Usually I only use Mozilla FireFox version 3.0.x to do my browsing on the internet. It has a lot of good features that are not found in other browsers. I haven’t explored all of the browsers available, but Firefox suits my requirements. On occasion, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) is required, especially on some of the Microsoft websites that I go to. Some non-Microsoft websites seem to only support IE for viewing as well. When developing websites, testing using IE as one of the browsers ensures that your website looks good to the majority of internet users.
At some point over the last few weeks while patching Windows XP from the Microsoft update site, one of the “fixes” from Microsoft changed the home as well as start page in Internet Explorer 6. The page was an advertisement to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.
I checked the homepage in IE to see if it was changed. Sure enough it pointed to Microsoft’s MSN advertisement for IE7. I changed the home page back to http://www.softwarestrategies.ca in the Tools>Internet Options>General Address Window. I closed IE6 and reopened it. Up came the MSN ad for IE7again. I checked the home page address and it was still http://www.softwarestrategies.ca. What gives, I thought. So I went to google to search for the solution.
The culprit is a registry entry called First Home Page. It contained the URL to the Microsoft IE7 ad. In order to fix it, I had to edit the registry. If you’re uncomfortable editing registry entries, get someone who is.
In Windows XP click on Start>Run. In the Open: window type regedit. Click OK. The registry window will pop up and should look similar to this:
Double click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER to open the next level to Software which should look similar to this:
Double click on Software to open the next level to Microsoft which should look similar to this:
Double click on Microsoft to open the next level to Internet Explorer which should look similar to this:
Double click on Internet Explorer to open the next level to Main which should look similar to this:
With Main displayed, click and highlight First Home Page in the right column which should look similar to this:
Right click on First Home Page, from the list, click on Modify. Another window should pop up similar to this:
Change the Value data: to your home (as well as start) page. In this case I changed it to http://www. softwarestrategies.ca.
Microsoft spam problem solved!!