Cannot change browser page--not hijacked

[moorpheus]

When I was traveling, I used the RR mail page as my browser home page. Back from the trip and resuming downloading to my Outlook Express, I wanted my regular browser home page back.

Changed options to current page, no luck. Tried to change to about:blank and still no luck.

Can't do it.

Spybot says there is no malware or any problem on my computer, and when I change my browser homepage (https://webmail.tampabay.rr.com) even Spybot doesn't do it! I think I recall that Spybot used to allow a delete of a browser page, but my present edition only permits me to "change" and that change doesn't stick.

I can't figure what's wrong. I went to my Registry >software>microsoft>internet explorer>Start page to change the values there, but I couldn't modify it (Cannot edit start page. Error writing the value's new contents) and I couldn't delete it (unable to delete all specified values).

I'm in a quandary here. Kerfuffled. Having the webmail page won't kill me but I like to have control over my laptop (Toshiba m55 S135 -- XP, Linksys router).

Spybot was my fallback but it doesn't work.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
M

[md usa spybot fan]

See if any of the suggestions in the following thread help:
can't change home page stays on update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=5401
Also, do you to run ZoneAlarm?

[moorpheus]

Thanks for the thought. I guess I didn't communicate well enough in my OP the steps I had gone through.

Yes, I do use ZA, and will turn it off to see if that does anything. Do you have a specific suggestion?

Thanks

[moorpheus]

Great idea, but didn't work. I'll turn ZA Back on now.

I'd love some more ideas to explore. Thanks again.

[Rosenfeld]

If it is Zone Alarm FREE 6.5.xxx, just shutting ZA down is insufficient. You need to stop it from loading on start up, shut it down and restart your PC to change your home page as there is no option to stop it from locking the home page when the services it loads are running (and these are not stopped just by shutting down ZAclient). This is a major bug that has been reported several times on the ZA forums.

If it is ZA Pro, there is an option in Program Control -> Main -> Program Control -> Custom -> OSFirewall and make sure "...home page" isn't set to Deny.

[moorpheus]

Wow. What a relief! I really appreciate that!

I have ZA Pro, but I don't like it -- so I use the regular ZA. It never occurred to me to have it not load.

I appreciate your knowledge and your sharing with me. THANKS!

M

[ricanman]

If you do a clean boot on Windows Xp, you will able to change anything concerning the problem with Home Page Hijacking and Problems editing the registry. Click here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/

Eliot

[henry]

I tried it with ZA off and rebooted with ZA off. It did not work. I uninstalled ZA and it worked!