Blocked ads in IE7

Hello, I had a problem a while back with lots of annoying adware, and subsequently increased the security of all sorts of internet settings; one such setting is that I blocked banners and other types of ad from appearing on my internet browser. However, I received an email today in HTML format but my browser would not show any of the images on the email. I had also looked at this email on my PC in work, and it displayed the images no problem. I was wondering if this could have been caused by my blocking ads on internet explorer? However, I cannot remember how I did this in the first place, so am unable to reverse the settings! All I remember is making changes to the HOSTS file when I was getting rid of the adware. Is there any way you can determine what I have done and how to reverse it? Thanks very much, Siobhan.

Hello Siobhan,

To restore the default settings for IE:

• In IE, go to Tools | Internet Options
• Select the Security tab
• Click the Reset all zones to default level button
• Select the Privacy tab
• Click the Default button

As for restoring your host file, save the following text to a file called "hosts" (use double quotes) and save it to the "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\" directory:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#	  102.54.94.97	 rhino.acme.com		  # source server
#	   38.25.63.10	 x.acme.com			  # x client host

127.0.0.1	   localhost

Regards,

Ax

Thanks Ax, I have restored my default settings for Internet Explorer, however I seem to have a problem with my System32 folder! First of all, I found it in C:\i386\system32, and second of all, it only contained 2 files, and no folders! I'm sure I had an issue with my system32 folder, but I can't remember what it was, and I never resolved it. Now it appears to have disappeared! I'm slighty more concerned about the whole thing now! Any ideas?!

You may have the folder hidden, just type the path into Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) and you should be able to get there.

Hello, I have managed to locate my system32 folder. There is already a file named HOSTS, but I can't open it as it doesn't have a file extension. Which program should I use to open HOSTS in order to save the text into it? Thanks again!

Sorry for the late response. You can just open it with notepad and edit it from there.