Internet Explorer, Other Microsft Apps Cannot Connect to Internet: Fix

2 April 2009 @ 5pm

Some users have noticed an issue in which various Microsoft applications, including Internet Explorer, Windows Update and others, suddenly can no longer connect to the Internet. Internet Explorer may display “cannot display this web page” when the problem occurs. This issue is sometimes caused by problematic policy files spawned by third-party programs.

It can generally be fixed via the following process, which deletes specific policies:

1. Click the Start button, then type REGEDIT in the search field and press enter.

2. In REGEDIT, delete the following items (first back them up by right-clicking each and clicking “Export” then saving them to any desired location):

• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft]
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies]
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy]
• [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft]
• [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy]
• [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

Tagged
Internet Explorer 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP