IE9 refreshing itself automatically

[guitarzan]

OK, this is driving me crazy. Someone I know has Vista Home Premium with IE9. Shortly after they log into their AOL webmail, (mail.aol.com) and start typing a new email, within a few minutes they get the IE popup that says: "Are you sure you want to leave this page?". You can mimic the same behavior by just hitting the F5 key... except, no one is hitting the F5 key!!! It just happens by itself after a few seconds or a few minutes.

I tried a different user profile on this computer, and the problem does not happen! Then I went back to the profile with the problem, and I tried IE with no add-ons, and the problem STILL happened. What else is there to check that could be causing this?

 

[DrB0b]

Ive had funky issues with IE9 in the past on 7 and everything was rectified by rolling back to 8. I know that's not the answer you were looking for but it saved me a lot of troubleshooting headache.

Or go the FF or Chrome route, just saying.

"You don't know what you got, till it's gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[DrB0b]

I think this is for IE7 and 8 but just in case sense it is easy to check:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/50509.aspx

I read somewhere about a tiny virus that would do auto refreshes(if Im remembering correctly). Do a MBAM and antivirus scan just to make sure.

"You don't know what you got, till it's gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[guitarzan]

Thanks Bob, I agree about FF / Chrome, but this user is umm, well, let's say that I don't want to introduce a new browser into the picture. Besides, not only does this not happen on my machines, but it doesn't happen on theirs either with a different user profile! Only this one.

I had run a MBAM scan, nothing found. Running AVG scan now, but I don't think that's it. Already updated java / flash, and i'm up-to-date on windows security updates. I think I will check Hijack This next, because the only other thing I can think of is programs that run at startup (like the blackberry desktop manager). But this behavior started recently, and i dont see anything that was added or updated recently.

BTW, I just tried disabling "meta refresh" as the article suggests, no luck.

 

[DrB0b]

I sympathize with the introduction of a new browser to a less technically sound user. Always a fun time.

My next question was going to be about Windows Updates but it looks like you thought of that too. Does it do it in Safe Mode w/ Networking?

"You don't know what you got, till it's gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[guitarzan]

Can't try safe mode as I only have remote access to it via LogMeIn. If I end up going there, I will try that. Hijackthis found some old toolbar references, which I removed, rebooted, and it still happens!

I'm out of ideas, other than selectively removing things from startup to see if that does anything, which I would prefer to do when I am there and not remoted in.

 

[DrB0b]

That toolbar wasnt "Babylon" was it?

"You don't know what you got, till it's gone..
80's hair band Cinderella or ode to data backups???

 

[guitarzan]

No. I jotted down search.conduit.com, toolbar.inbox.com, and something like ShopAtHome rebate something or other. I think those were leftovers from a cleanup done long ago.

 

[linney]

User profiles do become corrupted, so if the problem is not occurring with other users then these might help. Use them as a guide to see how problems might be corrected.


Fix a corrupted user profile

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile

Fix a corrupted user profile

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/769495bf-035c-4764-a538-c9b05c22001e1033.mspx

811151 - How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Description of Windows Easy Transfer for Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928635