I too ran into this. Thanks for posting the work around. It was annoying to say the least...

I am having exactly the same problem. I have uninstalled and reinstalled IE7
several times but the problem remains the same. Every time I load IE7 I get the "Windows has encountered a problem and has to close" message. I'm going back on to IE6 until I can get it resolved.
When I try your workaround and Run "gpedit.msc" I get Windows cannot find gpedit.msc message.
Any further ideas?

Thanx Alot Mate!!!

gpedit.msc is Group Policy Editor which has no effect in the computers that has disabled it...

The faster and more reliable way is running regedit.exe from Start --> Run

and find the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Change the "RunOnceHasShown" on the right to: 1

thats all...

Hi Thinker - I tried this first but it didn't work for me and a few other people.

Because it didn't work, may be GPO is active at your computer?

Try this, find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\GPExtensions

Cange "NoGPOListChanges" to "1" in every {xxx-xx-xx-xx-xxxxxx} key under that branch.

Create:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
if you donn't have one, and add a DWORD key "DisableGPO" with a value 1

Which makes the procces of disabling GPO for all...

(You can make this changes with XQ X-Setup if you are not an expert)

After that try with:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Change "Start Page" to: "about:blank"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Change the "RunOnceHasShown" on the right to: 1

Thats worked for me.

Ah ok, I see :-)

Thanks for that! Very useful. So I guess if the first method (editing group policy) doesn't work changing the registry entry "RunOnceHasShown" should work.

Thanks!

gpedit didnt work for me, but i solved it by adding *.msn.com to my trusted sites in IE and suddenly the runonce site looked different (with options and such, wow) and i was able to disable the runonce site :)

This fix is quite easy. Visit the PC doctos site and you will find the following script. Worked first time and took 2 mins to sort

After struggling with this for sceral days, I'm not a tec head, ifounf the perfwect fix from the PC doctors site

Click Start > Run and type the following into the Open box:
gpedit.msc
Click OK.
Using the left hand pane, navigate as follows:
User Configuration
> Administrative Templates
> Windows Components
> Internet Explorer
In the right-hand side pane double-click on Prevent performance of First Run Customize settings
Change the setting for Prevent performance of First Run Customize settings to Enabled and use the drop-down box to select Go directly to home page

Click OK and close Group Policy
Restart Internet Explorer 7

*Thank you* very much. I have many computers without an internet connection (I deploy updates with WSUS), I couldn't afford the "registry editing approach" :-)

Thanks-great tipp with gpedit.msc resolve the problem.

Thank you too :) I have 250 machines and this will save me some time and stress of user complaints about seeing this crappy microsoft page when they open IE :)

Thanks for the fix, Im in a time crunch and this is a huge help

You're a genius! By posting this, you've saved a lot of people a lot of pain-in-the-neck hunting for that, me included. Thanks!!

Thanks a lot!
Greatings from Austria!

BIG THANKS!

I have tried the gpedit.msc and get a window saying not found. I tried regedit.exe and got to the main key but it would not allow me access. I have now tried all the above and still can't fix the annoying runonce issue. Help!

I tried Gpedit.msc and get a box stating "cannot find gpedit.msc"

You also may need to add the following REG_DWORD value:

"RunOnceComplete" and set it to 1 also.

VERY VERY useful

Excellent! this was driving me mad! ive set it on our companies group policy settings and it works a treat!

Wonderful. Your solution was the first website to pop up on Google and it helped immensely when all Microsoft could offer me on the subject was a few links and an offer of charging me over $50 to just listen to what I have to say.

Thanks for the help in sorting out the poxy runonce business. It didn't even do anything but hang on an empty screen. What is Microsoft thinking of??? I can imagine my 79 year old father getting seriously confused!!

I was pretty much fed up with this happening; it became quite annoying, thanks for removing the anxiety.

download run once remover its free and very easy

I made a reg file containing:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"RunOnceHasShown"=dword:00000001
"RunOnceComplete"=dword:00000001

called it stop run once.reg
this way you can modify many pc's without entering regedit! way fast!!

didn't work for me, tried gpedit, changed it didn't work

changed NoGPOListChanges
did "DisableGPO"
homepage is google,
"RunOnceHasShown" is 1

Using XP Home. Got message that it could not find gpedit.msc. Any ideas

Thanks, was looking for a good answer for this problem for a while. This really helped a lot.

