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Reset Internet Explorer Settings (REIS) Feature

As our users, or us, browse the Internet and freely click away, we may inadvertently install many different add-ons into Internet Explorer.  I was volunteering for an organization this past weekend that provided the volunteer with a desktop.  This desktop had:
  • Bing Search
  • Google Search
  • Yahoo Search
  • Lexmark Status
  • Amazon.com Search
  • And something else that I never heard of.
With all these add-ons (and what else I did not see) performance of IE can start to become an issue.  One way to get a clean slat for IE to work on is to use the REIS feature.  REIS will reset the following IE components to their default settings:
  • Home Pages
  • Search scopes
  • Browsing history
  • Form data
  • Password
  • Appearance settings
  • Toolbars
  • ActiveX controls.
Doing this procedure will help provide a more stable browsing experience for your users and prevent messages such as “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.”  Here is who you do it.
Exit all programs
Launch just one instance of Internet Explorer
In Internet Explorer, click Tools \ Internet Options.
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Click the Advanced tab.
In the Reset Internet Explorer settings at the bottom of the Internet Options window, click Reset.
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Click Reset
Click Close
Click OK.
Now close IE and then open IE again.  You should be at the default configuration. 
You can set Internet Explorer to clean even more information.  Before you clicked reset above, you were presented with the option to Delete personal settings.  This option Resets home pages, search providers and Accelerators to default settings. Deletes temporary Internet files, history, cookies, web form information, passwords and InPrivate Filtering data.
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