Internet Explorer StartUp Page

Question

Question: In windows, is there a systemwide setting to change the internet explorer homepage ? So that when a new user is created, the homepage will be the one I set.

Of course the user can change his setting later individually.

Answer 1

You can set this using a local group policy if it is xp/windows 7/vista professional or higher. Here's a link to a quick article http://www.ie-vista.com/group_policy.html. Once in the policy you can configure most of the settings for ie. You can also prevent users from changing it.

Answer 2

You best bet would be to configure a script to run when the user logs on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284193

Something like this

regedit /S sethomepage.reg

SETHOMEPAGE.REG

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Start Page"="http://www.google.com/"

This will edit the registry and make "google.com" the default "Start Page" for internet explorer.

Good Luck

Answer 3

The other option you have is to copy a profile with that home page set to the Default User profile. Just create a user, set up everything the way you want (like the home page), and then reboot. When the computer comes back up, log in as a different user (not the one you just set up), and then go to C:\Documents and Settings (C:\Users if Win7). You'll need to make sure you're showing hidden files, but you should see a folder for the new user you prepared and one called Default User. Copy the Default User folder somewhere else to be safe. Now just copy all of the contents of the user folder into the Default User folder, overwriting everything there. Now every new user should have their profile set up the same way, including the home page.