A Program on your computer has corrupted your default search setting for Internet Explorer

Last Updated on Friday, 19 November 2010 09:12 Written by DarkBlak Tuesday, 17 August 2010 07:30

Problem:  Corrupted Search Provider Default for Internet Explorer.

Description: When you open Internet Explorer you will be prompted with this error message:

A Program on your computer has corrupted your default search setting for Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer has reset this setting to your original search provider.

Internet Explorer will now open Search Settings, where you can change this setting or install more search providers.

Corrupted Search Provider Default

This problem has been bugging me for more than a month now. I have tried every possible solution I saw on different forums but none of them worked for me. Until today. The solution I was talking involves registry manipulation, so please backup your registry first before doing anything or consult someone with a technical know-how before trying these steps.

1. Be sure no Internet Explorer is open.

2. Open up your registry and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

3. Under that key Add a new “Expandable String value” with a value name of “AppData” and a value data of “%USERPROFILE%\Application Data”.

The above solution worked for me so with other people. It may or may not work on you. If the above solutions doesn’t work for you, you may want to try other solutions that worked on other people.

Run Internet Explorer as Admin:
1. Right-click Internet Explorer, choose “Run as Administrator”.
2. Make your choices and preferences.
3. Close Internet Explorer.
4. Restart Internet Explorer.

Delete some registry key (Doing this will reset your search settings to the default values):
1. HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes
2. HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes
3. HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\User Preferences

Thats it! If you have any solutions othe the above mention please leave me a comment and I will add that to the list.