Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, as you is a difficult nut to crack. It can be sometimes very difficult to troubleshoot or tweak according to your needs, this is because of the fact that there is a plethora of alterations that can be made to Internet Explorer. Also, if Internet Explorer gets infected with some malacious software or malware (of which there is a high chance! ) it’s good to know a way to roll it back to a default configuration or “Factory” settings.
Now as a regular user of Microsoft’s products, one thing i can say is that the amount of documentation provided is way to little, especially regarding a way to reset Internet Explorer to the state you’d have on a clean install. Microsoft calls it Reset Internet Explorer Settings (RIES). In this post i am going to guide you to change and restore Internet to its default settings.
In order to access RIES, you need to follow following mentioned steps :
- In Internet Eplorer, select Tools and then click on Internet Options.
- Under the Advanced tab, click Reset.
- Click OK to close and save everything, also close Internet Explorer.
- Next time when you will open Internet Explorer, the settings will be restored to default.
P.S — You can also restore Internet Explorer to default from the Internet Options portion of the control panel ( and by following the procedure as mentioned above )
Keep in mind that while most of Internet Explorer’s settings are affected by RIES, however some are not. RIES will disable all third-party toolbars and add-ons, and will remove all temporary files, browser history entries, cookies, Web form data, passwords, proxy information, search providers and homepage entries. However, it does not affect one’s favorites (i.e., bookmarks), Internet connection settings, Content Advisor settings or Group Policy entries.
Note : Since the settings are applied on a per-user basis, you don’t need to be logged in as an admin to run RIES. It only resets the settings that apply to the current user.
