Hi again.

I use IE7 with security hardening on (2k3, out of the box, with IE7
applied). I'm constantly plagued by

The site you specified already exists in the Internet zone. Would you like
to move it to the Trusted sites zone?

This is on a site I've never been to before. Trouble is, when I press 'Yes'
nothing happens. I can't find the site name in any part of my registry or
system drive. When I look at the Internet zone in IE, the 'Sites...' button
is greyed out.

This is really annoying because it means I can't trust sites that I need to.
And God only knows wth IE7 is actually *doing* security-wise now. :-o

There's no results in Google and no relevant results here that I could find
by searching the error string (that I had to type manually, lucky I have two
monitors so I can actually see modal dialogs as I type them :-S ).

As usual with this sort of thing, just knowing I wasn't the only one with
the issue would help.

Eagerly awaiting your replies,

Aaron.

To whom does this machine belong, you or your employer?
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

Aaron Oxford wrote:
> Hi again.
>
> I use IE7 with security hardening on (2k3, out of the box, with IE7
> applied). I'm constantly plagued by
>
> The site you specified already exists in the Internet zone. Would you like
> to move it to the Trusted sites zone?
>
> This is on a site I've never been to before. Trouble is, when I press
> 'Yes'
> nothing happens. I can't find the site name in any part of my registry or
> system drive. When I look at the Internet zone in IE, the 'Sites...'
> button
> is greyed out.
>
> This is really annoying because it means I can't trust sites that I need
> to.
> And God only knows wth IE7 is actually *doing* security-wise now. :-o
>
> There's no results in Google and no relevant results here that I could
> find
> by searching the error string (that I had to type manually, lucky I have
> two
> monitors so I can actually see modal dialogs as I type them :-S ).
>
> As usual with this sort of thing, just knowing I wasn't the only one with
> the issue would help.
>
> Eagerly awaiting your replies,
>
> Aaron.

"Aaron Oxford" <AaronOxford@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E48F237E-24D3-4488-BFFD-D3FCD8487A0A@microsoft.com...
> Hi again.
>
> I use IE7 with security hardening on (2k3, out of the box, with IE7
> applied). I'm constantly plagued by
>
> The site you specified already exists in the Internet zone. Would you like
> to move it to the Trusted sites zone?
>
> This is on a site I've never been to before. Trouble is, when I press 'Yes'
> nothing happens.

> I can't find the site name in any part of my registry or system drive.


Using what tools? E.g. if it is being stored as doublebyte characters in a
binary string RegEdit won't find it for you and to search your drive when
its in that format you couldn't use Explorer Find or Find in a cmd window;
you would have to use something which either understood doublebyte characters
or allowed you to search for regular expressions, e.g. Visual Studio's
Find all Files or cmd window's findstr.


> When I look at the Internet zone in IE, the 'Sites...' button
> is greyed out.
>
> This is really annoying because it means I can't trust sites that I need to.

> And God only knows wth IE7 is actually *doing* security-wise now. :-o


I know what you mean! ; ) Try running ProcMon (or RegMon).
In some cases it can even show you doublebyte strings that RegEdit
won't show you...


>
> There's no results in Google and no relevant results here that I could find
> by searching the error string (that I had to type manually, lucky I have two
> monitors so I can actually see modal dialogs as I type them :-S ).
>
> As usual with this sort of thing, just knowing I wasn't the only one with
> the issue would help.
>
> Eagerly awaiting your replies,
>
> Aaron.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

??? :-)

I can't see how it is relevant, but for the record this is for personal use.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

