Stopping the changing of a MSIE Homepage

[Bumpus]

Here is a different angle on homepage hijacking. Our squad house has one PC, XP Pro SP2. There are 3 admin accounts setup and ONE general access account. Most of our EMTs, all volunteers, use this PC to check for training updates, news or other information that is published on our website. Some of these folks are pretty PC savvy and change the current homepage from our website to something that they prefer.

Even after repeated requests, this practice still happens. That may not sound like a big deal, but there are a few that have learned to check this website, all they have to do is power up the PC, enter the proper password and click on the "Big Blue E" to check for updates.

Since I don't have time to teach Internet 101, (You should have seen how long it took to get them to log in and log off!) this brings me to my question.

How, if possible, other than a hijack, can I keep users from changing the homepage?

Thanks, Bumpus

[jlreich]

If I remember right, both Spywareblaster and Spybot S&D have an option to block the homepage and other settings from being changed through > tools > internet options. ;)

[Bumpus]

Spybot S&D does the trick on my (Admin) account, but not the general account. I logged on to the general account and ran Spybot from there, nothing I tried prevented the changing of the homepage.

Any other thoughts?

[pop pop]

M$'s very own AntiSpyware application has the same feature. You could try using that for locking the general account. If that doesn't work, and you are adventurous, I mean really adventurous, you can check how Spybot or M$ AntiSpyware modifies the registry to lock the IE homepage. Spybot does it somewhere in the registry like HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer.

DISCLAIMER--Registry modifications should only be made by experienced professionals. Changes made to the registry could render your PC unstable or even unusable. Backup your registry before making any changes or seek the help of a professional.

Maybe one of the other gurus here has a simpler or safer alternative if you are not inclined to tickle the dragon's tail (obscure reference). :D

[jlreich]

Did you try Spywareblaster? It has a check box in tools> misc IE settings, to lock down internet options. Not sure if that will help more than Spybot, but worth a try. Also it has that option for IE, but not for Firefox, if that is what you are using.

[Budfred]

I think you may need to go into each account, run Spybot or one of the other programs and set the lock from there... Then you need to hope they don't figure out how to change it back again later... There are several pretty easy ways to defeat the locks, which is why they don't really stop malware...

[Bumpus]

I'll try Spywareblaster and let you know. Thanks for all the replies.

Bumpus

[FastLearner]

I'm with Budfred on this one. If they have Administrator access, then there's not a whole lot you can do to keep them from performing admin tasks. You could do as Budfred said, though, and try to sneakily block them out and hope they can't figure out how to change it back the way it was. The other thing you could do (which is something that should always be done anyway) assuming you have admin access is to rename the admin account on all of those machines. That'll teach 'em!