Favorites disappearing

[rac]

Over the last several months, we have several XP users who have lost their
favorites in IE6, some more than once. There is nothing in the dropdown list
and nothing in the favorites folder in their profile, aside from the
defaults. I assumed at first that malware may be the problem but I have
done scans with Ewido, Spybot S&D and AdAware while in safe mode and nothing
unusual has turned up. Our machines joined a new domain about a year ago and
updates are now pushed down centrally. I might be wrong, but I have a
feeling that the disappearing favorites might have something to do with
updates since it always seems to happen a day or two after an update. I have
googled and found several possible fixes, none of which work. Has anyone had
this issue and found a resolution?

Thanks
Ruth

 

[Alan Edwards]

What fixes have you tried?

Have you tried checking the relevant Registry key(s) to see if there
is a problem?
You can change the value of Favorites in the Registry in these
two keys: (ignore the second if the value is not there)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders

For Windows 2000/XP:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders]
Set the Favorites path to : %USERPROFILE%\Favorites


The above should be a REG_EXPAND_SZ value, not REG_SZ


Ref: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFAQ.htm#favorites
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/usershellfolders.htm



....Alan

 

[rac]

What fixes have you tried?

Have you tried checking the relevant Registry key(s) to see if there
is a problem?
You can change the value of Favorites in the Registry in these
two keys: (ignore the second if the value is not there)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders

For Windows 2000/XP:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders]
Set the Favorites path to : %USERPROFILE%\Favorites


The above should be a REG_EXPAND_SZ value, not REG_SZ


Ref: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFAQ.htm#favorites
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/usershellfolders.htm



...Alan

Thank you Alan, I did try that fix and it doesn't seem to apply even though
it was the only fix that really looked like it made sense.
The Favorites path is %USERPROFILE%\Favorites and the registry values are
REG_EXPAND_SZ on every machine.
Most of the fixes I found in a Google search were for problems with
favorites disappearing after a malware problem or for people who had
installed IE7. So they really weren't appropriate.

Ruth

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Over the last several months, we have several XP users who have lost their
favorites in IE6, some more than once. There is nothing in the dropdown list
and nothing in the favorites folder in their profile, aside from the
defaults. I assumed at first that malware may be the problem but I have
done scans with Ewido, Spybot S&D and AdAware while in safe mode and nothing
unusual has turned up. Our machines joined a new domain about a year ago and
updates are now pushed down centrally. I might be wrong, but I have a
feeling that the disappearing favorites might have something to do with
updates since it always seems to happen a day or two after an update.

What kind of update? IE Cumulative Security patches?
Did you use an IEAK install? I know that that is one way to create
customized Links, which I think are specified via the registry.
Perhaps it would have some related effect when an IE update is applied?

Since you have a hypothesis for the cause I would try monitoring
both the Favorites folder and the registry (e.g. using FileMon and RegMon)
both to test your idea and hopefully provide more details about how
the problem happens.

I have
googled and found several possible fixes, none of which work. Has anyone had
this issue and found a resolution?

Thanks
Ruth

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
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