I too had the exact same problem recently Hesperis. It was caused my malicious java code, and happened when I was surfing and following links, and I ended up on a porno site that I hadn't planned on being at in the first place. It created endless opened windows each time I tried to shut down the browser. Finally I shut off the computer and when I rebooted, I found the exact same thing as you've described. I was infuriated that someone else could have control of my browser and made their site my default home page. In my mind this was the same difference as getting a virus. I seached the registry up and down for a key I could turn off (found nothing) and like you managed to change the homepage within the control panel. In the end, I reformatted the drive, reinstalled Windows, disabled java, and contacted the ISP of the site that did this to me and lodged a complaint. Perhaps the reformatting was drastic and there might have been another work-around to the problem but damned if I could find one.