Local Page in Browser Restore list.

  • Thread starter Thread starter maryc64
  • Start date Start date
M

maryc64

As the forum is incomplete, no Search function is working.
I tried that first.
I worry when I look at the list of Restore Internet
Explorer Browser Settings for several reasons.
1. Our original settings may be faulty and we are
encouraged to save them prior to knowing if they are good
ones to save. We might have saved bad ones; would MS Anti-
Spyware have caught bad settings here if the original ones
had faults or were not secure?
2. One or more in the list says something like:
Local Page. I compared this to the list of examples
presented and all start with Internet.
Local Page is one on our computer.
If all current and default choices for a home page are to
be on the Internet, why would one be in our computer?
I am really very low in tech knowledge.
Does this mean if the first three current, default, etc.
home pages were hijacked, unavailable or whatever, our
computer would reveal a page in the computer as a home
page? Thus wouldn't such a "home page" make the computer
vulnerable as it is a Windows\system32 file?
Or is that the page that pops up when we aren't connected
to the web? Or am I overly worrying?
There are so many in this list of Browser Restore settings
that do NOT begin with HTTP but are files.
I know nothing.
3. Often when I ask for something to be explained by
hitting the "Learn about this checkpoint" a blank page
appears. Sometimes I'm informed I'm not connected to the
web, and that makes sense as I've unplugged the modem.
Otherwise, why a blank page when I seek to know what
happened and if I am in danger. I want specifics but
probably will just get general explanations as does occur
when one queries the Browser Restore areas as discussed
earlier in this post.
Can someone please reassure me that I cannot be hijacked
via my Local Page and others in the Internet list not
preceeded by HTTP???
Thanks for any very basic help.
I appreciate the facets of this program, especially the
Registry Checker section which is mysterious to me.
I trust very few Registry Checker tools which I've used in
the past.
Would a Registry Checker also catch a bad
browser "configuration" or bad selections listed on that
page/section of this program?

I want to support this new tool from MS but must have a
bit more basic reassurances and knowledge to use it better
as a novice.

Off topic: How to abv. Microsoft Anti-spyware?
There are only 21 threads that I see and as the Search
function doesn't work, it's tough to research even the
very basic. I'll wait and be patient, though, for
resolutions and answers for this new, great tool.
 
It really is unfortunate about the broken/missing search
function... it has severely crippled this little forum.
To your questions may I contribute?

1) I assume the discussion here is about the "Restore
Internet Explorer Browser Settings" dialog in the MS
AntiSpyware. The only two localhost settings are both
C:\WINDOWS\system32\blank.htm and blank.htm gets defined
by a restore point further down the list as
res://mshtml.dll/blank.htm which makes it VERY hard to
add unseen code to the blank page. The rest of the
restore points are to well known Microsoft sources.
mshtml.dll is the object library where Microsoft has
placed all of the HTML Objects: this is one of the
largest and profound libraries in the history of
computing - it contains more than 17,000 members... one
of which is a function allowing the craetion of a new
blank.htm page. Tricky eh?

2) there are just three protocols used in the "Restore
Setting To" list, but one (file) is implied. The
protocols are http:// (hyper-text transfer protocol), c:\
(the documentation reads: "the file protocol can be
specified formally as file:///C|\WINDOWS\system32
\blank.htm or implied as C:\WINDOWS\system32\blank.htm.),
and finally the res:// protocol (Specifies a resource
that will be obtained from a module. Note Internet
Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (SP1) no longer allows browsing
a local machine from the Internet zone. For instance, if
an Internet site contains a link to a local file,
Internet Explorer 6 SP1 displays a blank page when a user
clicks on the link. Previous versions of Internet
Explorer followed the link to the local file.) There are
a total of eleven predefined protocols recognized by
mshtml.dll. The other 10 protocols are: file, ftp,
gopher, http, https, javascript, mailto, news, res,
telnet, and view-source. The res protocol "Specifies a
resource that will be obtained from a module." Learning
is never "... overly worrying".

3) Because Microsoft's AntiSpware is Beta software, most
of the people assigned to the spyware group are probably
working 12 to 14 hour days on keeping up with the bad
guys and the very real politics sourounding spying.
Documentation part of the project seems to have the same
priority as the search mechanism for this poor little
forum.

PS: I will let others approach the registry tools issue.
At the top and bottom
of "http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.as
p?ICP=spyware" I show 20 pages with about 20 per page.
That would be 400 threads for this topic, which is the
wrong topic for this discussion but better here than
nowhere!
 
Thanks--I think you've covered the ground better than I could have.

I choose not to abbreviate Microsoft Antispyware, myself. The "in"
abbreviation seems to be MWAS, fwiw.

--
 
Note to self: see, mr. fancy peruser dude: Microsoft eventually fixes things
that need fixing!
 
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