69liz

Thanks. Yes, I think I will leave it for now. I have backed up his documents - not a lot as he has only been using it for school work for 6 months and will get the Drivers off if I can find them. Then send him back to school with it and see how he gets on. Enormous thanks for all your help.

[quote Re: the logs files in post #53. There seem to be rather a lot of corrupt files. If you have problems in the future, I would definitely recommend using the factory reset option. I'm a bit scared to do the factory reset now that the original problem is fixed although that was my next step. Could doing a factory reset cause more harm than good or is that impossible?

I've done it!!! OMG, I can't believe it!! The solution? Completely remove IE9 and roll back to IE8 - simple as that!! Thank you so much for all your help.

I have tried to get to the Restore Factory Settings screen as I found that online but pressing F9 just gives me the option to go into Windows 7 or go into Windows Memory Diagnostics. Selecting Windows 7 just starts it as normal.

cbs1.txtcbs.txtThe scan completed and fixed what it could but there were some errors it couldn't fix. I've attached the log in 2 files as it was too large to either attach or paste.

Running your scan now Arthur - fingers crossed as no idea how to reinstore Windows as it is a netbook with no disc drive.

It's an Asus EEEPC and is running IE9

Thanks Arthur. This hasn't worked either so now I am trying to find out how to do a factory reset on it.

I got the same error message as before: There was a problem starting inetcpl.cpl inetcpl.cpl is not a valid Win32 application.

Spybot S&D isn't on the machine. I'll try the second Fix it wizard then if it's different. Losing the will to live though on this one.

Yes, done that already Mac but it didn't help.

Thanks Mac - the first link didn't help me - there isn't a key called NoBrowserOptions in the registry under either Current User or Local Machine. Re the Tweak of the week - this is an old instruction for Windows XP - is this ok for Windows 7? I don't have a subkey called Control Panel under Internet Explorer either - the instruction says - create it - if you recommend this, how do I create it?

Thanks Arthur for your suggestion. I got an error message: There was a problem starting inetcpl.cpl inetcpl.cpl is not a valid Win32 application. Any thoughts?

Thank you Mac for your post but I'm afraid I didn't understand what to do. I opened up the registry as you suggested and followed the pathways. The settings are definitely different for the local machine and the current user. There was a mention of a proxy under current user but not under the local machine. Does that help at all?

Creating a new account didn't make any difference. The Fix it wizard hasn't made any difference either.

Spybot S&D is NOT on the machine. The Combofix and the Este scan as well as the Malwarebytes hasn't shown anything up. I will try some of the things that Mac has suggested next. Thanks!

Clicking Internet Options doesn't do anything - that is the problem!! We can't get into change or reset anything there.

The Este scan brought up nothing either.

So, is that what you recommend? A clean install of Windows? I'm afraid I don't know how to do that but at least it is a solution

Malwarebytes found nothing. The re-installed Antivirus is working fine. Doing the online scan now - thanks very much - really appreciate everyone's input.

It has Open Office 3.3, AVG, Collins Dictionary, Malwarebytes, Skype, Firefox and IE9. I put Spybot S&D on to scan it when the problem appeared but it wasn't on before the problem started and I've uninstalled it again. Everything else was installed as standard. And yes, I have checked the list!

The netbook is running Windows 7 Starter. When he first took it to school he had to log on to a school registration network - this was set up especially for students to register their laptops and netbooks on the system - the school actively encouraged students to bring back their own equipment and this netbook was brought new for this purpose. Once he had registered he was emailed by the technicians which said his netbook was fine and they gave him the password needed to access the main school network. He was then given the proxy server address and the port that he had to add. This he did and all was fine but recently he has not been able to access the proxy settings in order to change it so he can use it at school.

He has AVG Free on there but not Spybot. He does have Malwarebytes but I downloaded that after the problem started so that I could scan for problems. His AVG did actually stop working as well - ie. He couldn't open it - nothing happened when clicking the icon - does that give any more clues? I uninstalled that and re-installed it.

Yes, he has permission to use his personal netbook at school. They went wireless and actively encouraged students to take their own devices. It worked fine for 6 months, then he came home for a weekend and connected to our wi-fi. When he went back to school he couldn't get on to the proxy settings to reconfigure to getting back on the network. I think it is down to the technicians to sort it out as I think it is a policy setting like someone else has suggested.

Yes, he is the only user of the machine. Yes, I installed Firefox and uninstalled Chrome but still no joy. The Change Proxy Settings button does nothing when pressed. No options come up at all. When clicking on Internet Properties or Options through Control Panel - nothing happens. I think it is a setting he has inherited from school which is why it is so frustrating that his IT technicians are being so unhelpful.