Cannot change msn default home page

[cozzy]

Hello, long time no see, i'm getting better at fixing problems but can't fix this one. I've looked on the net & it seems to be a popular problem but i can't find a solution. I cannot alter the homepage in internet options, it always resorts back to http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&pver=6&ar=msnhome I looked the problem up on microsoft's site, article 320159 & it looked quite harrowing & at some stage it suggests a fresh windows installation. I notice the problem can lie with spybot search & destroy in the tools/tweaks section locking the homepage, but the box was already unchecked. Anyway, i uninstalled spybot & restarted & the problem remained, so it's not spybot here.

I have run spybot, full nortons scan, cw shredder, adaware, with no problems found at all. I ran a new program i've come across called, EWIDO, i ran it in safe mode & it found & removed 5 tracking cookies, (even though i had DELETED COOKIES before running this! The problem still persists. Using XP Home Edition.

At this point i am NOT bothered about MSN being the homepage. If it ain't gonna be a major setback for the PC i will leave it be & this will be the end of this thread, but, i'm imagining it's going to be something more sinister than things appear.

I'm really angry if it's something bad as i have only just finished 8 hours of reinstalling windows from scratch, virus updates, office updates, windows updates. It is free from adware, spyware, trojans, worms & viruses for definite. The PC has NEVER worked better than now. Please tell me i can forget about this!

There is no point in doing another fresh installation, i need to find the cause. IMPORTANT.... i have done approx. 10 previous fresh installs of windows on this PC before & have never had a problem when it was all done, so i will tell you what i have done differently this latest time, (although i'm not saying these are the culprits), just letting you know. There are 2 things i've done differently to the other 10 times: i've downloaded FIREFOX (as a much needed emergency 2nd browser to IE), & i've changed ISP from BT to TalkTalk.

I notice when i go to 'start' & 'connect to', it says 'TalkTalk.net', but above this on the list it says connect to 'MY ISP'....when i click on the 'MY ISP' it just says 'dialling'....but nothing happens, it says the remote computer did not respond. However, the TalkTalk broadband works fine.
Could i find the program 'connect to MY ISP' & delete it? Because this certainly was not there before i wiped the hard drive & TalkTalk was installed for 3 days before i wiped everything off & there was only ONE connection option & that was the usual 'connect to TalkTalk.net'.

Hoping i can just either find an easy fix or be ok to leave it be. If i do leave it, am i likely to get a load of grief in the near future? Sorry it's a bit long-winded but i know there can be many causes/situations of why this happens, but after a fresh installation & everything i need is now back on & PC running superb...i needed to clue you up on what i've done.

Cheers

[knsljo]

You probably didn't uninstall spybot correctly and it left some of its settings in the registry. It definately sounds like spybot or another similar program:!:

['Stein]

Post a HJT thread in the Virus forum.

Thanks.

[cozzy]

I did uninstall spybot properly & left no remnants in the registry. Spybot was not causing the problem at all. I've sort of fixed the problem, (although i could just be masking it). All i did was start up in safe mode, change the home page in internet options & hey presto it has obeyed.

However, the home page is now locked on the prefered home page & cannot be changed in normal mode......hoping there is not still something going on. As i said i ain't fussed what home page it is, just thought it may be something of a pointer to further troubles (especially with microsoft suggesting a fresh install)!!! Anyway, it's 2 weeks now since reinstalling windows & the pc is going brill, so i'm gonna leave it there, ain't doing it all again when i've just done it. I see this problem scattered around everywhere with no real solution so maybe just changing it in safe mode would do for them?

Thanks

[knsljo]

I did uninstall spybot properly & left no remnants in the registry. Spybot was not causing the problem at all. I've sort of fixed the problem, (although i could just be masking it). All i did was start up in safe mode, change the home page in internet options & hey presto it has obeyed.

However, the home page is now locked on the prefered home page & cannot be changed in normal mode......hoping there is not still something going on. As i said i ain't fussed what home page it is, just thought it may be something of a pointer to further troubles (especially with microsoft suggesting a fresh install)!!! Anyway, it's 2 weeks now since reinstalling windows & the pc is going brill, so i'm gonna leave it there, ain't doing it all again when i've just done it. I see this problem scattered around everywhere with no real solution so maybe just changing it in safe mode would do for them?

Thanks

If you can change it in safe mode it is something running in normal mode that won't let change it. Could be your AV or more likely a spyware infection. Try disabling all startup programs in msconfig restart and see if the problem is still there.!:-|

[jbennet]

Some oems make it a specific one which is unchangeable kinda like a virus

[cozzy]

Was just about to disable stuff in msconfig but gave the homepage change another go (as i ain't tried to change it for a week) & it WORKED OK So it seems to have mysteriously fixed itself. Definitely, last week, it would only change in safe mode because when i restarted in normal mode it would NOT change from the homepage i'd chosen in safe mode. (Although i had succeeded in getting the original stubborn homepage that appeared after a fresh windows installation) away.

However, i then searched the registry & found & removed an entry: http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir...r=6&ar=msnhome. After removing this, the homepage still would not change. But, i have not tried it again until just now, (a week later). Nothing has been installed/uninstalled on the PC since then so all i can think of is when after removing this registry entry, the homepage problem would have been OK after a restart. It's just that i didn't try it again after tinkering with the registry (upon the next restart), until just now.
Well it's certainly fixed.......what do you think had happened?

[farrawayman]

Thanks COZZY,

I have recently had a similar problem and googled for a while until I came upon your post.

I use IE and Firefox, and also had my homepage set to http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir...r=6&ar=msnhome.

