Microsoft KB Archive/261310

= Security Zones Missing in Internet Explorer =

Article ID: 261310

Article Last Modified on 11/26/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0
 * Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 1
 * Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2
 * Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 128-Bit Edition

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This article was previously published under Q261310



SYMPTOMS
When you view the security zone information on the Security tab in the Internet Options dialog box, one or more security zone icons may not appear.



CAUSE
Internet Explorer Setup creates five security zone entries (My Computer, Local Intranet, Trusted Sites, Internet, and Restricted Sites) in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive in the registry when you log on the first time after installing Internet Explorer. However, these keys may not be created and the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones key may be left empty. In this case, Internet Explorer uses the entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE instead.

If roaming profiles are enabled and you can log on to the network from computers running both Internet Explorer 4.x and Internet Explorer 5, only the modified zone information is written to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive when you change security settings in Internet Explorer 4.x. At this point, the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones key is no longer empty and the zone information is incomplete.

When you start Internet Explorer 5 to view security settings, Internet Explorer 5 retrieves the zone information from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive instead of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive because the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones key is not empty. This causes an incomplete zones list to be displayed.



RESOLUTION
This problem has been corrected in Internet Explorer 5.01.



WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior, write a logon script to detect the damaged security zone registry entries and restore them if necessary.

Keywords: kbenv kbprb KB261310

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