MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER AND MS WINDOWS

Recently installed programme has hijacked Start Page.

When you fire up MS Internet Explorer it displays your Start Page. You can normally change this (provided that you have privileges under NT or 2000) by going to Tools|Internet Options and typing in the URL of your desired start page. So if a programme has changed this you can just change it back. However, some more unscrupulous programmes try to prevent you from doing this by changing the Start Page, and then greying out the box so you can't alter it. Below are two methods to reverse this change and give you back the control

(1) The TIMMONET simple switch

The method here is to apply these Registry scripts UNLOCK to unlock your start page and LOCK should you wish to lock it. Download from my site and run from the location that you chose, or run directly from the Internet. I assure you that these will work for Windows 98 & 2000.

(2) The Doug Knox Hi-Jack toggle switch

If the Start Page feature is disabled (greyed), go to Doug Knox's site: http://www.dougknox.com/security/scripts_desc/nosethomepage.htm.

Download nosethomepage.vbs and save this file. Navigate to where you saved it and double click the file. The Script will look for the appropriate Registry value and if it can’t find it the script will create it. You will get a message telling you the option status. If it says that the setting of the Start Page is DISABLED, run the script again and it will ENABLE it. That is what you want. Running the script repeatedly toggles the status.

Check your settings here: Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel\HomePage Reg_dword = 0 for unlocked 1 for locked

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page Reg_Sz = http://www.domain.com (your required start page)

How to edit the Registry

The usual caveats apply here; only do it if you are confident, and always back up the registry before making changes.

Go to Start|Run and enter regedit for the really simple version or regedt32 for a more swish interface. You will see that the registry is divided into a number of chunks or hives as they are called. These are:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

HKEY_USERS

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

Just like Windows Explorer, you can drill down to the relevant keys by clicking on the + boxes and expanding the tree. The regedt32 version opens each Registry hive in a separate window to avoid confusion. The hives can look very similar and it can be confusing once you get into the detail.

BEWARE:

Any alteration to the “Registry” is at your own risk. There are no checks or mugtraps when changing things manually. If you make a mistake you might end up with a Windows machine that just won’t work. The “Registry” is a massive database that directs the operation of a Windows operating system. If you are unsure about what you are doing here, don’t tinker. I have provided a link to a simple Visual Basic Script that can do this task for you, but I can give no guarantees here either, as I didn’t write it and offer it as seen on Doug Knox’s Web site.