FYI - I run a hardware router and hate lots of little processes eating up at my resources, so I run a light system with minimal spyware/malware apps. (Only AVG Ver. 7.5.430 and Lavasoft Ad Aware) I do not P2P anymore and I am the ultimate skeptic opening email... if I don't know a sender, it gets dumped, so I am well below the average risk of spyware/malware. I also run netstat to check on what's coming in and going out, as well as bombarding myself with Shields-Up attacks now and then just to see if something has opened up a port. The only software I updated recently was my version of Firefox, to 2.0.

This specific machine is a an IBM ThinkPad T22 and I very recently updated all the IBM software through the IBM Lenovo tools, which is software that automatically runs an agent in the machine to synchronize versions of local software with the latest versions which sit on the IBM website.

I changed ALL the StartPage and Set_Default_URL registry keys manually, but this did not help. I then ran a registry search for http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir...r=6&ar=msnhome, but this yielded no results. I then performed a search in registry for the word "homepage", which brought me to the following key...HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\Access Connections\Locations\Home\AdptList\Adpt00, which contained a string value of http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir...r=6&ar=msnhome. I changed this, restarted the machine, and hey presto, all is now well for the first time since I began looking for a solution.

COZZY, your article helped me to solve the problem because it was your suggestion to perform Registry searches, and even though I used a different search string, had it not have been for your suggestion, I would not have been able to solve this problem, so thank you very much for a very well written and researched piece of work.

I would suggest that these sorts of problems should always be resolved through the registry, and also that HJT will not always deliver the solution in a log, if it finds that a key could be valid if it is not linked to an active script called from a startup procedure.

[cozzy]

Glad to be of help. That was months ago & everything is hunky dory still.

I'm no expert though. I've just posted a problem in Internet Explorer section to do with the new IE7. Hope you can assist on this Farrawayman.

[postysteve]

I did uninstall spybot properly & left no remnants in the registry. Spybot was not causing the problem at all. I've sort of fixed the problem, (although i could just be masking it). All i did was start up in safe mode, change the home page in internet options & hey presto it has obeyed.

However, the home page is now locked on the prefered home page & cannot be changed in normal mode......hoping there is not still something going on. As i said i ain't fussed what home page it is, just thought it may be something of a pointer to further troubles (especially with microsoft suggesting a fresh install)!!! Anyway, it's 2 weeks now since reinstalling windows & the pc is going brill, so i'm gonna leave it there, ain't doing it all again when i've just done it. I see this problem scattered around everywhere with no real solution so maybe just changing it in safe mode would do for them?

Thanks

:!: I Tryed it in safe mode did not work so still stuck wi msm:sad: postysteve

[rihannahir]

I had the same problem for the past 3months and I've just figure out what was going on...

since you have Norton just like me I'd like you to go under option, select Norton Antivirus and on the left side you sould have a link : homepage protection.

I'd like to make sure that you do not have the box to prevent all modification to your home page checked because that was my problem!

if you have a check mark remove it and go on Tools in IE & change to the homepage that you'd like and go back to norton and check the box... this will prevent any futur program from Microsoft to change your homepage!

Hope this fix your problem and make your computer obey your every command.

[postysteve]

i dont know where you got the idea that i have norton because i dont ? so this idea would not sort out my problem but thanks anyway.

steve.

[cozzy]

Well a year on from my first post with the 'locked home page' problem & everything is still fine. (longest the PC has been without hitches & having to format) i'm happy about that! The problem can lie with Spybot, & Nortons, but there are tweaks within these programs to easily rectify. My problem was totaly solved just by starting in safe mode, changing the home page to whatever then starting up in normal mode. The new chosen home page appeared but i couldn't change the home page to anything else. I then deleted from the registry: microsoft.com/isapi/redir...r=6&ar=msnhome.
The home page still couldn't be changed. But two weeks later everything was completely ok, all i had to do after deleting the above Reg key was to do a restart afterwards! But didn't realise this until i tried changing the home page a fortnite later.

[Spriggan]

Cozzy is completely right. only the reg edit, or a prog. that creates/prevents reg changes can act this way i.e. spysweeper, win patrol, norton, mcafee, ect...

[Darien]

That Norton thing worked for me. You know, I try everything else, and that's all it is.
Thank you.

[Phnx]

If you need kool hompages, go to a site called http://www.eziner.info You can choose from 100's of themes to save as a hompage! I personally went with the Fish Tank...

[SUGARGROVE]

I experienced the same aggravation. after using many suggestions from blogs and the usual attempts to change the home page via the internet tools change home page, to regedit... neither worked. so for the time being i cut and pasted the offending site redirect url to the restricted sites list. this stopped the page from loading however you still cannot select a different home page just not look at msn.

[Hilversum]

Hi:

I tried this solution and it works !!! Thanks ! I also had this problem setting up my home page and was totally frustrated until I read your advise. Norton Antivirus was the source of the problem. I followed your instructions and the problem was solved.

Thanks again,

Hilversum:)

I had the same problem for the past 3months and I've just figure out what was going on...

since you have Norton just like me I'd like you to go under option, select Norton Antivirus and on the left side you sould have a link : homepage protection.

I'd like to make sure that you do not have the box to prevent all modification to your home page checked because that was my problem!

if you have a check mark remove it and go on Tools in IE & change to the homepage that you'd like and go back to norton and check the box... this will prevent any futur program from Microsoft to change your homepage!

Hope this fix your problem and make your computer obey your every command.

[MrDallasIT]

I had this issue with IE6, and I upgraded to IE 7, and haven't had this issue since. The upgrade process will normally correct this issue. IE7 performs and fixes malicious changes during the installation process. I would recommend using Mozilla Firefox. Besides its more secure than IE. IE has too many backdoors that are left unsecure....This is not a O/S issue if you can download Mozilla Browser, and you are able to change homepage there..Hope this helps...