Strange behavior of Win7/MSIE11

"Paul" wrote

| This site seems capable of throwing up a "bad browser" result,
| with just about any browser. All depends on what mood it's
| in at the time.
|
| https://www.winhelp.us/internet-expl...favorites.html
|

?? It looks fine to me, with script, cookies,
3rd-party files and frames blocked in Pale Moon.
Except for the red panel at top that warns me
I absolutely must allow script.

The source code is mostly plain vanilla with
script for Google spyware and ads. There's just
one exception: A very funky block of heavily
obfuscated script near the bottom.
Above that code, in a comment that doesn't
show, is this:

"LEGAL NOTICE: The content of this website and all
associated program code are protected under the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Intentionally
circumventing this code may constitute a violation
of the DMCA."

*May* constitute. So you *may* be breaking
federal law if you disable script on that page and
allow them to hack you with their grotesquely
obfuscated script.

| You're not actually supposed to sniff User Agent strings,
| but they probably didn't get the memo. You're supposed to
| sniff capability instead.

I hope that was said sarcastically. Checking
capability and not sniffing userAgents is a
bald-faced scam that Microsoft are trying to
perpetrate as the new norm. They actually
spoof their UA in Edge. I had to write new
PHP on my webpages to recognize it. They
want me to give Edge my version for Firefox.
But they're not offering to be responsible for
the results. And I can't even install Edge. It
only comes as part of Win10. That's not a
browser to consider any more than Apple's
Safari is. If they want compatibility they can
either get their act together to make a real
browser, or make sure Edge matches IE in
its rendering.... which they won't do.

Paul wrote:
Dick Baker wrote:
Win7 64-bit Home Edition.

I just discovered that my backup utility, FarStone Total Recovery, has
been failing to back up my MSIE Favorites folder,
C:\Users\DB7\Favorites. I poked around in TR and found that when it
looks there, it finds a folder named Favorites 160822. Windows
Explorer shows it as simply Favorites, so I thought TR was nuts.

But when I opened a command prompt and did a directory listing for C:
\Users\DB7, it too reported that the folder was Favorites 160822. And
when I copy that directory to another drive, it shows up there as
Favorites 160822.

I tried deleting that folder and creating a new Favorites, but when I
ran MSIE, it promptly created Favorites 160822 right alongside my
Favorites, and flagged that version as the "real" Favorites directory
with its little star icon.

Thinking that something in the Registry was telling Win7/MSIE 11 to
behave this way, I searched it for the string "Favorites 160822," but
no hits.

So I uninstalled MSIE 11 and 10 (which I was surprised to find still
there) and reinstalled a fresh copy of 11...which then promptly
recreated Favorites 160822.

At this point, I'm out of ideas. Anybody got another one?


On the topic of Exports, it was a load of fun finding the
dialog to do Exports in IE11. I doubt I could do it a second
time, as I don't remember which menu I started with. This is not
easy to find at all.

https://s9.postimg.org/r36m0nafj/favorites_export.gif

So if you can figure out how to get the thing on the left,
the "Add To..." has an Export option under it.

The Export doesn't attempt to preserve any local favicon.

The Export looks like this. There's no XFace style of favicon
in here.

!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1
!-- This is an automatically generated file.
It will be read and overwritten.
Do Not Edit! --
TITLEBookmarks/TITLE
H1Bookmarks/H1
DLp
DTA HREF="https://www.wikipedia.org/"
ADD_DATE="1516341769" LAST_VISIT="1516341769" LAST_MODIFIED="1516341769"
ICON_URI="https://www.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"
Wikipedia/A
/DLp

The shortcut file in the Favorites\Links folder looks like this.

[DEFAULT]
BASEURL=https://www.wikipedia.org/
[{000214A0-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
Prop3=19,11
[InternetShortcut]
URL=https://www.wikipedia.org/
IDList=
IconFile=https://www.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico
IconIndex=1

And even though the Process Monitor trace claimed it was writing
a file for the shortcut and a file for the favicon, I couldn't
find the favicon in the Links folder later. The favicon is visually
present in the browser itself, so it's at least temporarily
stored somewhere in the browser.

The webcache.dat is off the hook. Mine was around 27MB, and there
was only a single item that looked like Wikipedia, and it was probably
a cached copy of the main HTML file. Nothing to do with a bookmark.

It looks like in my non-domain non-roaming case, that the
Favorites\Links was enough to save my Wikipedia bookmark.

And the Export worked at least well enough, it might open
in some other browser.

The format of your mis-shapen "Favorites 160822" is similar
to how MSEdge does things in Windows 10. I saw some folder
in there that looked like that, but with a different six digit
number. But you should be able to fix that sort of thing
with the registry entry (in the previous post which I snipped
out of here).

Paul

On Thu, 18 Jan 2018 00:11:56 +0000, Dick Baker wrote:

Win7 64-bit Home Edition.

I just discovered that my backup utility, FarStone Total Recovery, has
been failing to back up my MSIE Favorites folder,
C:\Users\DB7\Favorites.
I poked around in TR and found that when it looks there, it finds a
folder named Favorites 160822. Windows Explorer shows it as simply
Favorites, so I thought TR was nuts.

