[RESOLVED] IE7 setting changed on its own ?

[slickcondo]

I am using Win XP Pro, SP3 and IE7. Recently, a few things has changed on its own as follows:

1) On the Quick LLaunch bar, the My Desktop Icon that is usually there when IE is installed has disappeared.
2) when I add a website to my Favourites, sometimes it says someting to the effect that the Shortcut does not exist or has been maved and asked me to make sure that the link is correct or something like that. At other times, it created 2 shortcuts on the Favourites, one that says the error message I just mentioned and the other works.
3) sometimes when I clcik on a link, a Blank Page shows up and I have to close the blank page and reclick on the webpage before it directs me to the site.

All these 3 things has never happened before till recently. I have not installed any new programs short of installing Windows Update patchs which is set to do this automatically.

Does anyone esle has the same problem or know what is causing these or similar errors and how to resolve these ? Many thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

[SuperSparks]

The first one is easy:

How to recreate the Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar

When you say a "blank page" do you mean completely blank, or is there some sort of "Cannot find" message?

[slickcondo]

The first one is easy:

How to recreate the Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar

When you say a "blank page" do you mean completely blank, or is there some sort of "Cannot find" message?

Hi SuperSparks. I trust you are well.

Thanks for the link. Great stuff !! I got the missing icon back.

Regarding blank page, the page is a white blank without any text except the 2 boxes at the top of the page. I have attached a screen shot here. Hope this helps. On the attached screenshot, under the first box that says Blank Page, Windows Internet Explorer is the box with the text about:blank This blank page quite readily occurs from the site http://www.tvguide.co.uk/default.asp...Time=&thisDay= when I click for more info on a program listed (one that have a right arrow next to it). I also get it on other sites, but not so readily. It's never happened before.

I've also attached pop up error message when I click on a site that has been added as My Favourites. The "" in the error message is not there stated on Favourites when I add the site to Favourites. It has the text that states the name of the page that is added. But in the pop up error message, for some reasons this appears.

Hope these helps. Thanks

[SuperSparks]

Here is a KB article that may be of help with the blank pages:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=281679

[slickcondo]

Here is a KB article that may be of help with the blank pages:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=281679

Thanks for the link. Tried all the suggestions there, but not able to resolve the problem

[jdc2000]

Does this only happen on the TV Guide site? If so that would not surprise me. TV Guide has one of the worst web site designs I have ever seen. I have never been able to get it to show me anything useful.

[SuperSparks]

It's not solving the immediate problem, but this is the best UK TV guide site that I've found:

http://www.radiotimes.com/

[slickcondo]

Does this only happen on the TV Guide site? If so that would not surprise me. TV Guide has one of the worst web site designs I have ever seen. I have never been able to get it to show me anything useful.

Sadly it does not only happen on the TV guide. If it does, I won't worry about it and pass it as the cause if on that site. But occasionally it happens on other sites as well

[slickcondo]

It's not solving the immediate problem, but this is the best UK TV guide site that I've found:

http://www.radiotimes.com/

Thanks for the link. I also have this site you gave. But the one I posted links you to watch the program online when you click on the right arrow next to the program. That's the reason I favour it to other sites.

[slickcondo]

Looks like I won't be getting any further suggestions on these problems(??)

Then how about these two:

1) My Favourites drop down menu now only shows some of the items and an arrow down appear instead. I've never had this before as it used to give me the full drop down menu unless the drop down menu over fills the screen. Now there is an arrow down even when the drop down menu only fills a third of the screen. Any remedies to avoid having to press the arrow down before all items are shown ?

2) is there a way where all text on the screen page can appear without going off screen ? I am using IE 7 at 100% and most text goes off screen on web pages and I have to use the right scroll bar to see the off screen part. Is there a setting to make the full text appear within the screen without having to go to 75% screen size on IE ?

I get the feeling that something is changing me setting but dont know what. I have ran Antispyware, Antivirus and Malware and they came up with nothing ! Could it be because this laptop came with Vista installed and I downgraded it to XP back in last October ?

[SuperSparks]

For the first one, uncheck "Enable personalised favourites" in the Advanced tab of Internet Options.

What is your screen resolution set to?

[slickcondo]

For the first one, uncheck "Enable personalised favourites" in the Advanced tab of Internet Options.

What is your screen resolution set to?

Thanks. The drop down menu has not disappeared.

My screen resolution has always and still is set at the lowest at 800 x 600 pixels. Text size on the screen is set at Medium.

I can't remember if I had the same problem in the old laptop which has a squarer screen. These modern ones have a more rectangular screen and the items on the screen seems to be sort of stretched at other settings. I have played with the various options and I find this current resolution gives the best screen presentation and at the same time, I don't need to put on my reading glass to read the text. Only that they don't fit the screen and have to use the scroll right bar.

But I am more that willing to try other settings you may suggest to see if any of those are suitable. Isn't there a setting elsewhere to set the text to fit the screen at this setting ?

[SpywareDr]

800x600 is too small. Even an extremely plain website like Google won't display without scrollbars at that small a setting.

The code in the page you're attempting to load into your browser is what determines the width of their page. If your screen is smaller than that, your browser should display a horizontal scrollbar so you can see the entire width of the page.

Solution? Get a bigger monitor, new glasses, or both.

[SuperSparks]

I agree, pretty much all websites will expect a minimum of 1024x768 these days. 800x600 puts you in just 1% of all users:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp

[slickcondo]

I tried the setting at 1024 x 768 and didn't suites me. so I guess I'll stilck to my existing setting and be contented wtih using the right scroll bar to see the rest of each page

Looks like some of the issues rasied here are not going to be resolved or perhaps no answers or work round. So I'll close this post and thanks for all your help and suggestions.