Recently, I did a spyware scan on my laptop, but found few annoying ActiveX Controls running under IE7. So I change the security setting in IE7 to stop most of the ActiveX Controls. However, I restart the IE7 browser and getting the annoying “Customize Your Settings” home page every time. Even I change the default home page to “about:blank“, it still starts with the “RoundOnce” page from http://rononce.man.com/runonce2.aspx.
I have no idea what this page does, but I believe that Microsoft is trying to guide the IE7 user to setup their IE7 and download new add-on from an non-Microsoft web sites. That looks weird!
Solutions:
After digging into the registry for IE7 and found a place to turn off the Runonce.msn.com start-up page. Basically, it requires two registry key to do the magic.
Open Regedit and go to the following section.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
Look for the following two keys.
RunOnceComplete
RunOnceHasShown
if they do not exist. Add them by right click mouse -> New -> DWORD Value as shown in the image below.
Modify the value and set the value to 1 for both DWORD values as the images below.
Restart your IE7 browser. The annoying Runonce page is gone!
Working great !!!.
Thank you very much.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Jose:
I am glad that it helps you. It was a very annoying issues to me. Thank you for stopping by.
The RunOnce page just runs once, click the “configure” button, which will take you to a page were you can set your default search engine (no activex) or close the browser the page won’t appear anymore. May be you’ll have to click “continue naviagation” or so before closing.
If you are curious the search engine setting will be something like this http://w.goog..com/search?…%s
The %s will be replaced by your search keywords and because it is a function of IE this doesn’t needs Activex to work.
By the way I don’t trust MS to set anything else with the RunOnce page.
The page will ask you to install a search provider which is alright. Or you can go to the registry and change the search engine yourself.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Lucas:
Thank you for the information.
Thank you so much for the information, I suffered way too long with the annoying run once. You are my Hero!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Sergio:
I am glad that it helps. Thank you for stopping by!
Thank you,thank you, thank you. That was starting to get on my nerves and make me love Firefox that much more.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Toto:
I am glad that I can help! I love firefox!
This has been a great help, I blame ms for bad coding compatibility (I do alot), I found the RunOnceHasShown a while back but never knew about the RunOnceComplete. Good Job!!!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Dave:
Thank you for stopping by. I am glad that I can help. One thing I like about Windows is that I can pretty much control almost everything through the registry. That’s also one thing that I hate Windows the most. I can’t figure out which parameter to tweak to make it works.
If you screw up the registry, you will need to start over again!
Worked great, thank you!! I added the changes into a reg file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
“RunOnceHasShown”=dword:00000001
“RunOnceComplete”=dword:00000001
Easier to update on multiple machines!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Mike:
Thank you for the quick write up. It definitely helps to make the problem go away quick.
I’ve noticed this fix doesn’t apply to the default user account or any other accounts which haven’t had ie7 run. Any ideas on how to kill this run once completely?
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Mike:
Have you tried to add the two registry to the following registry section? Replace HKEY_CURRENT_USER to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
thank you so much .I have tried for months to get rid of that annoying runonce even though my home page was set to google.You are a genius. thanks again geraldine mcguinness
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@geraldine:
I am glad that the post helped you. I, personally, hate IE for using so much registry stuff. Good to hear your comments. Thanks!