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How do I get rid of MSN as my home page?

Dave, how do I get rid of or uninstall MSN.com home page? I want Yahoo but everytime I change it to Yahoo.com that darn MSN.COM home page comes back. It's a pain.

Dave's Answer:

There are a few reasons for this. The first is that you have selected your home page with a link rather than within your software. Most people who do this within their browser settings can have fewer problems. We would know more about your problem if we knew what browser you were using, whether you are using MSN software, etc. The MSN software, for example, may have a hidden setting that "hijacks" your homepage.

In Firefox (or Mozilla or Netscape), go to your desired homepage and select Tools --> Options --> General. Then select "use current page."

In IE, it is very similar. Go to your desired homepage, select Tools --> Internet Options --> General. Select "use current page."

If this does not solve your problem, then what you might have is a more complicated issue that involves spyware or the MSN software itself. Many spyware programs have scripts that hijack your homepage to something that they want. The puzzling thing is that you don't generally see a piece of software hijacking to the MSN site. That's why it may be an MSN setting. When possible, I set up my internet connections to work independent of the branded software; in most cases, the branded software is full of bloated settings that can do things like take your homepage. I am not familiar enough with the MSN software to say. If you are on a dialup connection, you could simply look up your phone number and create a dialup connection that works by itself. You can do this by going into your control panel, selecting network connections, and selecting "create a new connection." There is a wizard that will walk you through this process.

If it is spyware, you need to go to sections of Ask Dave Taylor and others that discuss in excellent detail how to identify and remove spyware.

Thanks to Jeff Lawley for his help with this question

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Comments

I have ytwo computers linked or networked. On the desktop I have XP Pro and on a Laptop I hav XP home
All is fine on the Pro but on my XP Home
On the toolbox ( bottom of desktop or site, I have Checked mark both Lock bar and Quick launch. When I do that or quick launch all my start ups are shown on two separate tool bars. The only way I can get rid of that second bar is to not have quick launch
Any sugesstions for this senior citizens

Posted by: Micky at July 31, 2005 8:11 PM

I USE WINDOWWS 98. AFTER NETSCAPE 8.0 CAME OUT, I TURNED MY COMPUTER ON AND THE NETSCAPE 8.0 HOME PAGE CAME UP WHEN I WENT ON THE INTERNET. SINCE THEN, ALTHOUGH I HAVE GONE INTO PREFERENCES SEVERAL TIMES TO CHANGE BACK TO THE HOME PAGE I PREFER (AND TO START WITH A BLANK PAGE), NETSCAPE ALWAYS COMES BACK AS MY HOME PAGE AND IT DOES NOT COME UP TO A BLANK PAGE.

I USE A DIAL-UP.

HELP!

Posted by: WILL at December 11, 2005 7:08 PM

I can't get rid of MSN either. IE6
Something forces the start page back to msn.com.

Posted by: Rob at January 28, 2006 4:14 PM

Hit by SpywareStrike 2.5. It continually came up with a big message saying my PC is infected with dangerous spyware and I should buy their S/W ($49.95)- After running several legitimate anti-spyware programs I finally uninstalled SpywareStrike 2.5 + the pop up message is gone (as far as I know).

The residual problem is my Internet Eplorer Browser Homepage (which has always been Google) has been HiJacked by MSN (which I hate). As yet I cannot trash MSN and get back Google. Any ideas?

Posted by: John Finney at February 5, 2006 12:49 PM

dave, how do i get my msn homepage back? i have been hit with spyware.

Posted by: edward keegan at August 4, 2006 7:22 AM

Hijack workaround:
I have had this same hijacking by MSN on two of my three computers. I have no answer yet, but a work-around. Don't start Internet Explorer the traditional way. Instead, create a desktop shortcut to you preferred URL. For instance, go to google.com, save that in your favorites. Open up your favorites, go down the the google shortcut, right-click and send-to desktop as shortcut.

