Internet Explorer 5.5 & Run Once 3

[Kevin123456]

Hi,

Has anyone ever seen on IE 5.5 that occassionally the browser runs off to runonce.msn.com? I work with a schools network supporting all ages and it's confusing for the younger children that they don't get their default home page every time. Has anyone any suggestions about how to get round this and ensure it always goes to the default page, or is this just an extra feature that can't be changed? (Apologies if this is a question that's been asked before)

Many thanks

 

[TheOldMan346]

Kevin,

Isn't that the site that comes up when you run IE for the firtst time under an account? Each time you run it subsequently, it goes to the standard msn site.

The Old Man

 

[Kevin123456]

Yes that's true, however we use mandatory profiles so whatever setting is changed after the first visit is reset. What I need to find out is what setting is this? Is it cookie, registry, ini file?

 

[PaulSc]

Kevin123456,
There is a Setting in IE (via Tools,Options then Advanced tab) called Automatically Check For Internet Explorer Updates in the Browsing section. This can cause IE to go to Microsoft as they now distribute IE6.
Turn off this option and the default may be loaded..

PaulSc

 

[Kevin123456]

I'm afraid that setting has already been switched off for the past few weeks as it was causing problems and it doesn't attempt to run the upgrade now but there is still the problem with jumping off to runonce.msn.com

Thanks

 

[TheOldMan346]

Kevin,

Don't know but my guess would be a cookie. Perhaps someone else knows.

The Old Man

 

[Jimuniguy]

Hi,

Its located within the registery. Everytime a program needs to run something once, it gets put in the RUNONCE registery sequence, this can never be turned off as its a vital part of windows.

You find the registery keys below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Always remember to back up the registery first. If your Using NT, then there should be a program to do this as admin on the NT disk as the above will not work for NT.

Also, if they are kids, try getting them used to pressing the "home" button at the top, if its a school running IE, then why not make your own skin for it.

Thats all!

James

 

[TheOldMan346]

Actually, the RunOnce keys in the registry are for apps that get run during one Windows startup and then are removed from the keys. What we are talking about here is a url that is run when IE is run for the first time or the first time under an account.

I have a machine that I am in the process of rebuilding and did a little research. The RunOnce keys are NOT set. Newly loaded Win98SE includes IE5. Home page was set to

http://www.msn.com

in Internet properties. Ran IE and it went to the runonce.asp. Closed it and ran it again and it went to the standard MSN site. Downloaded and installed IE5.5 SP2 and when IE was started, it went to the runonce.asp again.

If you look in the Temporary Internet Files, you'll find a set of HTML and XML documents for the runonce.msn.com site. I don't know enough about web pages but my guess is that these interact with the actula active server page on the MSN site and cause the runonce site to be loaded. I suppose you could try removing those documents and see if that has the desired effect.

Hope that helps.
The Old Man

 

[Kevin123456]

Thanks,

That makes a lot of sense. Only problem now is how to copy it into the right place every time a user logs on and it is given the right name, any suggestions?

In terms of clicking on the home key, yes that's a viable and sound workaround but consider a class of six year olds who can only just type their names getting different screens and one very hassled teacher!!

Thanks for all the advice and help so far

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Kevin123456:

The registry key you are looking for is located at either/or both:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\First Home Page

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\First Home Page

The value data redirects the browser to the runonce.asp and then is deleted so that subsequent start ups go to the home page. These are the keys your mandatory profiles are resetting.

Chuck

 

[TheOldMan346]

Good one, Chuck. I knew there had to be someone who knew how this worked. Star for you.



The Old Man

 

[Kevin123456]

That's fantastic, thanks to everyone who's helped in sorting this out.

Kevin

 

[TheOldMan346]

Kevin,

Have you considered using Group or Local Security Policies to restrict and standardize the browser and home page? It may be a simple answer to this issue.

The Old Man

 

[Kevin123456]

The policies and profiles for the network were set up by someone else and function very well. During login a registry file is called and any customisations can be loaded at that point, so these files will control the deleting of the key from above, assuming that the key isn't created after the login script has run during the personalising your settings stuff that always runs.

 

[Kevin123456]

Hi,

I thought I'd just post a solution I've found to the problem. In %windir%\system (or system32) there is a file called homepage.inf. In here is a setting to set the first home page and the redirect web address to msn. Changing this setting to whatever it needs to be works around the problem of having to delete registry keys etc.

Hope this is helpful to someone else and thanks again to everyone who gave advice on this topic.

Kevin

 

[TheOldMan346]

Excellent information. Thanks for posting back with it, Kevin.

The Old Man

 

[Guest_imported]

Please check the Microsoft KB article on this subject. It is somewhat deceitful in that the actual registry key is not correct, from what I can tell. The information given previously by Beentheredonethat looks more better. ;-)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q289902&