IE Home page setting won't change

[katzdvd]

...I had been using firefox for a good while & then one day, I went for my bookmarks & they had all disappeared! Followed all the steps online, could never get them to load back into browser, altho i had the backup bkmarks file...

Had some other issues at the time, so decided to reformat...After reinstall of OS, I have started to use IE again..Since the reinstall, I have been unable to change my home page to anything other than msn.

Anyone else have this problem? Solution?

thanks,

katz

[Chewy]

posting bad hair pictures of wookies in a roast is dangerous, the force has strange ways!

ok what other programs have you installed since the load?
ones that might impact IE?

[katzdvd]

lol! What can I say - You have inspired me over the last few weeks!

I plan on digging out my old Star Wars set & watching them over the next few weekends - it's been awhile...

katz

[Chewy]

see edit above, programs that are resident and pertain to surfing.

[katzdvd]

well, that's the odd thing... It did it "fresh out of the box". I tried to change the Home page as soon as I was online for win updates & it was "stuck" then.

I have plenty of format experience; the Only thing I did diff. this time was ordered SP2 CD from MSoft, & installed it that way, instead of the 75 mb. download...

Sys. is clean of spy/mal/viruses. I have AVG/ZoneAlarm/Spybot/Spywareblaster/Adaware. Keep them all up to date, & they show no problems...

I am stumped...

[Chewy]

were those programs loaded before sp2?

I am stumped

we shall see

[katzdvd]

were those programs loaded before sp2?

no.

I installed xp (home)/sp2 cd/mainboard drivers/Video/AVG/Zonealarm/online updates (critical & security), etc.

I saw online were there is a registry hack to change it, (home page) but I wasn't going there yet...

[Chewy]

correct order of a clean load
1. windows xp
2. service pack 2
3 drivers only that are missing from device manager
4 windows update(critical security only)
5 all other programs loaded custom with none running in background

[katzdvd]

I edited above post. I goofed when typing it, as I was trying to do too many things at once.

I still wasn't completely correct tho, on the order of install.

3 drivers only that are missing from device manager

I copied it for future reference. I will most likely be going for that sata drive soon, so I will have a chance to do right this time!

Any more ideas on the home page issue w/ ie?

[Chewy]

try booting into safe mode and try the change, you'll have to copy and paste the url into the address bar, save the url in a text file on your desktop

was spybot loaded/teatimer during any updates?

the registry protection can hose a lot of stuff

try reapplying the sp2 from safe mode

[katzdvd]

was spybot loaded/teatimer during any updates

no

I loaded the spyware pgms after all updates. But I have AVG & Zonealarm running before updating.

try booting into safe mode and try the change

try reapplying the sp2 from safe mode

Very good ideas! I will do as instructed. I don't do too much in safe mode unless things get hosed really bad...

in the future - would you recommend doing the critical updates in safe mode as well? (or maybe that wouldn't work) - I don't know, never tried that.

[Chewy]

you are behind a nat firewall when you first get on the internet?

[jm1647]

To change your home\start page did you try clicking and dragging the url to the lil house on the tool bar?

[katzdvd]

To change your home\start page did you try clicking and dragging the url to the lil house on the tool bar

jm - I tried that & also int. options settings...

you are behind a nat firewall when you first get on the internet?

I have a full time cable connection - ZoneAlarm is always running

[Chewy]

cable modem has a nat firewall built in?

xp sp1 installs with firewall off and is vulnerable to exploits when connected to the internet