Corrupted Profile and phantom IE home page

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leonardmp92

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Hello,

For some reason or another, my profile got corrupted, so I deleted it and created another one.

Now, when I change the home page on IE (tools, internet options, general, home page), it always changes it back to msn.com.

What could I be doing wrong?

Thank you!
 
If you have any anti-spyware/virus and firewall application running that might disable other application like browser hijacker from changing your homepage make sure you configure those software. Some softwares like Spybot search and destroy and the newer version of zone alarm or Norton AV.

You can open up regedit from the run and navigate to these setting.
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.
 
Law, thanks a lot for the great explanation. I understand everything you mentioned below, but I did not have the first three registry keys you mention.

I did have the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main key, but it was already set to C:\WINDOWS\System\blank.htm.

I am running XP Pro, SP2 and I am running Spybot and the newest version of Zone Alarm.

Should I try tweaking Zone Alarm or Spybot.

Just curious why I dont have those registry keys you mention, seems like it would really have fixed this.
 
Those three registry key come from local policy setting, if you don't have them then other programs are to blame for not letting you change the home page.

Spybot - go to the "Immunize" section if "Lock IE Start Page Settings" is check then uncheck it.

Zone Alarm - Not sure I haven't use it in a long time and don't know what's in the newer version but I'm pretty sure when I had Zone Alarm there was a setting to lock the home page. If you can look around in the application you should see it.

Another solution is to scan for spywares and post a hijack log, because you may be infected with something.
 
I think it has to do with either Spybot, ZA, or my Norton AV. I just tried to change the IE start page on another one of my machines, and could not do it (this machine has the same programs as my machine that I had to change the profile).

I did not have "Lock IE Start Page" checked on Spybot, so I am searching around for another reason why I cant change the IE home page....
 
go to:
HKCU\software\microsoft\internet explorer\main\

Look for start page, then edit the reg file to whatever page you want, close it and see if it changes again
 
Could not find a key for "start page" under that...only "local page" that says C:\WINDOWS\system32\blank.htm.

Should I make a new registry key called "start page"?
 
leonardmp92 said:
Could not find a key for "start page" under that...only "local page" that says C:\WINDOWS\system32\blank.htm.

Should I make a new registry key called "start page"?

so you went to the registry, did a edit, find, typed in start page and it gave you that error?
 
No...there is no key under HKCU\software\microsoft\internet explorer\main\ called "start page".

How can I post a screen shot?
 
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