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SipSizzurp
Fo' Shizzle
Premium Member
join:2005-12-28
Houston, TX

1 edit

SipSizzurp

Premium Member

[WIN8] User agent string

I just set up a W8 machine for a customer who has MSN as their home page. With W8 and IE10, MSN detects that I the OS is W8 and re-directs to an 8over8hauled8 c8ust8om8ize8d version of the webp8age.

After changing the user agent string to IE9 the re-direct stopped and the familiar home page was back.
»www.howtogeek.com/113439 ··· ensions/

Edit - It works for the first time you open the internet explorer. After the second time you close and open IE10, IE10 reverts the custom string setting back to default and I am again stuck with the custom8 version of MSN.

Now I need to see if FireFox or Chrome will fix the problem. I didn't really want to install 3 different browsers just to get by as with XP, but it looks like I might not be so lucky.
19579823 (banned)
An Awesome Dude
join:2003-08-04

2 edits

19579823 (banned)

Member

 

Oh yes,you can do a whole lot of things by changing the UA

Websites lie and say a certain browser WONT WORK on thier site and they block your access BUT CHANGING YOUR USER AGENT PROVES OTHERWISE!!

Glad ya figured it out!!! (Im sorry it keeps reverting back,must be a way to prevent that!!)

Kramer
Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA

Kramer to SipSizzurp

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Re: [WIN8] User agent string

That's what the article says will happen. I suppose you might be able to find the registry string that controls it (search for useragent for a beginning) and then change it and then deny all permissions to the value except read. That is something I would probably forget doing a year later and then pull my remaining hair out trying to fix. Odds are good you might get an error message when IE tries to revert the value.
19579823 (banned)
An Awesome Dude
join:2003-08-04

19579823 (banned)

Member

 

Yes i would also suggest trying to change it RIGHT IN THE REG,probably wont happen then.....
SipSizzurp
Fo' Shizzle
Premium Member
join:2005-12-28
Houston, TX

SipSizzurp

Premium Member

The closest thing I could find in the registry were several keys named IE4.useragent, but none seemed to have anything to do with the IE10 browser settings. I also found a gpedit article, but W8 has a different layout and I could not find the option.
»www.door2windows.com/how ··· ny-tool/

I had a program to change the user agent in older versions of IE. I'll dig it up and see if it works.
19579823 (banned)
An Awesome Dude
join:2003-08-04

19579823 (banned)

Member

Im surprised there is IE4. keys in Win 8! (Win 4 is 95 (4.1 is 98/98se))

Check here my friend,this is the location for IE6 and im sure its the same for all IE versions (But im not 100%)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent

If thats not where it is on yours,im sure searching the reg for "User agent" will produce the right one (Probably be a few)


Good luck
SipSizzurp
Fo' Shizzle
Premium Member
join:2005-12-28
Houston, TX

1 edit

SipSizzurp

Premium Member

said by 19579823:

If thats not where it is on yours,im sure searching the reg for "User agent" will produce the right one (Probably be a few)


Good luck

Yes, I had to search by "User Agent", not "useragent". I found 3 or 4 registry entries that show the alternate IE version as selected from IE F12 menu. They remain changed, but IE ignores them anyway. i can change them to something new with F12, they change in the registry and stay changed, but opening IE again still reverts to defaults. Closing IE and checking the keys again show they are still the altered value.

I installed this IE addon ;
»www.enhanceie.com/ietoys ··· pick.asp

It also added new over-ride reg keys, and it also works.... Until IE starts again. Then IE is back to defaults, and showing the wrong MSN home page.

I just loaded it with FireFox, and that is working very well. Setup and customization was very simple. They made a lot of improvements since the last time I loaded FireFox 5 or 6 years ago. Did not need to mess with user agent spoofing either. I just deleted the shortcuts for IE. Now it is time to set up Incredimail, import the backup, and then move documents and pictures in from the backup.

Edit - This is cute. I just re-named the FireFox Icon to "Inernet Explorer 10" and changed the Icon to the IE10 icon. My 79 year old customer will never know the difference !
19579823 (banned)
An Awesome Dude
join:2003-08-04

19579823 (banned)

Member

I wonder if you re-booted WITH THE ENTRIES CHANGED if IE would then use them permantly?
SipSizzurp
Fo' Shizzle
Premium Member
join:2005-12-28
Houston, TX

SipSizzurp

Premium Member

I thought the same thing, but no, rebooting did not make IE respect the new REG keys.

mjhouser
Premium Member
join:2001-10-06

mjhouser to SipSizzurp

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to SipSizzurp

Re: [WIN8] User agent string

I am not using Win8. I was thinking back to 2006ish and I thought we changed the Agent String here >>> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
SipSizzurp
Fo' Shizzle
Premium Member
join:2005-12-28
Houston, TX

SipSizzurp

Premium Member

Finding and changing it was easy. I even changed the permissions on the keys to "read only" all the way around. IE10 still ignored all of the keys and defaulted to what it wanted to do. There was a .dll file referenced in one of the keys that I had planned to look into, but got I side tracked. I'll check it again tomorrow.