How To Reset Internet Explorer 9 To Its Default Settings (RIES)

If you notice Internet Explorer issues like cannot IE cannot open any website, or browsing through IE is consistently slower than normal even when Internet connection is good, or a recent malware infection has messed up your Internet Explorer settings.

Does IE often stops responding, or stops working? Do you receive error messages that show that Internet Explorer has “encountered a problem and needs to close“? Or that a Visual C++ “runtime error” has occurred in Iexplore.exe? It’s time to reset your Internet Explorer to its default settings.

After the release of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft has introduced a single-button reset function for IE which can still be found in IE 9. If that reset button is clicked, it resets IE to Windows or manufacturer’s defaults.

WarningResetting Internet Explorer is not reversible. After a reset, all previous settings are lost and cannot be recovered. Rather than resetting everything, you might first want to reset specific settings (steps described in the second part of this article).

What happens to Internet Explorer 9 when we reset it?

What stuff are deleted? Browser history, stored passwords, temporary internet files, cookies, saved form data, typed URL history, websites added to different security zones under Privacy tab and allowed websites in Pop-up blocker.

What stuff are reset to defaults? Home page, Security tab settings, Advanced tab settings, Privacy tab settings, Search providers, tabbed browsing settings, colors, fonts, languages and accessibility settings under the Advanced tab, toolbar and text size, phishing filter, auto-complete and pop-up blocker.

Note: Third-party ActiveX controls, Toolbars, Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) and other IE extensions are disabled.

What are kept unchanged? Internet connection, proxy, VPN settings, default browser setting, Favorites, Feeds, Pre-approved ActiveX controls, Content Advisor settings, temporary internet file path setting, stored certificates information and Group Policy settings.

How To Reset Internet Explorer 9?

The steps below is valid for resetting Internet Explorer 7 and 8.

Warning: This action deletes the trusted sites that you have added and resets the parental control settings, so keep a note of these sites before you use this feature.

1. First, exit all the programs that are running, including Internet Explorer (if it is running). Better, you can simply restart your PC.

2. Click on Start, type the following command in the Start Search box, and then press Enter:

inetcpl.cpl

Windows XP users for resetting IE 7/IE 8, click Start, then click Run. Type the following command in the Open box, and then press Enterinetcpl.cpl

3. Wait for the Internet Options dialog box to appear.

RIES - Click on Advanced Tab

4. Now in the Internet Options dialog box, click on the Advanced tab, click Reset in the Reset Internet Explorer settings section. Click Reset again in the information dialog box.

RIES — Click on the Reset button, Reset again and Close

5. When Internet Explorer finishes resetting, click Close in the confirmation dialogue box and then click OK.

6. Close and open Internet Explorer again.

If you don’t want to do all these steps, you can use Microsoft Fix it 50195, which automates the process for you.

How To Reset Specific Internet Explorer 9 Settings Only?

1. Reset Security Tab Settings only: IE 7, IE 8 and IE 9 allows you to reset security settings for all the zones or for a specific zone.

Open Internet Options dialog box by following Steps 1 and 2 described in the previous section.

RIES — Click on Security Tab > Default Level for each section

Now, click on the Security tab. Click the Internet zone icon. On the Security level for this zone section, click on the Default Level button. Click Apply and OK. Follow this procedure for all the other zones.

RIES — Restore all zones to default

You may also choose to revert all zones to their default levels at one go by clicking on Reset all zones to default level.

2. Reset Advanced Settings: You can reset only the advanced settings by clicking on Restore advanced settings button in the Advanced tab of the Internet Options window.

RIES — Restore advanced settings

Hopefully these steps should be enough for you to handle general IE woes.

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