How to Remove ISP Branding from Windows IE

Have you used a service from an ISP whose name appeared in Internet Explorer title bar? Did you change ISPs only to have that darn advertisement stay behind? To remove the ISP branding from your Windows Internet Explorer title bar or to customize the text in the title bar to say your company name or something, follow these instructions.

Because you will be editing your computer registry, it is wise to back up your system registry files first. Left-click My Computer (or My Laptop), left-click the C drive (or whatever is your main drive), and left-click the Windows folder. You will see a warning. Click Show Files to see USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT in your Windows folder. You may also right-click on Start and left-click Explore to go to the Windows folder. The index.dat file is the one file you should not delete from the Cookies folder which is in the Windows folder. The System folder (within the Windows folder) contains a folder named UserData which contains an index.dat file. If you have any trouble, left-click Start, click Find, click Files or Folders. Type *.dat to find dat files. The * is a wild card that allows you to find all dat files. This last option is probably easiest.

To get into the Registry, left-click the Start button, left-click Run, type regedit then click OK.
Open System Registry Editor and navigate to first this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
then this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
At each location, double-click the Window Title item on Registry Editor's right pane. Edit the Value data field to show the text your prefer. If you delete everything in the field, you should get Internet Explorer's original title bar text, which is "Microsoft Internet Explorer." (Note: You may not find a modified Window Title item in both Registry locations.)

If you didn't find the a Window Title item in either Registry location, you can add one in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section. Click once on the Main folder to select it. Then right-click the white background anywhere on the right pane, and choose New > String Value. Name the new string value icon "Window Title" and press Enter. Now double-click it and type the text you would prefer to see in Internet Explorer's Title bar. This works in IE versions IE 4.0 and above. Close Registry Editor and launch the browser. The ISP branding should be removed.

If the ISP branding is still not removed, a file ending in .INS may be controlling the title bar text on your computer. Search your whole drive for .INS files with the Find as explained above to see if this is your problem. If you find such a file, look for a line in it that reads "Window_Title=" or something like that. Change the words that follow, if they match up with what you see in your browser's title bar.

If Outlook Express was changed, the fix can be made in the System Registry Editor also. If anyone wants this information or anything else, email me. Please report those ISPs who do change your computer to the companies themselves, complaint sites, and even spam abuse. This is unacceptable, unauthorized solicitation. This is worse than spam, because it changes your computer settings. Some websites have changed user's home pages, too. I hate that. If they ask you first, that is fine, but they should not change your settings without your permission.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, October 10, 2002

Since posting this article, this helpful link was sent and tested. Download Remove Customization One-Click Fix found at question #8.

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