by Al Vj

Created on: June 25, 2009

FIXED: Stop the Internet Explorer runonce screen displaying when IE (Internet Explorer) is started

Problem:

The runonce screen is displayed instead of the home page when Internet Explorer is launched with URL: http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx

Solution:

First try to stop the run-once page appearing by selecting your preferred options on the run-once page and then clicking on "Save Settings". If that does not work, you can disable the run-once page in the registry by following these steps:

(note: only do this if you cant stop the run-once screen appearing by selecting your options on the page and clicking on Save Settings)

Step one: Launch the registry editor
Do this by clicking on start, run (in Vista on start button and type in "Start Search" box) and type regedit and press enter

Step two: Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main key

Step three: Add a DWORD value called RunOnceHasShown and set the value to 1
(note: if the value already exits just change its value to 1)
Do this by right-clicking in the right hand pane and select New and then DWORD (32-bit) Value
Then rename the new value to RunOnceHasShown
Finally double click on the new value and set its value to 1 and click on OK

Step three part two: Add a DWORD value called RunOnceComplete and set the value to 1
(note: if the value already exits just change its value to 1)
Do this by right-clicking in the right hand pane and select New and then DWORD (32-bit) Value
Then rename the new value to RunOnceComplete
Finally double click on the new value and set its value to 1 and click on OK

Step four: Check that the "StartPage" value has the correct URL assigned to it. This should be the URL for your preferred home page.
Alternatively you can set this in Internet Explorer by navigating to your preferred home page and then clicking on Internet Options in the Tools menu and clicking on the "User Current" button and then OK.

Step five: Close the registry editor and restart Internet Explorer. Hey presto, it works!
You may be directed to an msn page the fist time you use Internet Explorer after you have edited the registry, just go to your home page and restart Internet Explorer and it should all work.

More info: Remember you can damage your Operating System when you edit the registry, so be careful. Thanks to robkermit and beentheredonethat from msfn.org for this solution. See http://www.brightvisions.co.uk/Latest-Solutions/Stop -IE7-runonce-screen.html for more details.

Al - IT Support Engineer for www.brightvisions.co.uk

Learn more about this author, Al Vj.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.