
sure that you're not running any sort of cleanup program or using a
function that would clear out this key? In Windows 2000, going to the
Advanced tab of the Task Bar and Start Menu Properties dialog and clicking
the Clear button will emtry this key, along with several other things.
The same function exists in WinXP, but you get to it differently.

And at the time I replied:

Thanks for the response. I'm not aware of anything that's running that
would do this. On a couple of occasions I've had IE open but
unattended, heard a "beep", and returned to see the address bar cleaned
out. Something's doing it, just not sure what.

Now today, it did it while I was actually using IE. I was reading a
page (our local newspaper, a pretty conventional site) when the
computer made a "bong" (the sound I get when new email arrives), IE
shut down, and (this is something I had not seen previously) the
computer immediately brought up my screen saver, even though that's set
for several minutes of inactivity before it's supposed to be seen.

Any suggestions as to the cause and cure would certainly be welcomed.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Last year I posted about a problem that would see IE, when left open
and unattended, periodically and unpredictably dump all of the URLs in
the address/search bar, leaving it blank, although if you looked using
the history button, the history remained.

Your symptom description isn't clear to me.
One interpretation would be that AutoComplete for web addresses
is turned on but when you start typing in the Address bar nothing matches
your typing? While History button (aka Ctrl-h) still shows that there are
History entries which could be matched? BTW in this case you could
also expect Alt-d,Delete,CursorDown (in IE) to show you stuff too.
What do you see from those keystrokes (when in the problem state.)

At the time I got the following response:

That would be an explanation for a different interpretation of what
you are trying to describe. TypedURLs (in the registry) are the
last set of 25 URLs which you might have seen from pressing F4
before closing your last IE window. The list you see when you
press F4 is only URLs which you have actually entered in the Address bar
and have been opened successfully. If IE has been open and
the Address bar been used for a while the list you see by pressing F4
and the list you see in the registry will probably not be the same.

Are you

And at the time I replied:

Again, this symptom description is vague. One interpretation would be
that you notice that the Address bar field itself is blank instead of having
the URL of the currently open page in it as usual. More significantly there
there is no implication that there might also be anything unusual about the
AutoSuggest list (i.e., the list I asked you above to try to show using
Alt-d,Delete,CursorDown).

Just having an empty Address bar field could be a symptom of something
peculiar about the page you are browsing or could indicate that some
other third-party extensions are active and interfering in unexpected ways.
You can test the latter possibility either by disabling extensions globally
or selectively. Globally you would uncheck
Enable third-party browser extensions (requires restart)
(in Options, Advanced tab, Browsing section)
Selectively you could use a tool such as BHODemon (from DefinitiveSolutions)

Now today, it did it while I was actually using IE. I was reading a
page (our local newspaper, a pretty conventional site) when the
computer made a "bong" (the sound I get when new email arrives), IE
shut down, and (this is something I had not seen previously) the
computer immediately brought up my screen saver, even though that's set
for several minutes of inactivity before it's supposed to be seen.

Any suggestions as to the cause and cure would certainly be welcomed.

The most important thing to do is be more observant and more
precise about your symptom descriptions. ; }

Besides testing for third-party interference it might also help
to get a clearer idea of your mystery sound and whether it has
any significance for your primary problem symptom or is just
a coincidence. Since you apparently have heard it more than
once in conjunction with the Address bar symptom it looks
as if a coincidence would be unlikely.

So, which sound is it, a "beep" or a "bong"? <eg>
I suggest you try changing (temporarily) your Sound scheme.
(E.g. so E-mail gives you a different sound than what you are
hearing as your mystery sound.)

Alternatively you could try running FileMon monitoring
(perhaps) with just .wav to see if that would identify
the actual sound file being used. (If you were lucky it would
also show you the name of the process which was using it.)
I wouldn't try using FileMon with a broader filter than that
(e.g. to find out what else might be happening filewise
at the same time) unless the symptom is easily reproducible.

