IE11 - MS pushing their recommended settings?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by FanJ, Jun 26, 2019.

  1. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Since some time (I think since the June Patch Tuesday patches) MS seems to push their recommended settings, at least on my system Win 7.
    Like: MSN for home page (which is not my home page), Bing for search engine, etc.
    Sometimes when I open a site (Wilders) I get a second site with it:
    https://ie11welcome.microsoft.com/nl-nl/index.html
    The English one: https://ie11welcome.microsoft.com/en-us/index.html

    I don't know why this has suddenly started to happen. It could very well be something on my system.
    It could also be related to the June Patch Tuesday patches. I don't know.
    I had hoped that the out-of-band fixes KB4508646 and KB4508772 from 20 June 2019 would have fixed this, but they didn't.

    Is it me, my system? Anybody else seeing this? Other thoughts?
    Thanks.
     
  2. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Hi FanJ,

    You are not alone, I've seen the same, and so have others,
    I found these three threads:
    https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/pop-up-from-ie11-to-reset-my-browser/
    https://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/419981-how-stop-msn-com-bing-nag-ie11.html
    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/all/how-do-i-get-rid-of-set-microsoft-recommended/d7dde6fd-2dc5-4597-8f4e-b812d6b436bb

    On my two Windows 7 systems, it started after the June 11 updates.
    Since end of last week, is seems to have stopped.

    If the "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser" nag should not stop, some registry edit would be nice, but I haven't yet found any suggestion about that.
     
  3. itman

    itman Registered Member

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    There was a patch to IE11 for Win 7 in June updates. Appears this caused a reset of IE11 to default values. Had it happen to me many times when I was using Win 7 "many moons ago."
     
  4. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I didn't see IE11 default values, only the "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser" tab, and I cannot recall that I ever saw that with IE11 default values.
    Also, removing the MSN, Bing and 'new tab news feed' check marks and saving settings didn't do much, it took about a week before the "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser" nag stopped.
     
  5. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Thank you @Stupendous Man !!
    Glad I'm not the only one seeing it happen.
    Glad too that I was right that it started to happen after the June Patch Tuesday updates (I was so hoping that it would have been fixed with those later out-of-band fixes).
    Sofar, whatever I try to do, the nag screen keeps coming back. It isn't always happening, but after some days it is coming back!
    Keep us posted please if you might have some more info, solutions, etc.

    @itman :
    This nag screen is quite new to me, and I'm using IE for years ...
     
  6. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Yes, I had the same experience, until after a week and a half it seems to have stopped.

    I will.
     
  7. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Regarding this thread that I mentioned,
    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/all/how-do-i-get-rid-of-set-microsoft-recommended/d7dde6fd-2dc5-4597-8f4e-b812d6b436bb,
    someone mentioned Andre Da Costa's replies were not helpful.
    Some time later, that reply was deleted.
    I don't know if Andre has the authority to delete criticizing replies.
    Andre Da Costa's profile says he's a member since June 5, 2018, and 44695 replies were posted.
    I've seen Andre's replies in many Microsoft Community (answers.microsoft.com) threads, mostly utterly useless, sorry to say.
     
  8. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Thanks @Stupendous Man for that update.

    ==========

    I found that the issue was also already mentioned in this thread at AskWoody:
    https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/june-2019-patch-tuesday-is-rolling-out/
    abbodi86 mentioned it there on 11 June 2019 with two replies.
    There is a suggestion that it may be related to:
    https://www.askwoody.com/2019/may-p...dont-have-default-search-provider-specifiedh/
    https://www.askwoody.com/forums/top...dont-have-default-search-provider-specifiedh/

    It's at the moment not yet clear to me whether there is a real solution in one of those posts/threads. I've got to read it over and over again when time permits ....

    =============

    BTW:
    I've tried to block https://ie11welcome.microsoft.com/nl-nl/index.html in ESET.
    Zero, nada effect: not a beep from Eset and I'm still getting that nag screen. Hmm, maybe that is to be expected ...?
     
  9. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    On my W7P64 Show hidden files is periodically unselected.
     
  10. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    It seemed to have stopped, end of last week. But today, the "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser" tab was back (Dutch: "Instellingen voor je browser instellen zoals aanbevolen door Microsoft").
    Quite annoying.

    Thanks, I see it, abbodi86's reply #1836624.

    I doubt it is related, as on my systems there's a default search provider specified, and there is no indication something was wrong with that setting, suddenly after the June 11 updates.
     
  11. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    OK, thanks!
     
