Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
If you can't change it, your browser home page could be protected by anti-spyware software or it could be spyware itself getting in the way.
Why can't I set my internet home page to what I want?
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It depends on "how" you can't.
If you can change your home page and later it changes back to something else then you probably have spyware.
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If you can't change your home page - the option is greyed out - then you may have spyware or if you're in a corporate or other controlled environment then you may not have permission to do so.
In any case, spyware is the top suspect, so I'd run a spyware checker right away.
Article C1981 - June 3, 2004
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I had the same problems and yes as mentioned in the top an anti-spyware prog caused the problem.
Posted by: Berty at July 6, 2007 5:01 AMDeactivate that program change the value in what you like and activate the antispyware program again.
My problem is definitely caused by Google Desktop. I installed an upgrade yesterday and stupidly didn't read everything in a popup window. One of the items checked (that I could have unchecked) was the selection of google.com as my home page. When I tried to change it I found that the option was greyed out. I uninstalled all Google applications and started over - this time I unchecked the box but still have the option greyed out. I should also mention that after I deleted all the Google apps, I still couldn't change the home page, so it's something that Google installed that's hiding somewhere else. I'm a little surprised that I'm finding so little help on this as I'd expect almost everyone to be upset that their IE has been hijacked by Google.
Posted by: David Skidgel at November 29, 2007 7:36 AMMy computer has been acting very strange. My system seems to be locking me out of all my programs and whenever I try to open a file it freezes up. I can't even change my homepage on IE anymore. Can you tell me what the problem is?
Posted by: Devonta at April 19, 2008 5:00 PMI have a totally diffrent problem on Internet explorer 7 I try to change my setting and apply my home page but when I do it says applying setting in a green bar and it takes forever and never works
Posted by: Rajan at October 13, 2008 2:31 PMIf you have Spy Hunter. Open it, Click on Network Sentry on the left. A window will open. in the third section has "Internet Home page Protection" You can click on to protect a certain page. Go to the page you want in a separate browser and copy the url from the address bar and past it here. Or you can unclick it and then use your tools > internet options and put in whatever homepage you want and click apply. Then your homepage can be changed.
Posted by: Patti at March 26, 2010 9:29 AMHope this helps. Mine was locked in Spy Hunter under Network Sentry...Bye for Now