Best Practice Ezine #29 Registry Hack for Internet Explorer

Guy’s Best Practice & Litmus Tests Ezine #29 - Registry Hacks for Internet Explorer.

This weeks ezine tackles virus attacks on your Internet Explorer.  My main emphasis is on using Regedit to solve annoying problems in the registry.  These are my 3 objectives for this ezine.

1. Understanding how a virus could attacks your Internet Explorer
2. Awareness of your registry settings.
3. Experience of .Reg files.

Scenario: Your homepage is locked in Internet Explorer.

The problem is that your Internet Explorer's menus have been locked.  You can no longer set the home page, or worse, you cannot open the Tools (Menu) Internet Options..

This happened to me not once, but three times, so the chances are that you could be affected sooner or later.

'Use Current' Greyed out.

The problem "HomePage"

When you try and change Home page Address, unfortunately, 'Use Current' is greyed out.

Causes

If you experience this IE problem at your office, then it is possible that that your network administrator has a group policy in operation; if so, the chances are that their group policy will also forbid registry changes.

Where there are no group policies in effect, then I would suspect a Virus attack, those menu's do not just 'Grey out' of their own accord.

The solution

Open Regedit and navigate to 'HomePage" by tracing this path:

Note: this is a job for HKEY_Current_User (not HKLM).

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel] "HomePage"=dword:00000000

Just to be clear, 1 = lock, "HomePage"=dword:00000001

Whereas, 0 (zero) = unlock "HomePage"=dword:00000000

In my opinion, the only use of "HomePage"=dword:00000001 is for testing the problem.

.Reg Files

You may know that you can make changes to the registry by double clicking or merging .reg files.  These are .reg files ordinary text files with the path and keyword(s) necessary to change the registry without blundering about with with regedit.

Here is a .reg file that will enable your 'Home Page'.

Here is the .zip version to enable your 'Home Page' (You do not need both)

Internet Explorer Tools (Menu) lockout

Problem "NoBrowserOptions"

The situation is this, in Internet Explorer, you wish to alter the Internet Options however, all that you get is an error message saying :

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer.

Causes

If you are at work, then perhaps your Administrator really has a group policy which stops you changing your options.  In that case, the chances are that the group policy will also forbid registry changes.

Alternatively, if you are at home the problem may be due to Microsoft Plus! for Kids 1.0. 

However, in my case I believe it was a virus, for example TABER

Solution

Again you need to make a registry change.   One way of finding the right place in the registry would be to the Edit (Menu), Find : NoBrowserOptions (Type).

This "NoBrowserOptions" option is controlled by a different section of the registry.  Note the word \Policies

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions "NoBrowserOptions"=dword:00000000

Once again the logic is 1 = Locked,  0 = unlocked.

.Reg Files

You may know that you can make changes to the registry by executing or merging .reg files.  These are ordinary text files with the path and keyword necessary to change the registry without trawling through with regedit.

Here is a .reg file that will Unlock your Internet Explorer Tools, Options.

Here is the .zip version. to Unlock your IE' (You do not need both

Review of Google's Chrome

See more on the Registry - Whole Section here

Guy Thomas recommends Computer Training Software. 

Their topics and material are ideal for getting you started with VBScript.  The videos are easy to follow and you can control the pace.  Try their free demo material and then see if you want to buy the full package. See more about VB Script Training CD.

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