  12. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Another thread mentioning "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser",
    one contributor suggesting to disable First Run wizard, using Local Group Policy Editor:
    https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/win10itprogeneral/thread/86ea2353-078f-41d4-aeb5-fb675facd56a/#8e8704d3-70d4-458d-a300-80d7aa9525a2

    A post mentioning how to disable First Run wizard, now using Registry Editor:
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26550859/disable-internet-explorer-11-first-run-wizard/43496639#43496639

    I haven't tried any of both options, yet.
    I am not sure whether First Run wizard is what is causing the repeating "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser" nags.
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2019
  13. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Aha, thank you @Stupendous Man !
    I see it where to set it via GPE on my Win 7 Pro (Dutch).
    I may try that, although I too am not 100 % sure. And the nag screen is not always showing; it can take days before it pops up (as we both experienced). So, it might take days before we know that it indeed works. I have to think about it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2019
  14. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    OK, out of curiosity I have now done that setting via Local Group Policy Editor, on Win 7 Pro 64-bit. I can always reverse it and/or put back a backup-image.

    Some other thoughts:

    There are people reporting that the issue is not only on Win 7 but also, for example, on Win 10.

    Posting a screenshot from my Dutch Windows version may not very helpfull on an English forum, but nevertheless look at the following screenshot of the description in GPE:

    1.
    Here you see the description like in that social.technet.microsoft thread. That's how I've set it now.

    2.
    But now look at no 2 in the screenshot.
    The description clearly says there (in Dutch) that starting from Windows 8 the webpage Welcome to Internet Explorer is no more available.
    So the questions are:
    2.a - Is the nag screen that we are seeing really that Welcome to Internet Explorer webpage?
    2.b - If yes, then that description ("starting from Windows 8") is not right anymore.

    IE11_GPO_2019-07-02_01png.png
     
  15. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    WAIT. I have to correct myself here.
    I looked again at my ESET "filtered websites" log. And I see now that it has several times being blocked. At least I see it now being blocked several times.
    Copy of some part of such a log entry:

    https://ie11welcome.microsoft.com
    Blocked by user's blacklist
    C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

    Why I didn't get it blocked at first there, I don't know. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe because I made some other changes.
    One of those changes were that I also blocked https://ie11welcome.microsoft.com in that block list in Eset.
    Was that the trick that did it? I wished that I did keep a log about when I got that nag screen and when I made the latest changes to my Eset block list related to this, but alas I didn't. One thing for certain: this was all before I made the change via Group Policy Editor.

    Time will tell how things will go further.
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2019
  16. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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  17. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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  18. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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  19. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    @FanJ,
    Thanks very much.
    I noticed that thread just a couple of days ago. It was mentioned in the "How do I get rid of "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser" in IE 11" Microsoft Community thread [1].
    I haven't given it much thought, as I haven't seen any "Set Microsoft recommended settings for your browser" nags for a long time.
     
  20. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Hi @Stupendous Man ,

    Thanks to you too.
    The nagscreen in itself I don't see anymore since I made the adjustment in Eset as previously mentioned.
    I do can see, in the Eset log, when Eset is blocking it. That is happening far less frequently than it previously happened but it is still happening.
    I wanted a "deeper" solution in Windows itself. Time will tell if the suggestion will indeed fix it. I keep my special setting in Eset so at least I can see in the Eset log what's happening.

    The suggestion on both those two sites came from KevinMJohnston.
    Those suggestions are:

    In
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl

    Create regkey
    FEATURE_DEFAULTS_FRE_GLOBAL_FORCE_DISABLE

    Create under that regkey the following property

    Name: iexplore.exe

    Type: REG_DWORD

    Value: 1

    Having done this:

    In
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_DEFAULTS_FRE_GLOBAL_FORCE_DISABLE

    it looks now like this on Win7 Pro 64-bit Dutch (see screenshot):

    IE11-nagscreen_2019-09-08_01.png

    I hope I did that right.
     
  21. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I'm not sure.
    In one post was mentioned HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl
    I think HKCU is HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    not HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    In another post was mentioned HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl
    I don't know which is what you need and want.
     
  22. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Initially it was HKCU what was suggested but later it was suggested to better use HKLM.
    All in the thread https://social.technet.microsoft.co...earch-to-bing-in-ie11?forum=ieitprocurrentver
     
  23. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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  24. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    We will see how it all goes.
    Again, big thanks to you @Stupendous Man for all your help. Thanks my dear friend :thumb:
     
  25. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    You're most welcome, FanJ.
     
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