IE6 Locked out of normal Home page

[Gerry]

Under my user name I was denied permission to access 'options' in IE6
due to restrictions on the computer, although, as administrator, I had
full permission. Consequently, in 'safe mode' I granted myself
permission to access everything but was still unable to change my home
page (even in 'safe mode'), as user. I am always first connected to my
ISP, from which I access favourites and thence my former home page.

A trawl through the registry produced a number of Explorer keys with
'nohome' values which I am understandably reluctant to tamper with,
having no idea either whether these are the correct keys or how to
edit them. But two values in Explorer looked hopeful -
'NoBrowserOptions' which I changed from 1 to 0, which gave me options,
but not the one I wanted, and 'Default_Page_URL' which I changed to
the home page of choice without effect.

This has occurred in the last 7 to 10 days so new installations must
be suspect but, as these comprise the latest editions of Ad Aware, Pop
Up Stopper Pro and SpyBot, in which I can find nothing suspicious, I'm
at a loss.

My final option was to uninstall and reinstall IE6, but there is no
option to do so either in Control Panel or program files.

Obviously I'm missing something. Can anyone give me a pointer, please?

Gerry

 

[JR]

This is caused by a third-party program (adware, spyware,
parasite)

Download, install, *update* and run these two programs:
Ad-aware from http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
Spybot from http://security.kolla.de/ (Remove items
listed in red.)

Additional information at:

Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
Note the security recommendations.

BHOs and Spyware
http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/spyware.htm#BHOCOP

Bugs, Glitches & Stuffups:
http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm

Search for common parasites at
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/

 

[Don Varnau]

Gerry,
If you use Spybot S&D, open Spybot in Advanced mode and check the Immunize
settings. You may have placed this restriction inadvertently.

If not ... go to Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm Scroll down to
"Various Registry Fixes"

Don

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

Under my user name I was denied permission to access 'options' in IE6
due to restrictions on the computer, although, as administrator, I had
full permission. Consequently, in 'safe mode' I granted myself
permission to access everything but was still unable to change my home
page (even in 'safe mode'), as user. I am always first connected to my
ISP, from which I access favourites and thence my former home page.

A trawl through the registry produced a number of Explorer keys with
'nohome' values which I am understandably reluctant to tamper with,
having no idea either whether these are the correct keys or how to
edit them. But two values in Explorer looked hopeful -
'NoBrowserOptions' which I changed from 1 to 0, which gave me options,
but not the one I wanted, and 'Default_Page_URL' which I changed to
the home page of choice without effect.

This has occurred in the last 7 to 10 days so new installations must
be suspect but, as these comprise the latest editions of Ad Aware, Pop
Up Stopper Pro and SpyBot, in which I can find nothing suspicious, I'm
at a loss.

My final option was to uninstall and reinstall IE6, but there is no
option to do so either in Control Panel or program files.

Obviously I'm missing something. Can anyone give me a pointer, please?

Gerry

From http://www.fjsmjs.com/IE/homepage.htm

If you have SpyBot S&D installed, go to the "Immunize" section.
Is "Lock IE Start Page Settings" ticked?
If so, uncheck it.

If that is not the problem, get and run these programs (if you test after
each one you can stop when the problem is gone):
Ad-Aware:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com
Once installed make sure to update via online before scanning!
and
Spybot - Search & Destroy -
http://security.kolla.de/
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download
http://spybot.eon.net.au/
http://www.tomcoyote.org/SPYBOT/
Once installed make sure to update via online before scanning!
and
BHO Demon: http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/bhod/

Until the problem is solved.


If you still have problems, some ISP's provide a customized version of IE.
Some Web pages will also reset your home page and do this. One of the
customizations they might make is to disable the ability to change the home
page, so that you are forced to use their home page. You can re-enable this
by making a small change in the Windows registry.

In Regedit, navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel

In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00

Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
- DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

If you don't have this key, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to
"C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home
Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet
Options.

Exit regedit and reboot.

