How do I stop IE from starting when W98 starts.

[Ausatco]

I have had to reformat and reinstall Windows and everything else. (A badly behaved utility did its worst. Can't complain though. This installation plus upgrades has been working well for 2 years and it gets a thrashing. A cleanup and reinstall was overdue.)

My problem is trivial but annoying. Before the crash, when I started Windows it would complete the boot up at the desktop. That is, all the junk that I wanted started would be started and in the tray, nothing else running.

Now, after the reinstall, my system starts Internet Explorer automatically. I don't want it to. I've forgotten how I fixed this in the previous installation - can anyone help?

Win98SE, IE6.

Thanks

Ausatco

[BOAC]

Probably a silly question - but have you looked to see if it is 'ticked' in the 'start-up' section in MSCONFIG.EXE (system tools or Windows/system)?

[Ausatco]

Not a silly question, BOAC. I looked there and also in the startup folder - it's not in either.

What ticks me off is I've fixed this once before about 2 years ago in my last reinstall, but now can't remember how I did it!

Cheers

AA

[BOAC]

My last shot (- then I'm fresh out of bullets).. .Some sort of update set to run on boot? Windows update, virus defs, etc? Nothing in scheduled tasks?

What is the URL that comes up(if any)? Could be some TSR prog trying to get back to mother!

[TR4A]

It could be Windows Update launching. Does it dial your ISP? In the IE Internet options, under TOOLS select connections TAB and select "Never dial a connection".

[siwalker66]

I had exactly this problem recently. I posted a query here and did as suggested (startup folder, selective startup etc)and it was no help whatsoever. I eventually realised there were two causes in my case: 1. One of your programs is searching for an update on startup; in my case it was a freeby personal firewall from Tiny. Check through the options of all your programs like the above, realplayer etc. 2. I am also pretty sure Windows update does a run-once check (after installing)for critical updates - if this run-once check fails for any reason it will keep trying. The reason it fails, in my case at least, is because the security settings of IE6 do not allow it to: I had to temporarily lower the security to allow the windows update to work, and to allow the Critical Update program in the Task Scheduler to a)download, and b)run the first time. F&*k knows why.. .If you sort the problem out there is no need to check "never dial a connection" as suggested elsewhere - this is a pain in the arse as IE will, indeed, never dial a connection even when you want it to.. .Hope you get it sorted.

[ 09 February 2002: Message edited by: chickenhawk66 ]

[ 09 February 2002: Message edited by: chickenhawk66 ]

[ 09 February 2002: Message edited by: chickenhawk66 ]</p>

[EGLD]

Hi

The URL that is displayed in the open IE window should give an indication if a particular program is attempting to advise you of an update or something.

If you feel brave enough to dive into the registry, you can see a list of programs configured to load on boot here;

start &gt; run &gt; regedit &lt;ENTER&gt;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WINDOWS\CURRENT VERSION\RUN

[Ausatco]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I cannot identify any progs looking for an update, including Windows itself. I have my homepage set to blank and still IE auto-starts on boot-up.

TR4A - no, with a blank home page it doesn't try to dial. However, If I reset the homepage to default (MSN homepage) it will try to dial, as you would expect.

Chickenhawk, I've drawn a blank on all the avenues you have suggested. I have manually fully updated my new installation from the Windows Update site - IE has no reason to go there unless there is some flag that should be automatically reset that hasn't happened. I agree that checking "Never dial a connection"is not the way to go.

EGLD, when IE starts it does not attempt to change the URL from either my chosen default of Blank or, when I reselect it, the default MSN homepage URL. That indicates to me that no software is trying to auto update, which I think is what you implied. Thanks for the registry tip. I had to insert "/MICROSOFT" between /SOFTWARE and /WINDOWS. The resulting list of progs in RUN is exactly what I have set up. IE is not one of them <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

This is so @#%%&* frustrating!!!

AA

[ 11 February 2002: Message edited by: Ausatco ]</p>

[siwalker66]

It is a frustrating one. I still feel there must be a programme asking for an update, I have had this problem a few times and that has always been the answer. Another thing to look at is Textbridge or similar that comes with Win 98. However I do recall an earlier occasion when I was NEVER able to find what it was; after a week or so it simply stopped doing it! There might be some aspect of Windows like Update that needs to check in (under its own steam so to speak) once after installing. . .I'd love a definitive answer to this one; someone on this board knows what it is, Im sure.

[BOAC]

Yup - I'm getting @#%%&* too!

Does Ctrl-Alt-Del show anything useful while IE6 is trying to run (other than IE6)?

[Ausatco]

Chickenhawk - what is "Textbridge or something similar"? I have not heard of that as a standard inclusion in Win98.

Cheers

AA

[mvh]

check out <a href="http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml</a>

that's what i use to do all my startup debug stuff.

-marc.