> To whom does this machine belong, you or your employer?
> --
> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>
> Aaron Oxford wrote:
> > Hi again.
> >
> > I use IE7 with security hardening on (2k3, out of the box, with IE7
> > applied). I'm constantly plagued by
> >
> > The site you specified already exists in the Internet zone. Would you like
> > to move it to the Trusted sites zone?
> >
> > This is on a site I've never been to before. Trouble is, when I press
> > 'Yes'
> > nothing happens. I can't find the site name in any part of my registry or
> > system drive. When I look at the Internet zone in IE, the 'Sites...'
> > button
> > is greyed out.
> >
> > This is really annoying because it means I can't trust sites that I need
> > to.
> > And God only knows wth IE7 is actually *doing* security-wise now. :-o
> >
> > There's no results in Google and no relevant results here that I could
> > find
> > by searching the error string (that I had to type manually, lucky I have
> > two
> > monitors so I can actually see modal dialogs as I type them :-S ).
> >
> > As usual with this sort of thing, just knowing I wasn't the only one with
> > the issue would help.
> >
> > Eagerly awaiting your replies,
> >
> > Aaron.
>
>

Replies inline...

"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

> > I can't find the site name in any part of my registry or system drive.
>
>
> Using what tools? E.g. if it is being stored as doublebyte characters in a
> binary string RegEdit won't find it for you and to search your drive when
> its in that format you couldn't use Explorer Find or Find in a cmd window;
> you would have to use something which either understood doublebyte characters
> or allowed you to search for regular expressions, e.g. Visual Studio's
> Find all Files or cmd window's findstr.


That might explain it. Do you know if this is actually the case? You don't
explicitly state it above. Or is it something I can ascertain for myself? I'm
running in Australian English, so if some part of my system is or isn't
unicode compliant I wouldn't know.


> I know what you mean! ; ) Try running ProcMon (or RegMon).
> In some cases it can even show you doublebyte strings that RegEdit
> won't show you...
>
>

OK I tried that. I can manually navigate to

HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Internet Settings/Zonemap
and see domains that I've added to my Trusted Sites. These are all I can
find, and seeing how they are arranged I now understand why my searches
weren't working. Regmon doesn't show IE acessing anything other than these
keys.

One thing I do notice is that they are arranged strangely.

It seems to find domains and then create a folder for it, with subfolders
for prefixes like www or ftp. But there's a few strange ones (I'm deleting
them as I type this). For instance there is a folder com.au, with www.disney
and www.google inside. It would appear that IE is unaware that .com.au is a
high level domain.

This might explain why maps.google.com.au, www.ingrammicro.com.au and
various others like it weren't working, but things already in the list like
newcastlepermanent.com.au were functioning as expected. Perhaps it's a
registry logic bug in IE, someone tried to be smart in the way they stored
the domains and made a false assumption?

> HTH
>
> Robert Aldwinckle


I'll know after a reboot. Unfortunately this is starting to get beyond
annoying - it affects my work. I already have Firefox installed as a backup
so it would only be a matter of deleting the IE icon so I remember to run
Firefox instead. :-)

I certainly won't hold my breath waiting for a fix. These are the guys who
haven't worked out you can cancel important dialogs by happening to be typing
the letter C into another program the instant it pops up. :-)

It would be relevant if the machine had been customized via Group Policy by
your employer.

What anti-virus application or internet security suite is installed? What
anti-spware applications, other than Defender? What third-party firewall,
if any?

===========================

1. Does this behavior persist if you start IE7 in No Add-ons mode? To start
IE7 in No Add-ons mode:

Right-click on the blue IE desktop icon and select Start without Add-ons; or

Start > (All) Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Internet Explorer (No
add-ons).

Troubleshooting and Internet Explorer’s (No Add-ons) Mode:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/07/25/678113.aspx

2. Does the problem persist if you Reset IE7 Settings (RIES)?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737 <= Read before using!

3. If you uninstall (a) IE7 (which automatically returns you to IE6), (b)
all toolbars and (c) all third-party Windows Themes (including Window
Blinds) and do NOT reinstall IE7, does this behavior persist? If it does,
do NOT reinstall IE7.

Uninstalling IE7
http://www.ie-vista.com/kbase2.html

How to uninstall Internet Explorer 7:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927177

IE7 (Un)Installation and Anti-Malware Applications:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/200...lications.aspx

4. Required reading IMHO before reinstalling IE7:

Sandi's Installation Tips <= FOLLOW THESE TIPS TO THE LETTER!
http://www.ie-vista.com/known_issues.html#pre-install

[And I strongly recommend using
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/dow.../getitnow.mspx as the
installation source, not Automatic/Windows Update.]