BTW have you tried looking for more clues in the Event log
with the Event Viewer? E.g. the "bong" may be a signal
to check there. ; )


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
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[kp]

Your symptom description isn't clear to me.
One interpretation would be that AutoComplete for web addresses
is turned on but when you start typing in the Address bar nothing matches
your typing? While History button (aka Ctrl-h) still shows that there are
History entries which could be matched? BTW in this case you could
also expect Alt-d,Delete,CursorDown (in IE) to show you stuff too.
What do you see from those keystrokes (when in the problem state.)

Robert, thank you for your suggestions. I cannot test what you
suggested until the problem occurs again, but let me try to describe
the problem better.

My normal web surfing is confined to 10-12 sites. I have gotten into
the habit of accessing them by first typing them (or copy/pasting them)
into the address bar. Then, when I want to access them again later, I
use the down arrow button at the right end of the address bar to bring
up a list of the sites, and pick the one I want.

When the problem occurs, that list is deleted and there are no sites
shown. However, if I access the history button the history of all sites
visited remains intact.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Robert, thank you for your suggestions. I cannot test what you
suggested until the problem occurs again, but let me try to describe
the problem better.

My normal web surfing is confined to 10-12 sites. I have gotten into
the habit of accessing them by first typing them (or copy/pasting them)
into the address bar. Then, when I want to access them again later, I
use the down arrow button at the right end of the address bar to bring
up a list of the sites, and pick the one I want.

That's a bit clearer. So you are using the TypedURLs list.
Press F4. It's the same thing as clicking on that down arrow.

You haven't told us if you have AutoComplete for web addresses
enabled or if you know how to use it.

Be aware that the TypedURLs list is an anachronism from the very first
implementation of URL history (at least in IE4 if not earlier).
The new implementation provides the AutoSuggest list that I mentioned
and is much more flexible.

One factor, which may be of interest to you, since you use such a small number
of URLs, is that Favorites are also included in that list. Further Favorites
can be relabeled to make navigation to them unique by first character
or first few characters. Hence, even if the raw URLs were very similar,
by adding them to Favorites and renaming the Favorites you could get
a match in the AutoSuggest list simply by typing one or two letters.

Actually, if you put those few URLs in your Favorites (e.g. press Ctrl-d
while visiting a page) and renamed each uniquely you could navigate
to one using the Favorites menu (e.g. press Alt-a, and type the first
character of the Favorites item's name (which is typically the title from
a page unless you rename it.)

Another navigation possibility for such a small number of sites
(or a select subset of them) would be to put Favorites links to them
in your Links menu and make the Links menu into a button bar. Etc.

When the problem occurs, that list is deleted and there are no sites
shown. However, if I access the history button the history of all sites
visited remains intact.

To be more specific about implementation issues that I hinted at earlier,
the History button and the TypedURLs list are almost completely
independent. You may see items from both sources in the AutoSuggest list
but you should find that TypedURLs is essentially a very small subset of the
AutoSuggest list. (After all, TypedURLs is only 25 items maximum and the
AutoSuggest list contains *all* your History items and more.)


Getting back to your problem symptom, I agree with Gary's thinking,
something external is causing the list to change. It would be interesting
to know though if both the internal list (the one that you see) and the external
list (the one RegEdit shows) are then the same. If so, that suggests
that the mechanism might be that whatever *it* is is acting primarily through
the registry. (E.g. whereas changes in the internal list may not be reflected
in the external list, perhaps changes in the external list are reflected immediately
in the internal list.) In that case you would have something specific
that you could monitor (i.e., that TypedURLs subkey) and you could do that
either using RegMon or XP Auditing. (I have never used the latter
so I don't know exactly what all information you could get from it,
hopefully at least the name of the process which was causing
the Audit record to be created.) Except for the fact that RegMon
would have to be running continuously while you were waiting
for a recurrence of the problem symptom I suspect that it would
be easier to use and provide a more complete report.


HTH

Robert
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