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.
- Understanding how a virus could attacks your Internet Explorer
- Awareness of your registry settings.
- Experience of .Reg files.
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For Mr Organized there is a nifty subnet
calculator, you enter the network address and the subnet mask, then IPAT
works out the usable addresses and their ranges.
For Mr Lazy IPAT
discovers and then displays the IP addresses of existing computers.
Download the Free IP Address Tracker
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 FilesYou 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) lockoutProblem "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.
See more Windows
browser registry tips.
.Reg FilesYou 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
See more registry articles
• E 124 Learn Registry • E 118 Vista Registry • E 107 Reg •
Free Syslog Server
•
E 84 Reg • E 68 CMOS •
E 7 Reg • E 6 Reg •
Registry •
IP Address Manager • Ezines
• Windows 8 Registry
Hacks •
Windows 8 .Reg Examples • Config
Generator •
PowerShell Registry
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