[siwalker66]

Textbridge is scanner-related software that came bundled with my puter, optical character recognition which is meant to convert scanned text into text that can be edited in Word. Doesnt work. I only mentioned it because it seemed to want to connect in order to register online when I first installed it.. .Control - alt - del will of course reveal all the stuff running at that moment, as will doing msconfig etc etc - however, as you will have realised, this doesnt help because it will not reveal which of those running programmes is trying to connect!. .One way to find the culprit might be to install a firewall. When the firewall is first installed you can configure it so it doesnt permit any access; you will need to allow individual programmes permission to access the net as you see fit. (Zonelabs works this way anyway). Then perhaps at the moment the unwanted connection is tried the firewall will reveal which program is doing it? Just a thought. On the other hand this may be unrevealing for the same reasons as cont-alt-del.. .I bet the answer to this is so simple we will kick ourselves

[ 12 February 2002: Message edited by: chickenhawk66 ]</p>

[mvh]

hey chickenhawk,

a firewall wont help you - it operates at the network layer, not the application layer.

it might be able to log what network traffic is trudging it's way around your segment of the network, but that will not necessarily help you.

also, firewalls usually don't block outgoing connections, as it's really only incoming connections that are malicious.

my advice is to install Mike Lin's control panel as linked to in my post above... it will tell you exactly what is being run on startup and how it is being run (startup folder, several registry hives, etc)

hope this helps - please do let me know how you go <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

regards,. .-marc.

[Don D Cake]

Try installing Zone Alarm from Zone Labs, it's free.

<a href="http://www.zonelabs.com/" target="_blank">Zonelabs</a>

When I first installed it I was amazed how many programs on my PC were communicating with the internet. And even if it doesn't sort your problem out, it's a useful piece of kit.

Good luck.

[Ausatco]

Thanks Chickenhawk. I don't have Textbridge, but I do have other OCR software that came with my scanner. All OK in that department.

Chcickenhawk and Don D Cake I am an early adopter of Zone Alarm and have had it installed in the previous incarnation of Win98 as well as this one. Hadn't thought of using it to see which progs might be trying to auto update through IE, though was well aware that ZA checked this kind of activity. Dohhh! Thanks for the tip.

MVH - will try StartupCPL as you suggested and let you know any progress - thanks for the tip.

Cheers all

AA

[Ausatco]

MVH - Have installed StartupCPL. Unfortunately no new info there - IE does not get a mention anywhere, so the situation is unchanged - I cannot turn off its autostart at reboot. However, StartupCPL is a great applet and I will keep it as part of my tweak kit.

Don D - I reset all progs in Zone Alarm and made them ask permission to go on line. None did at bootup. IE started at bootup, but did not try to go on line until I started browsing.

Chickenhawk, you said that when this happened to you, one day IE just didn't do it any more. I think that's possibly that's what happened to me last time (about 2 years ago). No wonder I can't remember how I did it - I didn't!!

That's not really a satisfactory answer, though, and I don't want to sit around waiting for IE to decide for itself again.

So if anyone has any further ideas ....

Thanks to all for input so far.

Cheers

AA

[BOAC]

What came up with Ctrl-Alt-Del?. .What sort of 'start-up' do you have (vis Config.exe?) Have you tried the diagnostic?

[EGLD]

I have no further ideas, but if it was me, I'd next try renaming the executable, reboot, and see if anything starts complaining about not being able to find internet explorer

IE sometimes installs itself into different locations, so best thing to do is start &gt; search and the file is iexplore.exe

rename it to something else, but be sure to rename back to run internet explorer

good luck

[Voidhawk]

Tricky one.

How about "Active Desktop"? If you right-click on the desktop, there's a menu item called Active Desktop. Check that it isn't "checked".

Also, if you right-click on the desktop and choose Properties, there's a menu item called "Web", or something like that. Have a look there for anything web-enabled, and then disable it.

[Ausatco]

Woohoo, it's fixed :) .

Thankyou all for your suggestions, but it's EGLD who gets the cigar.

I renamed IEXPLORE.EXE as he/she suggested, re-booted and the culprit was revealed. <a href="http://www.webwasher.com" target="_blank">Webwasher</a>, an ad stripper and privacy protector, was set to automatically start the default browser on boot up. When it couldn't after the rename, it asked what was going on. On the WW browser configuration dialogue was a checkbox "Start the selected browser". You guessed it - it was checked.

I had unchecked that option when I installed WW after the rebuild. Somehow during all the reconfiguring it changed itself back again - these things do happen - and I did not think to review it.

Chickenhawk, as you suggested it might be, it was so simple that I could kick myself, and I've duly done so.

EGLD - dinner with friends tonight. I don't smoke, so you'll have to find your own cigar. <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0"> However, I will be pleased to drink an extra glass of fine red for you :)

Thanks

AA