TECH: Internet Explorer Tech Question

Subject: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 01:52 PM

I am asking this for a friend. He called Microsoft and, after a looooong wait, talked to one of their techs, who said he needed to call another of their numbers, which the tech then gave him. When my friend called it, it said it had been disconnected.

Anyway, I took him through all of the solutions I knew of and we didn't get anywhere, SO...I told him you lot would be able to help! Note, I have supreme faith in you...I did not say "maybe!" **BG** Thanks for any suggestions of help for this:

He had Netscape and for some reason I didn't get into, decided to try IE. He's never had a problem with a password or content advisors prior to this. Now, no matter what he does, he cannot get onto virtually any site because the MS content advisor wants a password, one which he NEVER created! I took him through the steps in Internet Options to disable the bloody thing, BUT it wants a password from him. He's wondering if it is some kind of MS virus deliberately embedded by MS. Either way, do you know any way around the password thing? We tried changing it in the Control Panel, too, but, of course, one has to know the old password first.

Every once in awhile my Internet Options go whacko and the content advisor gets enabled. When I go to disable, it asks me for a password, I don't enter anything, I just click on OKAY, and it disables it with no problem.

Thanks a bunch!!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:18 PM

You went from the Start button to Control Panel to Internet Options, selected Content tab and un-clicked "Enable," right?

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:21 PM

Yeah, we tried it both ways, Jeri, thanks. I am beginning to think he needs to totally uninstall Windows, suggested by another Mudder, and start all over.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:24 PM

And you said you'd tried that up there...
Maybe instead of re-installing Windows, he could try uninstalling IE and re-installing it. He may have clicked something in the setup program that caused it to enable the content advisor.

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:25 PM

I found this:

1) Click on Start and choose Run.

2) Type in RegEdit and select OK.

3) Now click on the little plus sign to the left of H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

4) Continue to drill down, always clicking on the plus sign at the left of the named key, through Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version and Policies.

5) Now click on the Ratings folder.

6) In the right pane of the RegEdit window, you'll see an icon called Key. Click on it and press Delete.

7) Next, choose Registry and then Exit to exit RegEdit. You've just deleted your original Content Advisor password.

8) Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer again.

9) Choose View and then Internet Options (or Options for version 3.x)

10) Click on the Content tab and click on Disable. When asked for a password, don't enter anything; just click on OK. This will disable Content Advisor because there's no longer a password.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:33 PM

WARNING:

Do NOT edit the REGISTRY unless you feel confident doing so.

You can easily cause your computer to stop working, if you delete the wrong line.

Be careful.

Sorry Jon, I don't mean to denigrate your advice, but I've seen to many people badly stuff up to ever recommend registry editing

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:36 PM

You might try HERE

I think this will connect, although it's pretty deep inside the Micro$oft Knowledge Base.

The clicky above should go to a KB article that says who (at Micro$oft) to contact if you have "forgotten" your ContentAdvisor password.

Still lookin' for something more direct.

I note that a couple of other articles refer to separate passwords for "Administrator" and "ContentAdministrator." There are also some significant differences in what you can do with specific versions of IE. More details?

John

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: DMcG
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:43 PM

I managed to cure this by de-installing and re-installing Internet Explorer. Of course, that was IE version 4 and Microsoft have probably fixed that now :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 02:57 PM

I see that my clicky won't work from outside the KB site. Sorry, but it was likely that it just took you eventually to the same "support" people you may have already talked to.

If you feel okay with editing the registry, Jon's advice is probably good. I would add a step "2a" though.

2a. Before you do anything to the registry, click on the "Registry" at the top of the regedit window, then click on "Export Registry." Give it a name (a date like "021002" works fine). This will save a copy of your settings as (this example) 021002.reg. Then go on about your registry editing.

When you get done, and have closed regedit, it is a good practice to always reboot - just to make sure everything is okay.

If everything works, you can go back and delete the backup ".reg." If your machine is fouled up, double-clicking on the 021002.reg file in explorer will restore your registry.

IF you decide to do something else, try uninstalling IE first. You shouldn't have to uninstall Windows.

If Control Panel Uninstall doesn't work, you can "manually" uninstall IE, but the procedure is lengthy and is different for different versions of IE.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: GUEST,andi
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 05:50 PM

please, please do not unistall IE if your friend has Win98 or higher.....in those systems IE is Embeded in the operating system and can be severly hampered if you do this, Katlaughing, if you can not find a solution for the problem,please feel free to PM me and I can do some research at work. :) andi

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 06:25 PM

Hey guys and gal! Thanks! We found a solution. In this case, evidently it prompts for a password, to change to a new password, whether you've ever had one or not! So, he just ignored the requestf or the old password, put in a new one, confirmed it, then hit okay and he was in like Flynn. Go figure, huh? So, he seems to be getting round just fine now, with no problems.

I really appreciate all of your imput, research, and offers!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Internet Explorer Tech Question
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Feb 02 - 11:36 PM

Guest, andi & others interested

Having recently done a fairly thorough review of IE installation and removal - due to TurboTax (see here) slamming an unwanted "upgrade" without my permission, I think you will find that:

The only operating system for which Micro$oft says you cannot uninstall IE is WindowsXP (the new one). You may lose some "interoperability," but few people seem to actually use Access, Project, Word, Excell etc as their web browser.

Because IE does "overlap and intertwine" with the operating system, there are a multitude of different conditions which may occur, and which may affect how you uninstall. For best results with Windows Applications, it is recommended that you reinstall some version of IE, even if you're not intending to use it as your default browser.

Just in case you'd like to research it further - and for any others who might be interested, I've cut a list of applicable Micro$oft Knowledge Base references:

At the Micro$oft Support Knowledge Base see the following on uninstall of various versions of IE. Enter the "Q" number in the search box, and it should take you directly to any of them.

Q165646 Program Settings Lost After Internet Explorer Setup or Uninstall
Q175610 How to Manually Uninstall Internet Explorer 4.0
Q194177 Description of the Internet Explorer Repair Tool (IE5, IE5.5)
Q217344 How to Uninstall Internet Explorer 5
Q218634 Description of the "IE Setup Log.txt" File (IE5, IE5.5, IE6)
Q222564 Unable to Uninstall Internet Explorer After Windows 98 Setup
Q224412 How to Manually Uninstall Internet Explorer 4.0 for Windows NT
Q243678 How to Manually Uninstall Internet Explorer 5 for Windows 95 (IE5, IE5.01 for Win95)
Q246194 How to Uninstall Internet Explorer 5.01 (IE5.5 on Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinNT4.0) [Why uninstall probably won't work if TurboTax slammed their IE5.5 on you]
Q257234 How to Uninstall Internet Explorer 5.5 (IE5.5 on Win95, Win98, Win98SE, Win2000, WinNT4.0)
Q263470 How to Manually Uninstall Internet Explorer 5.5 from a Computer That Is Running Windows 98 or Windows 95 (IE5.5 on Win95, Win98, Win98SE)
Q265078 Cannot Uninstall Internet Explorer After Installing Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (Win2000 only) [Why uninstall probably won't work if TurboTax slammed their IE5.5 on you]

For Security Upgrades after any change to IE installation, see:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/security/default.asp
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

Please ignore if you're not really that interested; but the list has been right at hand since we installed TurboTax to get our 1099s out.

John