Re: IE 5 'feature'?

[Su Wadlow <swadlow () UTDALLAS EDU>]

--On Friday, September 29, 2000 12:00 PM -0400 White Vampire
<whitevampire () MINDLESS COM> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 28, 2000 at 09:01:33PM -0300, MindSuck(mindsuck () USA NET)
> wrote:
> > They just use it to keep a more updated user database
>
> Just.
>
> This definitely raises some interesting questions.

I'm not so sure it's used for an updated user database.  I do lots and
lots of IE updates, and every version that I've dealt with -- 5.0, 5.01,
5.01 SP1, and now 5.5 -- sends you to this page the first time you start
IE after updating.  As the original poster pointed out, the URL
redirects
to someplace on msn.com, which, IIRC, prompts you to sign up with MSN
and
maybe Hotmail (it's been a *long* time since I've actually paid
attention
to what that page says).

Oddly enough, my Windows 95 system has the 'homepage.inf' file in
c:\windows\system as noted by the original poster, even though I don't
have IE installed; the registry key he mentioned is *not* set, however.
I think the .inf file was put there by the Office 2000 installer, which
really, really wants to install IE and Outlook Express, even if you tell
it not to (I've often removed OE from the default Win98 install on a
brand
new machine, then installed Office, only to have OE return and have to
be
removed again).  I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this is just
something generally placed in the %system% directory by the MS
installer.

Looking in the IE directory on my Office 2000 CD, and I'd have to
surmise
that the 'homepage.inf' file is installed from one of the CABs, as it's
not directly visible there.  Now, this file in and of itself probably
isn't notable.  But what might be interesting is whether the mechanism
by which this file is put in the %system% directory and then used to
write the FirstHomePage registry entry could be used to direct someone
to a website that's, um, shall we say, not so friendly.

--
Su Wadlow
swadlow () utdallas edu
   If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand . . . . :-)