Cannot change home page

[Ron D]

I am now having this problem as well, ( home page stuck on Microsoft Update) and have done as suggested in the quotes below. Has a solution been found?

My problem started after an automatic download for Windows XP. I've attempted to change the home page, but it does not make any difference.

Thanks!

Ron


I will try to explain better.

Another person asked this same question, but got no solution that I can see at http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/17667.html
My sister is the one who has the problem--I was visiting her this week and could tell that her PC was acting "funny." She can't change her homepage back to Google.com which is where it was set and opening to just fine til , she says, about 6 months ago. It now always opens to update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6, and I have run her McAfee, Adaware, Spybot, Defender, and maybe Spyblaster and checked settings and cannot see a setting anywhere that is doing it.
Some times "Use Current" is faded out when I try to change the homepage in IE Options. I have tried to set Dogpile as home page and it still won't change, even tho Spybot shows it as the current home page and the microsoft update as former home page, it continues to open at the ms update page.
She does not have IE6 checked to automatically update, but she does have MS updates to automatically download and install. I have tried this suggestion:
"There is an option within Spybot that sets a flag which prevents your home page from being changed. To see if this flag is set, go into Spybot > Mode > Advanced Mode > Tools > IE Tweaks. There are three "Miscellaneous locks" on Spybot's IE tweaks page:

* Lock Hosts file read-only as protection against hijackers
* Lock IE start page setting against user changes (current user)
* Lock IE control panel against opening from within IE (current user)

If the "Lock IE start page setting against user changes (current user)" is checked, uncheck it and see if you can change your home page."

(My sister had none of these checked.)

If my sister and that guy above have this same problem, then there are others who are having it who weren't/aren't aware of the home page problem, so please help. Spybot's forum could not help us.

Oh, yes, my sister's server is MSN--she changed over to that and DSL in the last few months. I wonder if they make their own home page for their clients? If you need more info, please feel free to ask.
Thanks, zmartha
Yes, those were my posts from last year. I sent the DVD player back. Something was wrong with my PC--motherboard connection, I believe.


Split off from:
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=5401&page=2

[md usa spybot fan]

Ron D:

What OS are you running?

What other security type software do you run?
Anti-virus.
Firewall.
Other anti-malware products (assuming that you run Spybot and have already made sure that your home page is not locked via Spybot's "IE tweaks").

[Ron D]

I am running AVG Antivirus, the XP Pro firewall ( no others) and also have Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE.

The problem first showed up yesterday after a windows update. I had Spybot's Resident pop-up come up, and I *maybe* hit the wrong button, since I could not read them (found the thread concerning the fix yesterday, and have fixed that now).

Anyway, when I open IE 6.0, ther's a pop-up from Resident saying that my change of first page is blacklisted. And if I hit the home page button on my tool bar, it will go back to my old home page. So maybe I goofed up, but don't know how to fix the blacklist?:confused:

[Ron D]

Oh, and yes, I've looked at the IE Tweaks, and they are all un-checked.

[md usa spybot fan]

If you check "Remember this decision" in TeaTimer on a change the information concerning that change it is stored in a file. TeaTimer uses that information to automatically "Allow" or "Deny" changes. It seems that you may have checked "Remember this decision" and "Deny change" on the change.

Go into TeaTimer's "White & Black List", look for and remove any entry relating to that change from the "Blocked registry changes". To do this:Right click on the TeaTimer system tray icon and select Settings. This will bring up TeaTimer's "White & Black List". There are four (4) Buttons across the top of the "White & Black List":

Allowed processes
Blocked processes
Allowed registry changes
Blocked registry changes

Note: If you don't see all four buttons, try expanding the window to the right.
You can delete entries by clicking on the scripted black "X" to the right of the entry that you want to delete and then clicking the "OK" button when you're done. This will in effect make TeaTimer forget what you told it to remember so that during future changes to these items TeaTimer will issue a pop-up dialog rather then just a notification pop-up.

After removing the above entry, if you get a pop-up dialog for the removal of that registry entry do a "Allow change" without the "Remember this decision" option.

[Ron D]

Ah! That fixed it! I did not recall checking "remember this change", but must have. I had seen the entries in the allowed and blocked changes, but did not know how to delete them, and wasn't even certain that this was causing the problem.
Thanks!

Ron

[Lamborghini]

Oh, and yes, I've looked at the IE Tweaks, and they are all un-checked.


Where EXACTLY in spybot can I find the IE tweaks?

[md usa spybot fan]

Lamborghini:

Go into Spybot > Mode > Advanced Mode > Tools > IE Tweaks.

There are three "Miscellaneous locks" on Spybot's IE tweaks page:
Lock Hosts file read-only as protection against hijackers
Lock IE start page setting against user changes (current user)
Lock IE control panel against opening from within IE (current user)
The second item locks the "Home page" from changes by the current user. Note: Locking the "Home page" does not necessarily prevent malicious software from changing your "Home page". In fact in some cases the opposite is true. Malicious software has been known change the "Home page" and then set this lock to prevent you from changing the "Home page" back. See the following Microsoft article:
Home page setting changes unexpectedly, or you cannot change your home page setting
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320159

[SpaccyBat]

:bigthumb: http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-52685-msncom-has-hijacked-my-home-page.html

Has the only answer to work I can find so far...
By bpc101 I will just post their quote as it's all you'll need. (They deserve the glory!!)

"I have been having the same issue with IE and MSN taking over my homepage on a freshly installed PC.

I have just worked out how to resolve this.

Boot into safemode and change the default home page.

Boot back into XP normally and it will have changed. However you still can't change it manually in normal mode!"

At least it helps for the moment until MS get their act together and remove this irritation!!! What were they thinking? World domination or just intent on making all their users angry!

[Zenobia]

Do you happen to have the free version of Zone Alarm,Spaccybat?

[Almonteguy]

I have 2 computers doing the same thing now, they are both up to the latest fix level. It seems the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Start Page can not be changed even using regedit. I don't know why this is but I suspect it was caused by a Microsoft fix. You can boot in to Safe mode to change it as someone else said, but you still can't alter it in Normal mode. I've given up for now, I'll wait and see if another fix comes along soon.

[md usa spybot fan]

Almonteguy:

Please read my response to your similar post in this thread:
can't change home page stays on update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=5401

[SpaccyBat]

No as I said it was a fresh install.
I hadn't even got to the Zone Alarm/Virus install stuff. I wanted Google to fish for some installs and latest updates and discovered it then.

Hope this helps some how?

[Zenobia]

At the time that you posted,there was a bug with Zone Alarm,where a lot of people were not able to change their homepage.