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Take back control of IE

• Tags:
• Hijack,
• Explorer,
• Malware,
• Firefox

Brien M Posey

Published: 29 Oct 2004 14:14 BST

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Before we begin
Warning: The following section involves editing your system registry. Using the Windows Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems requiring the reinstallation of your operating system and may lead to the loss of data. TechRepublic does not and will not support problems that arise from editing your registry. Use the Registry Editor and the following directions at your own risk.

Clean the registry
When a program hijacks IE by modifying the registry on a Windows NT/2000/XP system, the change often impacts only the current user. This is because many users don't have local administrative privileges and can only modify the HKEY_CURRENT_USER portion of the registry, not the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE portion. If the user has local administrative privileges or the machine is running Windows 9x/Me (which won't protect the registry), the change could be applied to all of the users on the system, depending on hijacker's level of sophistication.

With this in mind, log on as the person who's having the problem and open the Registry Editor. Then, navigate through the registry tree to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Control Panel

Check for the existence of keys named ResetWebSettings or HomePage. If such keys exist, delete them.

Next, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Verify that the information stored in the Default_Page_URL key and Start Page key is correct. If these keys contain values that reflect an undesirable startup page, double-click on the key to open its dialog box and then replace the existing value with an appropriate one.

There are two more registry entries you should check, but you'll need to ensure you have the proper permissions before doing so. As I mentioned before, if you're using Windows 9x/Me, any user can modify the registry, but if you're using Windows NT/2000/XP you'll need local administrative privileges.

Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

As before, check the Default_Page_URL and the Start Page keys for inappropriate values and change the values if necessary. Next, navigate to:
HKEY_USERS\Default\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Once again, check the Default_Page_URL and the Start Page keys for inappropriate values, and change them as necessary.

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