Internet Explorer Forgetting Preferences Workaround

Yesterday we reported that Microsoft technical support confirmed a bug where no matter what home page the user selects in Internet Explorer 5.2.2, the preference is automatically disregarded whenever Internet Explorer is closed, Entourage is launched, and Internet Explorer is re-launched.

John Hill offers a workaround:

"It's not just the home page that doesn't stick -- it's any IE preference. I can only make Internet Explorer preferences stick if I start IE before Entourage and URL Manager Pro 3.0.5. It's not sufficient to allow URL Manager Pro to auto-start when Internet Explorer starts -- I have to remove the SharedMenus.component file from /Library/Components. Internet Explorer prefs don't stick when URL Manager Pro auto-starts and Entourage was never started. If Entourage and URL Manager Pro aren't running, then Internet Explorer saves prefs as expected.

"My guess as to the problem is that all three (defintely Internet Explorer, most likely the other two as well) have a deep need to write to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconfig.plist instead of using independent prefs files. You can see it in action by removing/moving this file and (for simplicity here) rebooting. You'll have to recreate all your Internet prefs in System Preferences, but you'll also see that you've lost all Internet Explorer prefs. Change the Internet Explorer prefs without running Entourage and URL Manager Pro and the file gets updated with Internet Explorer info. MS in their infinite wisdom obfuscates the info they write into the file, but it's clear that it's Internet Explorer prefs."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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