But when I opened a command prompt and did a directory listing for C:
\Users\DB7, it too reported that the folder was Favorites 160822. And
when I copy that directory to another drive, it shows up there as
Favorites 160822.

I tried deleting that folder and creating a new Favorites, but when I
ran MSIE, it promptly created Favorites 160822 right alongside my
Favorites, and flagged that version as the "real" Favorites directory
with its little star icon.

Thinking that something in the Registry was telling Win7/MSIE 11 to
behave this way, I searched it for the string "Favorites 160822," but no
hits.

So I uninstalled MSIE 11 and 10 (which I was surprised to find still
there) and reinstalled a fresh copy of 11...which then promptly
recreated Favorites 160822.

At this point, I'm out of ideas. Anybody got another one?

Mayana was right in that the desktop.ini file is what was fooling WinExp.
When I deleted that file, WinExp reported the folder by it's *real* name
of Favorites 160822.

But Paul's hint was the solution. He wrote:
https://www.howtogeek.com/115412/cha...on-for-saving-
internet-explorer-favorites/

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\
User Shell Folders\Favorites

Apparently that links to the real storage location for that folder.

And it did: The registry entry read "%USERPROFILE%\Favorites 160822"

I changed that to simply "Favorites"; then the next time I ran MSIE it
created a new Favorites folder alongside the Favorites 160822 folder, and
the new one had the star indicating it was the true one. I copied all the
links from the old bad one to the new good one and now all is well.

BUT one puzzle remains. As I said in my original note, one of my first
troubleshooting steps was to search the registry for "Favorites 160822",
but I got no hits. When I followed Paul's instructions and found that it
really was there, but before changing it, I did another search through the
registry looking for "Favorites 160822" and *again* it failed to find such
a string. How could that be?

--
--------------------------------------------
Dick Baker
--contact via http://goon.org/contact.php

Dick Baker wrote:
On Thu, 18 Jan 2018 00:11:56 +0000, Dick Baker wrote:

Win7 64-bit Home Edition.

I just discovered that my backup utility, FarStone Total Recovery, has
been failing to back up my MSIE Favorites folder,
C:\Users\DB7\Favorites.
I poked around in TR and found that when it looks there, it finds a
folder named Favorites 160822. Windows Explorer shows it as simply
Favorites, so I thought TR was nuts.

But when I opened a command prompt and did a directory listing for C:
\Users\DB7, it too reported that the folder was Favorites 160822. And
when I copy that directory to another drive, it shows up there as
Favorites 160822.

I tried deleting that folder and creating a new Favorites, but when I
ran MSIE, it promptly created Favorites 160822 right alongside my
Favorites, and flagged that version as the "real" Favorites directory
with its little star icon.

Thinking that something in the Registry was telling Win7/MSIE 11 to
behave this way, I searched it for the string "Favorites 160822," but no
hits.

So I uninstalled MSIE 11 and 10 (which I was surprised to find still
there) and reinstalled a fresh copy of 11...which then promptly
recreated Favorites 160822.

At this point, I'm out of ideas. Anybody got another one?

Mayana was right in that the desktop.ini file is what was fooling WinExp.
When I deleted that file, WinExp reported the folder by it's *real* name
of Favorites 160822.

But Paul's hint was the solution. He wrote:
https://www.howtogeek.com/115412/cha...on-for-saving-
internet-explorer-favorites/

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\
User Shell Folders\Favorites

Apparently that links to the real storage location for that folder.

And it did: The registry entry read "%USERPROFILE%\Favorites 160822"

I changed that to simply "Favorites"; then the next time I ran MSIE it
created a new Favorites folder alongside the Favorites 160822 folder, and
the new one had the star indicating it was the true one. I copied all the
links from the old bad one to the new good one and now all is well.

BUT one puzzle remains. As I said in my original note, one of my first
troubleshooting steps was to search the registry for "Favorites 160822",
but I got no hits. When I followed Paul's instructions and found that it
really was there, but before changing it, I did another search through the
registry looking for "Favorites 160822" and *again* it failed to find such
a string. How could that be?


Does the Regedit search treat the space between the two
search terms properly ?

I don't know that.

The search has three tick boxes plus a "match whole string" box.
You could try changing the "match whole string" and see what happens.

Registry keys have permissions (the registry is a file system),
but I don't know if that prevents search inside a Hive or not.
Usually permissions become an issue when you actually change
something.

Paul

On 19/01/2018 19:17, Dick Baker wrote:
On Thu, 18 Jan 2018 00:11:56 +0000, Dick Baker wrote:

But Paul's hint was the solution. He wrote:
https://www.howtogeek.com/115412/cha...on-for-saving-
internet-explorer-favorites/

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\
User Shell Folders\Favorites

Apparently that links to the real storage location for that folder.

Actually, for future reference, the situation is a little more complex
than that, as I explained in my other post upthread, but I'm glad you've
got it sorted.

BUT one puzzle remains. As I said in my original note, one of my first
troubleshooting steps was to search the registry for "Favorites 160822",
but I got no hits.