Posted by: Fred Rix at August 10, 2006 7:44 PM

how do i change my msn home page 2 yahoo?

Posted by: corina at October 13, 2006 12:51 AM

re your post on getting rid of MSN as your home page: this took a while to work out but the answer for me was quite simple. MSN was loaded as the home page after installing Live Messenger even though I am sure I unchecked that box on setup! 'Internet Options' within 'Tools' in IE gives the option to reset home page to 'default'. This finally gets rid of MSN but it turns out to be another Windows page asking you if you want Live Messenger as your home page (dont' click 'yes'!). Once you've made the change to 'default' you can change it to whatever you want...which is what you should have been able to do all along: making MSN so difficult to remove as home page is an outrageous act by Microsoft! What were they thinking - 'if you can't beat hijackers join 'em?'. I for one won't automatically 'trust anything from Microsoft Corporation' after this! Hope this helps other users similary frustrated!

Posted by: SWH at November 13, 2006 12:58 AM

I upgraded IE7 and no matter what I do I can't change the home page from MSN. It appears that this is built in by Microsoft and a lot of people have this problem. It loads like this.....

http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&clcid=0x1809&pver=6.0&ar=homeoads as

Note: I find it hard to believe that spyware is putting in a command like this, forceing people to use MSN.com as their home page. However it is very annoying when you can't get rid of it and it is a page I would never load in the first place as it isn't relevent to my country.
Drop me an email if anyone has a fix. I'm using Mozilla instead at the moment.
fergaldevlin@gmail.com

Regards

Fergal

Posted by: Fergal Devlin at November 19, 2006 8:29 AM

Workaround, similar to an above posting.

Try right clicking on the IE icon in the taskbar, and call up 'Properties'.

In the 'Target' box, add 1 space and then the URL of your preferred homepage e.g. "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" www.google.com

Then click 'OK'

Seems to work!

Posted by: Graham at December 30, 2006 8:15 AM

works better than IE

Posted by: Wayne at January 12, 2007 7:47 AM

I have been having the same problem for some time now and recently fixed it. It was a simple fix as it turns out. IE7 would not allow me to change my home page from this redirect:
http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&clcid=0x4098&pver=6.0&ar=home
I felt it was probably Norton Internet Security that was actually causing the problem, but couldn't find the right location in Norton to fix it. The answer is actually in the Norton Antivirus options. Get there from the Options menu on the main Norton security window, then select Antivirus and the options window will appear. ON the left you will see Home Page options. Select and pick the correct option on the left. Very simple fix. My home page is now whatever i want it to be. I hope this helps someone with a similar issue. I've read many posts from those with similar issues, i just never found this solution. It was a "forest for the trees" issue.

Posted by: Curtis at January 12, 2007 1:01 PM

The only way I fixed this was to uninstall IE7, then restart. The automatic updates page came up and urged me to install IE7, which I did, but THIS TIME I UNCHECKED THE BOX ABOUT RUNNING THE MALICIOUS SOFTWARE REMOVAL TOOL. All is well.

Posted by: Bill at January 20, 2007 3:49 PM

Curtis & whom may concern..

ur solution is Wonderful ;-)

It works with me.

Thanx.

Posted by: SAM at February 11, 2007 9:53 AM

Thanks curtis ... spent the whole day trying to figure it out!

Posted by: roger at February 12, 2007 8:56 AM

THANKS Curtis!!!!

I have spend 4 months working this out, but with
your advise it was like 2 seconds....

THANKS THANKS THANKS :D

Posted by: Charfield at February 15, 2007 11:54 AM

i want to set up MSN as my homepage. how can i do that

Posted by: janel at February 17, 2007 3:38 PM

Cannot change MSN homepage - I found even after I uninstalled IE7 I could not change the homepage. I reloaded Windows several times - I think it was the IE7 'upgrade' to blame. I managed to avoid installing it this time around. So far so good.

