IE Toolbar Registry entries keep disappearing

[blariz]

We have a laptop with WindowsXP SP1 Home Edition and it has IE6 SP1 and all
the latest updates applied.
When we right click the area where the Toolbar buttons are (like Back,
Forward, Refresh,, Home, etc) and select "Customize..." we are able to add
and delete the Icons that we want (or don't want to see). The same goes for
Windows Explorer..

After the browser is closed and the computer is restarted, if you open
Internet Explorer the Toolbar Icons are back to the the default set and the
Customized additions are not there. So we have to go through the whole
right click, customize routine again to get it the way we want it.

The laptop has antivirus software installed with the latest virus defs. A
full system scan has been done.
Ad-aware is installed on the laptop with the latest ref file and a full scan
has been done also.

I have checked the following Registry Keys under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar
and the following sub keys are present after Customizing the toolbars in
Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer:

Explorer Sub-key
WebBrowser Sub-key
and there is no Sub-key of ShellBrowser but I can import one.

THEN HERE IS THE PROBLEM:

Whenever the computer is rebooted the toolbars for IE and Windows Explore
end up back at their default settings AND when I look in Regedit THE ENTIRE
Toolbar Regisitry Key and all of its Sub-keys are gone from
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\.

How is this happening that these registry keys keep disappearing after each
reboot ,and how can I make them "stick"?
Any suggestions or ideas please?

 

[PA Bear]

Do you unlock the toolbar before making the changes and then lock it when
you're done?
--
HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.aumha.org

What You Should Know About Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/twc/privacy/spyware.mspx

 

[blariz]

I did unlock it before I made the changes, but I did not go back and re-lock
it when I was done.
The reason being is that I have 3 other computers in my house (1 other
laptop, 1 desktop and 1 tablet PC) that all have IE6 and Windows XP on them,
and I have never gone back and re-locked them after customizing the
toolbars. And they all retain their customized settings after shutdowns and
reboots.

I can try your suggestion on that laptop with the problem, but I have doubts
that it will make the difference in this case.
Thanks for the suggestion, I will let you know what happens after I try
that.
Regards.