Okay everyone. I will admit that I am a newbie to this forum. Just
when I think I consider myself having mastered much of the "basics,"
I suddenly find myself stumped, once again. For the record, I have
been a computer buff since the EARLY 1990's. In fact, I ran a local
BBS before I suddenly discovered the Internet around 1992/1993.

My question is, that lately, I cannot seem to be able to access my
browser (IE) so that I can change the home page. In other words, I
go to the typical Tools/Internet Options, and go to the General section.
But, for some reason, the whole area is shaded/highlighted, whatever
you want to call it. NONE of the buttons, Use Current, Use Default,
or Use Blank will work in an effort to change my home page. I had
been using Browser Hijack Blaster. But even with it turned off, I could
no longer change my home page. For the record, I also implement the
use of Spybot S & D, AND purchased ZeroSpyware to thwart spyware.

I even tried downloading and installing Advanced Browser, and Ace
Explorer. The same thing happened with them. I HAD been using
the Mozilla Firefox browser. Even with the current update of Mozilla,
I could no longer get that one to work AT ALL. Has anyone else
ever had a problem like this? I'm at a loss.

At a guess I would say that you have those options disabled/protected by Spybot S&D.

Mentioned by Crunchie:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>At a guess I would say that you have those options disabled/protected by Spybot >S&D.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
....sigh....
To be on the safe side I will check it out. But I have had Spybot S & D on my
computer for a while, like, at least a month, if not more. I don't know if I would
have been able to change my home page via Internet Explorer before, but it seems
as if I started having problems with any/ALL browsers as of 7-10 days ago, including
Mozilla, of which I had previously had NO problems. I am still in the process of trying
to figure out why, and check on anything I may have inadvertently done to possibly
cause such problems.

Okay everyone. I will admit that I am a newbie to this forum. Just
when I think I consider myself having mastered much of the "basics,"
I suddenly find myself stumped, once again. For the record, I have
been a computer buff since the EARLY 1990's. In fact, I ran a local
BBS before I suddenly discovered the Internet around 1992/1993.

My question is, that lately, I cannot seem to be able to access my
browser (IE) so that I can change the home page. In other words, I
go to the typical Tools/Internet Options, and go to the General section.
But, for some reason, the whole area is shaded/highlighted, whatever
you want to call it. NONE of the buttons, Use Current, Use Default,
or Use Blank will work in an effort to change my home page. I had
been using Browser Hijack Blaster. But even with it turned off, I could
no longer change my home page. For the record, I also implement the
use of Spybot S & D, AND purchased ZeroSpyware to thwart spyware.

I even tried downloading and installing Advanced Browser, and Ace
Explorer. The same thing happened with them. I HAD been using
the Mozilla Firefox browser. Even with the current update of Mozilla,
I could no longer get that one to work AT ALL. Has anyone else
ever had a problem like this? I'm at a loss.

Try uninstalling your browser the reinstall it, It may work.

Hi Stephen,

do the instructions on your webpage to edit the registry apply to windows xp (home) users?

Regards,

Teresa

At a guess I would say that you have those options disabled/protected by Spybot S&D.

By golly, you were right on, with the Spybot S & D being the cause.
On the other hand, I wouldn't generally have given Spybot permi-
ssion to prevent me from changing my home page. I have no idea
how or when it could have happened.

Of course, I ~did~ have to change from default mode to advanced
mode. There it was, right under the IE tweaks section. For some
reason there it was, plain as day, a box checked stating to disallow
the current user to change the home page.

Thanks......bunches.....

By golly, you were right on, with the Spybot S & D being the cause.
On the other hand, I wouldn't generally have given Spybot permi-
ssion to prevent me from changing my home page. I have no idea
how or when it could have happened.

Of course, I ~did~ have to change from default mode to advanced
mode. There it was, right under the IE tweaks section. For some
reason there it was, plain as day, a box checked stating to disallow
the current user to change the home page.

Thanks......bunches.....

This problem has been driving me crazy for weeks. I am so glad that I found this post. It worked perfectly!
Thanks ALOT!!

This problem has been driving me crazy for weeks. I am so glad that I found this post. It worked perfectly!
Thanks ALOT!!

All I can say is, "Thank GOD for this website!!!!!!"

FWIW, here's a different cause and solution to the locked up home page problem that I haven't seen posted elsewhere...

I'm running both Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware SE Plus (the purchased version), with each of them having setting options in their real-time monitor elements which lock the home page. No problem with those, but what I ran into in the process of trying to change my home page (first time in years) was an incompatibility between the two programs: Even with no home page locking set, Spybot's TeaTimer would still automatically deny registry changes associated with enabling the browser highjack blocking setting in Ad-Aware's Ad-Watch (see screenshot).

After trying everything else I could think of, the only solution I found that didn't involve compromising the desired protection of either utility was to totally uninstall Spybot, make my home page change with Ad-Aware's browser hijack blocking disabled, re-enable it, then D/L and install a fresh copy of Spybot. Bit of a nuisance that -- doubt I'll be changing home pages often -- but at least it worked.

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