I did notice that the MS Malicious Software Tool has a function to stop the Home page changing - but I uninstalled that too earlier - no success...

Posted by: zerocredibility at February 21, 2007 12:40 PM

I had been using IE7 for awhile...when I had some trouble and had to uninstall my ISP software...when I reinstalled, it defaulted my homepage to that of my ISP and I have been unable to get rid of it. I use Norton Internet Security 2007, and when you click on options..there is no AntiVirus to click on! So I have been unable to get to the homepage settings.
any help would be greatly appreciated,
ej

Posted by: Gene Davis at February 25, 2007 2:03 PM

Thanx curtis, my norton antivirus was causing the problem with MSN not changing to my own homepage.

Posted by: Chris at February 28, 2007 7:09 PM

Cheers Curtis dude!

Posted by: josh at March 3, 2007 5:22 AM

Curtis, you are the best!!!!

Allow me to reemphasize that this "cannot change homepage" problem is caused by Norton Antivirus which is trying to protect us by preventing the pc from changing the homepage to harmful page.

So work on ur anti virus not ur IE!!!!

Posted by: Alex at March 12, 2007 12:24 PM

Curtis,

Thank you very much. To think all the time it was the Norton Security package. Tip my hat off to you for coming up with this solution.

Posted by: et at March 15, 2007 8:53 PM

CURTIS YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!!!

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!

Posted by: Tolga at March 22, 2007 1:45 PM

It's not exactly Norton did wrong. It's that Microsoft assumes only MSN will do as a home page (as in doesn't ask like a good little dog they are) and Norton thinks that's what we really want. So you only need to disable the home page protection just long enough to reset things. Then turn it right back on so MSN doesn't try to pull any more stunts.

Posted by: Erythisis at March 26, 2007 7:19 AM

curtis this has been bugging me for weeks, well done fellow, all i would add is after you turn off home page protection and block all attemps to change my home page, you should change your home page to your prefered site go back and turn on all protection. again thanks

Posted by: boabydazzler at April 8, 2007 3:55 AM

Hi there, although the solution from Curtis appears to have worked for many, my pc and I are still struggling with this problem!

On IE, the option to change the homepage is shadowed and therefore I cannot get rid of MSN homepage. I have Norton Systemworks basic edition and i do not have homepage options to change. I have tried to disable some settings and then retried IE but alas, it is still shadowed!!

I have tried to follow the guidelines from previous answers but i they are not working.

Posted by: Laura at April 9, 2007 10:43 AM

how do i get an msn i tryed but it never worked

Posted by: Samantha at April 15, 2007 3:38 PM

Thanks Curtis I spent all day using hijack and safe mode etc...... Thanks

Posted by: dave at April 17, 2007 12:57 PM

i had a hard time with MSN homepage until i got the most possible remedy.

simply download from internet spybot (search from google for free software)

after donwloading it, go to TOOLS tab (on the lower left), the IE Tweaks, then UNCHECK "Lock IE start page setting aginst user changes (current user)"

then close spybot.

Start changing the homepage from Internet Explorer TOOLS - INTERNET OPTIONS - Change URL Homepage

As simple as that...

Posted by: AZEL at April 18, 2007 7:04 AM

Thank you Curtis, very helpful - your hint solved my issue.

Posted by: Martial at April 25, 2007 5:51 AM

Curtis - you 'da man! Many thanks!

Posted by: Don at April 29, 2007 7:36 PM

Have tried to send photo's to another server, but msn won't let me... all it does is send them to msn my page. I want out, plus, my ex is the manager and I can't get him off there either.

Posted by: Barbara at May 13, 2007 8:50 PM

well i had this home page problem rsetting itself to msn.com no matter wutever i did.

i figured it out.

if u have ad-aware installed. that bastard is doing it.

open adaware program --> go to settings/configuration --> go to defaults : in there u wud see that default home page would have been written as msn.com. this is why ur home page wud always reset to msn.com despite u changing it to blank or any other page.

delete that entry from home page and viola, ur problem is solved.