When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.

Some pages will also download a program which keeps changing it back. Go to
Start | Run and type:
msconfig
and press <Enter> or click OK. Go to the Startup tab.
See if you can identify any suspicious programs. If you can, uncheck it, If
you can't, change the home page to what you want and then uncheck one and
then reboot. Try IE. If the Web page changed, change it back and then try
msconfig again, rechecking the last one and unchecking the next. Keep doing
this until you find the culprit.


You might also want to look at this little program. I haven't tried it, but
I've read encouraging reports:

http://www.pjwalczak.com/spguard/

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

 

[Gerry]

If you have SpyBot S&D installed, go to the "Immunize" section.

Is "Lock IE Start Page Settings" ticked?
If so, uncheck it.

Thanks,Frank, for that and the additional info which I shall store -and probably
lose! It worked perfectly.

Gerry.

Under my user name I was denied permission to access 'options' in IE6
due to restrictions on the computer, although, as administrator, I had
full permission. Consequently, in 'safe mode' I granted myself
permission to access everything but was still unable to change my home
page (even in 'safe mode'), as user. I am always first connected to my
ISP, from which I access favourites and thence my former home page.

A trawl through the registry produced a number of Explorer keys with
'nohome' values which I am understandably reluctant to tamper with,
having no idea either whether these are the correct keys or how to
edit them. But two values in Explorer looked hopeful -
'NoBrowserOptions' which I changed from 1 to 0, which gave me options,
but not the one I wanted, and 'Default_Page_URL' which I changed to
the home page of choice without effect.

This has occurred in the last 7 to 10 days so new installations must
be suspect but, as these comprise the latest editions of Ad Aware, Pop
Up Stopper Pro and SpyBot, in which I can find nothing suspicious, I'm
at a loss.

My final option was to uninstall and reinstall IE6, but there is no
option to do so either in Control Panel or program files.

Obviously I'm missing something. Can anyone give me a pointer, please?

Gerry

From http://www.fjsmjs.com/IE/homepage.htm

If you have SpyBot S&D installed, go to the "Immunize" section.
Is "Lock IE Start Page Settings" ticked?
If so, uncheck it.

If that is not the problem, get and run these programs (if you test after
each one you can stop when the problem is gone):
Ad-Aware:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com
Once installed make sure to update via online before scanning!
and
Spybot - Search & Destroy -
http://security.kolla.de/
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download
http://spybot.eon.net.au/
http://www.tomcoyote.org/SPYBOT/
Once installed make sure to update via online before scanning!
and
BHO Demon: http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/bhod/

Until the problem is solved.


If you still have problems, some ISP's provide a customized version of IE.
Some Web pages will also reset your home page and do this. One of the
customizations they might make is to disable the ability to change the home
page, so that you are forced to use their home page. You can re-enable this
by making a small change in the Windows registry.

In Regedit, navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control
Panel

In the right-hand pane, right-click the "HomePage" value, then select
Modify. Change it to: 00 00 00 00

Also change either or these to zero 0 instead of 1 if present:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
- DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Restrictions] - DWORD "NoSetHomePage"=dword:00000001

If you don't have this key, browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

and in the right hand pane, double click "Local Page" and set equal to
"C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm" (no quotes) which will hopefully set your Home
Page to blank and then allow you to subsequently modify it using Internet
Options.

Exit regedit and reboot.

When you reboot, you should be able to change the home page again.

Some pages will also download a program which keeps changing it back. Go to
Start | Run and type:
msconfig
and press <Enter> or click OK. Go to the Startup tab.
See if you can identify any suspicious programs. If you can, uncheck it, If
you can't, change the home page to what you want and then uncheck one and
then reboot. Try IE. If the Web page changed, change it back and then try
msconfig again, rechecking the last one and unchecking the next. Keep doing
this until you find the culprit.


You might also want to look at this little program. I haven't tried it, but
I've read encouraging reports:

http://www.pjwalczak.com/spguard/