Are some sites changing my registry settings w/o my knowledge?

TIA

1) In IE, when I click on the search icon, the default search engines are no longer availabe. Somehow, as I am surfing the net, my search preferences gets changed without my knowledge.

The only way to reset to the default search preferences is to: click
on "Tools" >> "Internet Options" >> click the "Programs Tab" >> click on "Reset Web Settings".

2) Is there a way prevent sites from altering the default search engines (or registry settings) without having to manually having to reset them?

Zeek

 

Have a look at the info on this page concerning sp.dll

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59007&highlight=sp.dll

Run regedit and navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Cur
rentVersion\Run]

If you find

"sp"="regedit -s C:\\WINDOWS\\sp.dll"

In the right hand pane, right click and delete it. The same behavior can also be accomplished with files with an .hta extension. If you see any of those, right click and delete also.

Disable Windows Scripting Host.

http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/win.script.hosting.html

Make sure "install on demand" is unchecked in Internet Options>Advanced

 

In addition to Rog's advice, also go to Internet OPtions/Security/Internet/Custom level, and set all ActiveX options that are now set to 'enable' to 'prompt'.

There is a Reg hack to prevent people and things altering your home page (courtesy Reghakr):

Correct your home page to the one you prefer, then immediately do the following:

Backup the registry and/or export the following keys:
go to Start>Run, type regedit. Navigate to:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\
Right-click on the Internet Explorer key, choose new>Key, name it Control Panel. Right-click on the Control Panel, chose new>DWORD value, name it Homepage. Right-click on Homepage, choose modify and type in the number 1.

This should lock your home page, so no other web site can change it.

Now for stopping your search page from being altered, let me do a little search.

Or maybe Mosaic1 has something up her sleeve.

Greetz,