Member Avatar for fog_za

I have a user with a PC running Windows XP home, on a Novell netware network and a bordermanager proxy server. Since the computer is shared by many users, they like to utilise the personalised background part of Windows XP and log in locally as different users.

The first user that was created can use the Internet perfectly fine. When the others log on and bring up pages like google, they cannot use any of the buttons, controls, or even hyperlinks on the pages. Internet explorer does not even react when they touch the buttons. Certain sites (like CNN) just load and load and never even generate an error. I'm guessing it might be a security scripting error, but I'm at a bit of a loss. Would appreciate any input.

  • 4 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 145 Views
  • 1 Month Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

Generated

Brief diagnostic notes for the shared XP Home + Novell/BorderManager setup described by . Responses from , and touch useful angles (rights and Java), but the symptom—first local profile works, subsequent profiles load pages but controls/links don’t respond or pages hang—points to per-user IE settings, profile corruption, or proxy/config differences rather than a simple global binary fault.

Quick non‑destructive checks (do these first):

  • Run IE without add-ons: from Start -> Run enter iexplore -extoff. If controls work, an add-on or toolbar in that profile is blocking input.
  • Try a different browser (Firefox/Opera) or open a simple local HTML file: if those work, the problem is IE/profile specific.
  • Create a new local user and test. If a fresh account behaves normally the issue is confined to the existing profiles.

Per-user proxy and authentication

  • BorderManager/proxy settings live in each user’s HKCU. In affected profiles check Tools → Internet Options → Connections → LAN Settings and confirm the same proxy/credential method used by the working profile. Missing or incorrect per-user proxy config commonly causes pages to stall or behave oddly.

Profile, permissions and scripting checks

  • Verify the user can write to their profile temp folders (Temporary Internet Files, Cookies). Wrong folder permissions or a corrupted profile hive will break IE behaviour. On XP Home disable Simple File Sharing to inspect ACLs.
  • From an admin account try re-registering the scripting engines (may fix broken scripting in that profile):
    regsvr32 %windir%\system32\jscript.dll
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\vbscript.dll

    (Requires admin privileges.)

If those steps don’t help: export the working profile’s IE settings, copy a clean profile, check BorderManager proxy logs, and review Event Viewer. Avoid blanket admin rights for all users; that masks the root cause. Java may affect some pages but will not explain the per-profile link/control failure.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for chelsi

Do all the users have administrative access? If not, try changing their porfiles and give them all administrative access.

Member Avatar for 2Longfour

I'm having the same problem and ^^^that is a lousy solution. This seems to be a really common problem.

Member Avatar for caperjack

I'm having the same problem and ^^^that is a lousy solution. This seems to be a really common problem.

This may be a java issue ,try loading java in each profile .

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.