Where are the IE Registry Keys?

[Guest]

Being that I'm not much of a Web developer, it's hard for me to even describe
this problem, but I'll try -
When the user opens IE (IE6, SP1, all patches up to date) she sees nothing
"in the background". In some cases, the page simply doesn't look right but
is functional. In other cases, such as in her AOL home page, she can't even
see the buttons that she needs in order to navigate. The problem only exists
within her profile. She also has Netscape installed which is working fine,
but prefers to use IE.

The one thing I did that I thought would work was to create an account, log
on with that account, export HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer, then import it into the Registry of the user who has the IE
problem. That didn't solve the problem. So.....

1. Does anyone know what might be going on and how to fix it?
2. I have to assume that there are other Registry keys that relate to this
problem. Can someone tell me where they are?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hi Charlie,

I don't exactly understand the problem ("in the background"? "doesn't look
right"?), but if the problem only exists for her profile, why don't you just
rebuild her profile? Rename her current profile, have her log on again, test
that the problem is gone, then copy across anything from her old profile that
she needs (Favorites, Desktop, Start Menu). No?

- Ron

 

[Guest]

Thanks.

I should have added that rebuilding her entire profile would be a last
resort, since I don't feel I should have to do that for this one problem.
I often have to use that proceedure, due to the fact that I'm an IT worker
and need to do that after an OS failure, etc. because I have no choice. I
would prefer to learn how to fix this type of problem, especially for future
needs.

Knowing which registry keys exist for IE settings so that I can try
replacing those would be helpful. As I said before, there must be ones
besides the one I replaced. (it's possible they aren't even IE keys, but
the problem doesn't seem to affect any other apps.)

As for "in the background"? "doesn't look right"?, that's the best way I can
describe it. Basically, there are a lot of components missing, including
buttons, but enough of the page shows up to at least recognize what it is.

 

[Alan Edwards]

These 4 keys cover all IE settings:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\Internet Explorer]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\Internet Explorer]

....Alan

 

[Guest]

Thanks Alan -
I didn't know about the first one in your list.
I'll try replacing that one, since I already replaced the other HKUser key.
The HKLM ones wouldn't apply in this case, since it only affects this one
user's profile.
Much appreciated.

These 4 keys cover all IE settings:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\Internet Explorer]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\Internet Explorer]

....Alan

--
Alan Edwards, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/index.html

In microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser, "Charlie"

Being that I'm not much of a Web developer, it's hard for me to even describe
this problem, but I'll try -
When the user opens IE (IE6, SP1, all patches up to date) she sees nothing
"in the background". In some cases, the page simply doesn't look right but
is functional. In other cases, such as in her AOL home page, she can't even
see the buttons that she needs in order to navigate. The problem only exists
within her profile. She also has Netscape installed which is working fine,
but prefers to use IE.

The one thing I did that I thought would work was to create an account, log
on with that account, export HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer, then import it into the Registry of the user who has the IE
problem. That didn't solve the problem. So.....

1. Does anyone know what might be going on and how to fix it?
2. I have to assume that there are other Registry keys that relate to this
problem. Can someone tell me where they are?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

IMHO you should do whatever will get your client going again as quickly as
possible, and with the least risk.

I too am an IT worker, and I've rebuilt profiles for clients dozens of
times. It takes about fifteen minutes in most cases, and it's easy to
restore the old profile if you run into difficulties.

Now, how many hours have you spent trying to fix the registry manually?
What do you think are your odds of success at this point, and what are the
risks if you make a mistake? (You did back up the registry first, right?

Yeah, it's cool to hack into the registry and you might even learn
something, but IMHO you should be doing those things on your own computer or
in a test lab, not experimenting on a client's computer.

Of course, as Dennis Miller would say, that's just my opinion -- I could be
wrong. Good Luck!

Ron

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I usually get away with copying the old profile, deleting it and
copying over the user's Desktop, My Documents, IE Favorites, Outlook.pst.
I'm always afraid that someone will say "Oh but I had this special
background." or "I was using Process Manager Danish version and all the
settings that I spent hours on are gone." Then it's restore from backup (how
new are the restored files gonna be?) and overwriting the profile which us
puts us back to square 1, but with lots of wasted time.

I'm not afraid of messing up the computer by editing the Registry since I
only have to make a change in HK_Current_User.

In any case, it looks like I will end up doing the usual - exactly what you
said.
I'll let you know if this is one of the exceptions where something important
to the user gets lost.