Make *certain* that you check in at Windows Update immediately after
reinstalling IE7 to install any critical updates offered. If Optional
Updates category offers Root Certificates update, I recommend installing it
to take full advantage of IE7's additional security.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/


Aaron Oxford wrote:
> ??? :-)
>
> I can't see how it is relevant, but for the record this is for personal
> use.
>
> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:
>> To whom does this machine belong, you or your employer?
>> --
>> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
>> MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
>> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
>> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/
>>
>> Aaron Oxford wrote:
>>> Hi again.
>>>
>>> I use IE7 with security hardening on (2k3, out of the box, with IE7
>>> applied). I'm constantly plagued by
>>>
>>> The site you specified already exists in the Internet zone. Would you
>>> like
>>> to move it to the Trusted sites zone?
>>>
>>> This is on a site I've never been to before. Trouble is, when I press
>>> 'Yes'
>>> nothing happens. I can't find the site name in any part of my registry
>>> or
>>> system drive. When I look at the Internet zone in IE, the 'Sites...'
>>> button
>>> is greyed out.
>>>
>>> This is really annoying because it means I can't trust sites that I need
>>> to.
>>> And God only knows wth IE7 is actually *doing* security-wise now. :-o
>>>
>>> There's no results in Google and no relevant results here that I could
>>> find
>>> by searching the error string (that I had to type manually, lucky I have
>>> two
>>> monitors so I can actually see modal dialogs as I type them :-S ).
>>>
>>> As usual with this sort of thing, just knowing I wasn't the only one
>>> with
>>> the issue would help.
>>>
>>> Eagerly awaiting your replies,
>>>
>>> Aaron.

Hi and thanks for replying again.

"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

> It would be relevant if the machine had been customized via Group Policy by
> your employer.

LOL. Perhaps you could have asked 'has the machine been customized via Group
Policy'. :-) I did say this was 2K3 out of the box.

> What anti-virus application or internet security suite is installed? What
> anti-spware applications, other than Defender? What third-party firewall,
> if any?

None.

> ===========================
>
> 1. Does this behavior persist if you start IE7 in No Add-ons mode? To start
> IE7 in No Add-ons mode:

Yes.

> 2. Does the problem persist if you Reset IE7 Settings (RIES)?
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737 <= Read before using!

Yes. The immediate problem goes away, but of course the registry corruption
(see the other subthread of this posting) simply occurs again. Presumably
because the first site added is always www.google.com.au.

Please do read the other thread, I am able to *cause* (and fix) this problem
manually with registry editor now. I'd appreciate this text being forwarded
to a developer.

> 3. If you uninstall (a) IE7 (which automatically returns you to IE6), (b)
> all toolbars and (c) all third-party Windows Themes (including Window
> Blinds) and do NOT reinstall IE7, does this behavior persist? If it does,
> do NOT reinstall IE7.

Yes, this was a problem before IE7 existed. and I don't have any (b) or (c)
installed.

Following up with results: It worked. You will find that you may have a
com.au or equivalent high level domain in the previously mentioned registry
key. Deleting this key and simply restarting internet explorer will allow you
to add sites as normal.

I can now cause IE to permanently have a spaccy on www.google.com.au by the
following procedure:

Remove the key for www.google.com.au if it exists.
Create a key com.au if it doesn't already exist.
Restart IE and visit www.google.com.au

There may be some other preconditions that exist on my computer to cause
this, but I can report with certainty that this problem will return even
after reinstalling on different hardware, and I can assure you that the
removal of com.au will fix the problem (if you can make it happen).

> What anti-virus application or internet security suite is installed? What
> anti-spware applications, other than Defender? What third-party firewall,
> if any?

Just to set you straight too, Defender is not part of 2K3 Standard Edition.

Aaron Oxford wrote:
>> What anti-virus application or internet security suite is installed?
>> What
>> anti-spware applications, other than Defender? What third-party
>> firewall,
>> if any?
>
> Just to set you straight too, Defender is not part of 2K3 Standard
> Edition.

Did I say it was?