[Solved]Internet Explorer 10 history stops working.

[wmmiller]

Windows 7 Professional SP1 64bit on a Dell Studio 1749. IE 10 history stops working. I upgraded IE9 to IE10 and the history transfers along with the upgrade just fine. The history seems to work as it should, but then a day or two later when I want to go back to a previously visited page the history is gone. The trouble is that I reset IE in the internet options tab and try every fix in my tool arsenal but nothing works. The only way I know of to fix it is revert back to IE9 and then reinstall IE 10 again. It’s driving me nuts. I’ve goggled all over and it would seem that I’m the only one with this issues. I tried MS online fixit center and that didn’t find any issues. I’ve resorted to just using IE 9 but that’s not a fix. And it bugs the crap out of me that resetting IE 10 in internet option doesn’t reset that part of it. Maybe I’m frustrated enough that I’m missing the obvious. Any thoughts or ideas?
I’m off to reinstall IE10 for about the 9th time. Maybe the tenth times a charm.
Bill

Please throw me a bone.

[Fred]

Hello Bill.

You should check your internet settings and ensure that Delete browsing history on exit is unchecked. General tab.

You may also have add-ons deleting the history. Try running IE with no add-ons and check if the history is not deleted in that mode.

There is a nice article that seems to have worked for some people:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/fix-inter ... y-settings

If you don't manage to fix it by following these steps please send me a UVK log. maybe I can find out if there's something else wrong.

Hope it helps.

[wmmiller]

Fred,
Thanks for the reply. I did all those things but went ahead and checked them anyway. I also saw that information in the link you sent. After that it really started to bug the heck out of me so I gave my cleanup routine a look and did things one step at a time. I use your program as well as another and what I discover is that the delete history option in the maintenance section of the other program is causing the problem. I posted on their forums about it and hope to find the answer. However, it still would be nice to find a way to truly reset IE 10 so that it resets the history portion of it too. Because IE 10”s own reset doesn’t address the issue. Thanks for your time and hard work.
Bill

[Fred]

Here are some rundll32 commands for IE you may want to try:

Delete Temporary Internet Files:
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8

Delete Cookies:
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 2

Delete History:
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1

Delete Form Data:
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 16

Delete Passwords:
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 32

Delete All:
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 255

Delete All + files and settings stored by Add-ons:
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 4351

You can run them from a UVK script with the keyword <RunWait>

And there's also this one, which is the one UVK uses in the Reset IE and internet settings fix, along with some tweaks to remove search providers and add google as the only search provider:

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ResetIEtoDefaults

Normally, this one should reset all the settings to their defaults.

[Fred]

Oh, and if you're using the UVK immunization, don't forget to temporarily un-immunize the Internet settings before running any of these commands.

[wmmiller]

Thanks for your time Fred. I tried every one of the script fixes you posted one at a time without any luck. After that I did the step below.
A. Used systems restore to go back to a point where history is working fine.
B. Rebooted & verified history is still working. It was.
C. Ran UVK registry backup & verified history is still working. It was.
D. Ran delete history with the other program mentioned before & verified if history was still working. It was not.
E. Rebooted & verified that history is still not working. It was not.
F. Rebooted & ran UVK registry restore & verified if history was working. It was not.
G. Rebooted & verified that history was still not working. It was not.
So is this not a registry issue? This is a weird deal. I realize that this is not your program causing this issue and it’s not your problem. So if you’re sick of messing with it I totally understand. It sure seems to me that resetting everything would fix the issues. Any additional thoughts or ideas would be welcome. By the way, I am not using immunization.
Bill

[Fred]

Bill,

I think I know what is going on. Internet explorer's history is not saved to the registry. It's saved to the hard drive in %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History.

I think the other program is corrupting the history files there.

So you have a few options:

My favorite: Immunize the folder by adding an access denied ace, denying everyone delete access to the folder and all files inside it. IE would still be able to create files, but no one could delete them. You could restore the access through a script and delete the history with the command RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1. Then immunize again.

Other options include not using the other program to delete the IE's history, or not use it at all, at least until the bug is fixed, and delete the history using the command above, when desired.

Another option would be to create a script that uses cmd to make a copy of the history folder when the history is empty. Then, if the other program corrupts the files, you could use cmd to remove the folder and restore the previously made backup.

Let me know which one you prefer, and I'll help you with the script is you want.

[Fred]

And now I'm sure I know what is going on.

In previous versions of IE, we could delete the history folder, and IE would re-create it the next time it runs with no corruption.

But not IE 10. In my tests, the desktop.ini file inside the folder was not re-created by IE, and the system+hidden file attributes were not set in the folder.

The text of the desktop.ini file is as follows:

Code: Select all

[.ShellClassInfo]
ConfirmFileOp=0
DefaultToFS=0
CLSID={FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}

The desktop.ini file MUST also have the system+hidden attributes.

Try the UVK script below. It worked for me.

Code: Select all

<CmdScript> -h
@echo off
set HistoryDir="%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History"
set HistoryIni="%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\desktop.ini"
if not exist %HistoryDir% md %HistoryDir%
echo [.ShellClassInfo] > %HistoryIni%
echo ConfirmFileOp=0 >> %HistoryIni%
echo DefaultToFS=0 >> %HistoryIni%
echo CLSID={FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000} >> %HistoryIni%
echo UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933} >> %HistoryIni%
attrib %HistoryIni% +s +h
attrib %HistoryDir% +s +h

[wmmiller]

Damn Fred! That’s simply brilliant. You Nailed it. Thank you for taking the time to figure that out for me. Is That already in UVK? If not, stick that sucker in there. That’s a keeper.
Bill

[Fred]

Added to the Fix IE and the Windows shell fix. However, UVK will only perform these steps if IE 10 or higher is installed, since in older versions, IE will do it automatically.

[Derek]

Thanks Fred for bringing me a huge relief. Your UVK script solved the problem I’ve been trying to fix for few days.

Derek

[Fred]

You're welcome Derek.

Didn't you try the Fix IE and the Windows shell fix? It should do the same thing as the script.

The next UVK build will have a dedicated fix to repair the IE's history.

[wmmiller]

Welcome to the UVK forum Derek. This issue really had me in a daze too. I’m glad Fred was able to help you out.
Bill

[gulfw]

Thank you Fred - brilliant solution. I had been going round in circles over this!

[Fred]

You're welcome, gulfw.

FYI, UVK already has a dedicated fix for the same purpose: Fix Internet Explorer 10 history.

You can find it in the System repair section.