Posted by: shahid at May 23, 2007 2:19 PM

My nephew added cleanup and several other helpful computer protective programs on my computer.Problem is i'm not as literate as he is.I have lost several icons that i had on my screen to cut down on time,ect.Can you tell me how to replace them?Thanks.

Posted by: Rick at May 28, 2007 1:50 PM

Well I have this website as my homepage not msn.com....
http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx
It's funny the sh*t says runonce and then it runs everytime....
I tried all da regedit fixes ; created keys and what not's and yet that sh*t up there keeps coming....
I had IE 6 but I downloaded IE 7 from microsoft's site ; installed it and this sh*t....
I have no Norton or anything.... I have Avast! Anti-virus.... Apparently there's no link which relates to home page changes any where in that software....
So NOW can any1 help ??

Posted by: Raj at May 28, 2007 2:05 PM

Curtis, i dont know how u figured it out, but you did an EXCELLENT job! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Posted by: jcBOOy at July 10, 2007 11:46 AM

Curtis YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!! I got so frustrated with this msn! I hated it's loaded, advertisment filled, overall annoying page. Thank god for google, simple yet extremely useful.

Posted by: Anais at July 17, 2007 7:32 PM

Curtis - I salute you - this has been bugging me for months.

Posted by: Marcus at August 2, 2007 5:24 AM

The solution provided by Azel :

"i had a hard time with MSN homepage until i got the most possible remedy.

simply download from internet spybot (search from google for free software)

after donwloading it, go to TOOLS tab (on the lower left), the IE Tweaks, then UNCHECK "Lock IE start page setting aginst user changes (current user)"

then close spybot.

Start changing the homepage from Internet Explorer TOOLS - INTERNET OPTIONS - Change URL Homepage

As simple as that...
Posted by: AZEL at April 18, 2007 7:04 AM "

WORKED PERFECTLY FOR ME....

Posted by: Amey at August 9, 2007 8:38 PM

THIS SAVED MY SANITY! And freed my homepage..

I have Norton 2006.

Open Norton from system tray> Norton Preotection Center> "Web Browsing> "Spyware Protection> (a small drop-down menu will open right underneath)> "Configure Spyware Options> On the left menu under "Internet" - click last item, "Home Page Protection"> Clear checkmark in "Turn On Homepage Protection"> click OK.
That should do it. Finally.

When you uncheck that box all the other options get turned off - grayed out, so no worry about making any other adjustments.
Norton is such a %#@&!! I recommend Kaspersky.

ps I found this answer on techguy.org by marie500--thanks marie!!

Posted by: shari at August 17, 2007 7:19 PM

Thanks Curtis,your solution is as simple as the problem was hard!!!!!.thanks to help me.Norton was realy not allowing it to change my home page HP Games to blank!!.thanks even i had done system recovery to eliminate.Please continue helping

Posted by: Om Prakash at August 29, 2007 4:29 AM

Check This

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Remove the "Start Page" value

Posted by: JOsh at August 30, 2007 12:57 PM

I have the answer. I've had this bloody problem for months and have all the latest Symantec/Nortons protection but it's missed a heap of worms, trojans and viruses. How do I know, because tonight I bought SPYWARE DOCTOR (Saw it advertisided as being brilliant) and within minutes the MSN page was gone forever, BUT SPYWARE DOCTORE found around 40 bugs between low to high severity that were not detected by Nortons - and I have the VERY LATEST.

Posted by: John E at September 25, 2007 3:15 PM

Careful about what you go after to clean up spyware messes. Some self-proclaimed "great" programs are really trojans and then insult you by saying the junk they installed is stuff that was already loaded. Which is why I had Spybot add its list of host entries to my computers and then tweaked out what I wanted to view - this list includes several pretend security programs (which further includes auto-installers).