As Matt B said, download Runonce Remover from here http://www.download.com/IE7-Runonce-Remover/3000-8022_4-10683033.html
It's 200KB in size and repairs the annoying IE7 issue in seconds. Thank god there are people out there repairing Microsoft's problems !.

I have found that the 8th post, from Basti, in this discussion leads to the simplest and most effective way to fix this problem, (without all that pesky Registry and Group Policy Editing). I'm not sure but I think you guys were over thinking this one. The first thing you do is duh, ... Go to Internet Options and type in your desired hompage url in the space provided. (It seems obviuos, but if you missed that, this won't work.) The next thing you have to do is add your desired homepage url to the "Tools =>Internet Options =>Security =>Trusted Sites" list. (Make sure and disable the "https" setting below.) After that close out all IE7 windows and open IE7 again. The "Runonce" page now has more options. Select the "Choose your settings" tab at the bottom. Then select the "Let me select from a list of other search providers." option and then save your settings to choose another default search engine. A new window will pop-up so that you can select a search engine.(But this window is irrelevant.) Go back to your original window and select "Go to your homepage". If you already have your desired homepage typed in the "Internet Options => Home Page" area, it should go straight to that page. Just to double check, close out all IE7 windows and when you re-open. IE7 should go back to your desired homepage. Tell me if it worked for you guys.

No work, I'm afraid. I am using XP Home, and the registry does not show the same entries as above. I seem also to be having a conflict between the Local Machine and the Current User. My computer refuses to let me alter the registry, alt
hough I have set up the permissions.
I have tried everything, including the download which did nothing! Any further help?

I wanted to say Thank you very much. I had same prob of I.E not opening up correctly and the top post with the screen shots (gpedit.msc) worked great 1st time. Thnaks again. Ben.

Hey! Thanks for all of this info. I am not really good at trying all of this but I did try them all and finally the download- http://www.download.com/IE7-Remove-Remover/3000-8022_4-10683033.html
worked like a charm. Everything else might have assisted but none worked like this. I was a little afraid with all of the viruses around but my firewall agreed it was safe! Thanks as I was going crazy trying to eliminate this thing!

The easiest solution posted by far is the most obvious:

http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/image-search/runonce.html

I finally fixed this on my computer - i tried adding the RunOnceComplete and RunOnceHasShown to the registry, but no go. I then just downloaded and ran the RunOnce remover. It worked! for a second...but now IE just freezes while it's trying to access my home page. Anyone else have this happen?

Downloaded the IE7 Remover, worked right away. Cheers.

I'd 'upgraded' to IE7 a few times without problems until now. Many thanks for all the helpful tips, which sorted the problem.

You will need to have IE7 installed on your DC before you can manage IE7 with GPO.

Thinker! Apply to Mensa. Or at least the church of the Sub-Genius.
Gotta love an elegant solution.

Btw. I know I'm still human b/c I can reason about oranges. Whew!

IE7 RUN ONCE PROBLEM - CUSTOMIZE YOUR PAGE
i tried everything u lot have said in the whole blog. please help me out. i tried the extensions for the run process and everthing is denied. pls find a way to help me out.

thanks a lot

tommy

Wasa.your link worked perfectly.Thank you.It was free and took all of about 1 minute.

Thanks a lot, sorted me out nicely.

i am running windows xp pro, sp3. had that annoying problem. i tried poster billy's solution, will take less than 2 mins to do:

**Click Start > Run and type the following into the Open box:
gpedit.msc
Click OK.
Using the left hand pane, navigate as follows:
User Configuration
> Administrative Templates
> Windows Components
> Internet Explorer
In the right-hand side pane double-click on Prevent performance of First Run Customize settings
Change the setting for Prevent performance of First Run Customize settings to Enabled and use the drop-down box to select Go directly to home page

Click OK and close Group Policy
Restart Internet Explorer 7 **

worked like a charm! i think this will work on windows xp pro, any packs.
thanks bill finlay!.... and no thanks to microsoft for giving us this problem

what color is an orange? ha ha ha, hilarious!

2 years later and its still great advice. IE7 works grrreat now :o)

Thank you very much for this post. Much easier and faster than editing the registry!

Tried everything - but cannot find gpedit.

Thanks for the gpedit info it worked like a charm!!

Thanks for your help.

I downloaded an IE7 Runonce remover from here

http://lee-jones.com/blog/runonce_remover

Works great!