My guess would be that the apparent space in "Favorites 160822" was
actually some other obscure character that printed as a space.

"Java Jive" wrote

| My guess would be that the apparent space in "Favorites 160822" was
| actually some other obscure character that printed as a space.
|

I wondered about that, too. "160822" is sufficiently
unique that there's no need to use the whole string,
anyway.

Mayayana wrote:
"Java Jive" wrote

| My guess would be that the apparent space in "Favorites 160822" was
| actually some other obscure character that printed as a space.
|

I wondered about that, too. "160822" is sufficiently
unique that there's no need to use the whole string,
anyway.



I ran regedit with "160822", and got three hits; all to do with the same
program, it being the date installed.

Ed

Java Jive news Thu, 18 Jan 2018 17:38:28 GMT in alt.windows7.general, wrote:

On 18/01/2018 16:54, Dick Baker wrote:

I've just combed (again) through Internet Options, and I can't
find any reference to a Favorites folder at all. Can you point
me to exactly where you seem to have found it?

It's a shell folder. The most relevant subkeys are under ...
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Exp lorer\
Things are a little different in W7, but what used to happen in
2k/XP is that the values in the subkey ...
User Shell Folders
... contained environment variable substitution formulae used at
logon for calculating the values in the subkey ...
Shell Folders
... which contained the values actually used during a logon
session.

Now in W7 things are somewhat more complex, and besides the
working values the latter key contains a dummy ...

"!Do not use this registry key"="Use the SHGetFolderPath or
SHGetKnownFolderPath function instead"

... but the former key doesn't contain this dummy. So I think
that notwithstanding this "Keep off the grass!" message, you could
try looking in "User Shell Folders" and checking the value there,
and correcting it if it's incorrect. You would then have at least
to log off and then back on again to pick up the change, possibly
even reboot, 'though I don't think the latter should be necessary.

Actually, you may be able to terminate the explorer process and
restart it for the changes to take effect. Without having to logoff
and login.


--
To prevent yourself from being a victim of cyber
stalking, it's highly recommended you visit he
https://tekrider.net/pages/david-brooks-stalker.php
================================================== =
A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell and make you
feel happy to be on your way.

Paul news Jan 2018 21:28:56 GMT in alt.windows7.general, wrote:

Dick Baker wrote:
On Thu, 18 Jan 2018 00:11:56 +0000, Dick Baker wrote:

Win7 64-bit Home Edition.

I just discovered that my backup utility, FarStone Total
Recovery, has been failing to back up my MSIE Favorites folder,
C:\Users\DB7\Favorites.
I poked around in TR and found that when it looks there, it
finds a folder named Favorites 160822. Windows Explorer shows
it as simply Favorites, so I thought TR was nuts.

But when I opened a command prompt and did a directory listing
for C: \Users\DB7, it too reported that the folder was Favorites
160822. And when I copy that directory to another drive, it
shows up there as Favorites 160822.

I tried deleting that folder and creating a new Favorites, but
when I ran MSIE, it promptly created Favorites 160822 right
alongside my Favorites, and flagged that version as the "real"
Favorites directory with its little star icon.

Thinking that something in the Registry was telling Win7/MSIE 11
to behave this way, I searched it for the string "Favorites
160822," but no hits.

So I uninstalled MSIE 11 and 10 (which I was surprised to find
still there) and reinstalled a fresh copy of 11...which then
promptly recreated Favorites 160822.

At this point, I'm out of ideas. Anybody got another one?

Mayana was right in that the desktop.ini file is what was fooling
WinExp. When I deleted that file, WinExp reported the folder by
it's *real* name of Favorites 160822.

But Paul's hint was the solution. He wrote:
https://www.howtogeek.com/115412/cha...t-location-for
-saving- internet-explorer-favorites/

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Expl
orer\ User Shell Folders\Favorites

Apparently that links to the real storage location for that
folder.

And it did: The registry entry read "%USERPROFILE%\Favorites
160822"

I changed that to simply "Favorites"; then the next time I ran
MSIE it created a new Favorites folder alongside the Favorites
160822 folder, and the new one had the star indicating it was the
true one. I copied all the links from the old bad one to the new
good one and now all is well.

BUT one puzzle remains. As I said in my original note, one of my
first troubleshooting steps was to search the registry for
"Favorites 160822", but I got no hits. When I followed Paul's
instructions and found that it really was there, but before
changing it, I did another search through the registry looking
for "Favorites 160822" and *again* it failed to find such a
string. How could that be?


Does the Regedit search treat the space between the two
search terms properly ?

I don't know that.

The search has three tick boxes plus a "match whole string" box.
You could try changing the "match whole string" and see what
happens.

Registry keys have permissions (the registry is a file system),
but I don't know if that prevents search inside a Hive or not.
Usually permissions become an issue when you actually change
something.

It can, depending on the permissions settings. You can set the
permissions to where you can't view the key without the proper rights
beforehand.


--
To prevent yourself from being a victim of cyber
stalking, it's highly recommended you visit he
https://tekrider.net/pages/david-brooks-stalker.php
================================================== =
'Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.' - Twyla Tharp