Posted by: Erythisis at September 26, 2007 9:01 PM

i look on the my IE icons and "right" buton show me(open home page).on second parts write (start without add-on).
It work and start blanck pages.
Now i work on Add-on problem.

Enjoy!!!

Posted by: Georgy at October 11, 2007 4:50 PM

Thanks Curtis! So simple, but this solution solved my headache and I'm now able to change my homepage as I want. Saved my day!

Posted by: Cecilie at October 19, 2007 6:42 PM

i need to set msn back as my home page how do i do that

Posted by: arlene at October 24, 2007 10:46 PM

it is simple to solve the homepage in IE7. all what you do when you upgrade to or install IE7 is to open the IE for the first time and then you will let it downlad till you got all the page and at the bottom u will see the menu personnal configuration click on it it will lead u to another page where you have the choice EITHER TO KEEP THE CURRENT PAGE OR CHOOSE YOUR PERSONAL HOMEPAGE. of course u want to change so tick change. then it will give you many search engine and if u want to put ur personal URL you have the chose too.

NO NEED TO SPY OR WHATELSE. IT IS THERZ SO WHY GOING AWAY INSTALLING/UNSTALLING!!!
yours ever

Posted by: walid at December 1, 2007 5:49 AM

I was attempting to add a scanned item to an email. The message came up that BT Yahoo was not my default mail and could it be installed? I agreed because I thought this was the only way to send the scanned item but now I have lost my original email with lotsa unanswered mail in it. How can I rid the BT Yahoo mail and get my own mail back pleeeeeeeeeeease help! Sue

Posted by: sue shea at December 21, 2007 1:42 AM

I found my solutionon another forum posted by kjjb0204 .... "What kind of pc or notebook do you have and are you using that vendors' network connections software or Windows network connections? On my Lenovo (formerly IBM) ThinkCentre and ThinkPads, the IBM network connections profiles have an entry that override any browser home page setting. I had to go in there and change in the connection profile, then it always works, no matter what I set it to in IE."

worked for me.

Posted by: Adam at January 19, 2008 8:04 AM

Thank you sooo much sue!

I had been struggling with this problem for the last few weeks, and i've done everything humanly possible. I own a Lenovo thinkpad and for anyone who has an IBM or Lenovo with Access Connections, go into the profile and uncheck the "override homepage" box. Works wonders!

Posted by: Chad at January 19, 2008 4:33 PM

help me get into the intyernet pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease

Posted by: clara at January 20, 2008 11:21 AM

Is it true?

Posted by: kela at January 28, 2008 9:39 AM

Thanks Curtis for the Norton fix for the homepage - saved me a lot of time and it was something I never would have thought of.

Posted by: Tara at January 29, 2008 8:16 AM

Iam not a computer wizard, in fact email is about all I can do. Just recently at&t yahoo had us install norton free, from them. It is working okay but now when I put my msn on and try to go to hotmail I get a pop up window stating:
there was a problem sending the comand to the program. But, it still caonnects to the hotmail.
I don't know if the norton installation had anything to do with it, but it is becoing very annoying. Can you help me get rid of it?
thanks
grandma of eleven

Posted by: grandma at February 27, 2008 9:45 PM

plEASE CANCEL MSN AS HOMEPAGE

Posted by: NEDRA at March 31, 2008 12:52 PM

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" www.google.com

This one worked for me...........Thanks a lot!

Posted by: Suresh at May 17, 2008 5:30 PM

i was wondering how do i get rid of msn as my homepage. It's a pain!! I was using internet explorer with google as my home page, but now it does let it go back. The msn come back every time. Can you help me please. Thanks! Emi

Posted by: emi at June 9, 2008 4:17 PM

how do i get msn as my homepage

Posted by: convingly at June 19, 2008 11:19 AM

For those who have the Runonce problem after they upgrade to IE7, check this out:

http://borris83.googlepages.com/ie7startsupwithabluescreenandsays'erroronpage'atthebottom

Posted by: tango at July 2, 2008 3:08 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!