Web sites think I am using a Macintosh

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sid
  • Start date Start date
S

Sid

Hello,

I am running XP with SP1 and the latest version of IE 6. I am having a
problem where some web sites mistake my system for a Macintosh. I'll get
errors stating "our sites does not support the Macintosh" or I will get a
page customized for the Mac. This is especially odd, as I am running
Internet Explorer on Windows XP.

Does anyone have any clue as to why this is happening? Is there aa registry
setting somewhere which would affect the browser's platform identification?

Thanks.
 
Check registry key
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings" with regedit. There should be valuename "User Agent" at right pane
with value "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Win32)".
 
Check registry key
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings" with regedit. There should be valuename "User Agent" at right pane
with value "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Win32)".
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I tried your suggestion, using different combinations
of MSIE 6.0, 5.5 and 5.0 as well as differing combinations of the platform
type. Nothing worked. This is such a strange problem, and I have had it
for the longest time.

Perhaps my Internet Settings reg key is corrupted? Could you do me a favour
and export your User Agent key into a file and attach it here? I want to
delete my key and try merging a fresh one.

In terms of the problem, and maybe you can try to reproduce it on your
end... everytime I go to www.download.com, the site redirects to
http://download.com.com/ and the cnet search bar (next to the grey Go!
button) drop down has "In Mac" already selected. Further down on the page,
the line indicating the download page states the following:

Downloads for Windows | Mac | Mobile

The Mac link is selected, like as though the Mac page is already loaded, and
all the links and content are customized for Mac selections and topics.
Also, when I try to order bank cheques from my bank's web site, I get a
message stating, "the cheque order feature is currently unavailable for
customers using the Macintosh operating system." It's quite bizarre. I
have deleted cookies, checked for viruses, trojans and spyware but I can't
find anything abonormal.

Sid
 
There should be valuename "User Agent" at right pane

Sid,

I recently found out that that value isn't used the way we thought it was.
For example, if you execute the following line from your Address bar
you will see that your modifications are being ignored.

javascript:navigator.userAgent

(Note the capitalization in the property name.)

I haven't figured out yet if there is a way to override the User Agent.
There are several KB articles which still perpetuate the idea that
making the change that you did should be enough but the evidence
invalidates it.

Besides using the Address bar to display the value that IE will be sending
you could verify that that is the value that the remote site actually receives
by using this test site:

< http://www.gemal.dk/browserspy/basic.html >


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
 
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