This program cannot display the webpage!

[pooroldcodger]

I recently took my laptop (which runs with Vista) away to a house that only had a cable network connection (instead of my usual Wi Fi connection.
I fired the laptop up, and connected the network cable but I couldn't get on-line.
Instead, the usual start up happened, and then without me doing anything a page displayed saying "This program cannot display the webpage" and listing most likely causes, such as:
Check your internet connection
Retype the address
etc.
I had not requested any webpage, but its normal start up routine was to go straight in to MSN news.
So, I re-booted in Safe mode with networking, and by that means I could get online.
Now that I am back home, and Wi-Fi is available, I am getting the sameerror message on start up.
I have tried to us msconfig to stop I.E or Firefx from strating up automatically, but it isn't listed at all in the list of start up programs.
Does anybody have any idea what has happened?

 

[udtrev]

Just a silly suggestion - could your desktop be set to a webpage or a picture based online?

 

[Eklipze3k]

MSN news would require a browser, and if it can't find an internet connection it'll come up with the error message you've listed.

I suspect (assuming that you're on the laptop now?) that the internet connection isn't being initialised before your browser fires up, so you get the failure message. Wait a few seconds and refresh the page and I'll bet it suddenly becomes MSN news.

 

[pooroldcodger]

If I fire up the laptop as normal, the desk top appears and yes, you are right, for some reason it always then opened up MSN news as a webpage, so as it couldn't find a connection, it displayed the error message. But the problem is I can't see a way to refresh the page. There are no browser tools showing - just the error message. Also the Wi-Fi connection is back to normal now, so why can't the browser pick up the internet?

 

[Eklipze3k]

Hold up, is the error message showing in any kind of window, or is it basically showing where your Desktop wallpaper should/would be?

Edit: Also, F5 will refresh the active window.

 

[pooroldcodger]

No the desk top is just a plain background, but for some reason that I have never bothered to change since I "inherited" the laptop off my daughter (I.E I bought her a Mac and I got the old one) it has always opened up MSN automatically. I have just opened up task manager and according to that neither I.E or Firefox are even running, so the error message seems weird! I think I have a virus!!

 

[pooroldcodger]

Hold up, is the error message showing in any kind of window, or is it basically showing where your Desktop wallpaper should/would be?

Edit: Also, F5 will refresh the active window.

The error message is not in a window. It is filling the whole of the screen on its own.

 

[Eklipze3k]

Press F11, should take it out of Fullscreen mode.

Edit: Also, if you can get a screenshot of what Task Manager says is running that might help, if IE and FF definitely aren't running.

 

[pooroldcodger]

OK thanks I will try that.

 

[Eklipze3k]

Thinking about what it could be, if there's an old version of Norton or Mcafee or something installed on there it might be trying to bring up a registration window or similar, but the URL for the registration page may have changed meaning you kind of get stuck at that point. Mind you, that would probably still open in your default browser I'd have thought so maybe it's not that ...

 

[pooroldcodger]

Press F11, should take it out of Fullscreen mode.

Edit: Also, if you can get a screenshot of what Task Manager says is running that might help, if IE and FF definitely aren't running.

As soon as I hit Ctrl/Alt/Del, the task manager displays just for a split second and then goes to a blank screen.
F11 isn't doing anything.
Also security settings are showing that security has been turned off.

 

[pooroldcodger]

Update.
Young Codger amazed me by finding a registry entry that he said looked suspicious, so he got rid of it, and we seem to be cured!
Thanks for your help and suggestions guys.

 

[dombooth]

From the first post it was sounding like dodgy software/viruses. Glad you've sorted it.

Dom

 

[Fleckini]

Update.
Young Codger amazed me by finding a registry entry that he said looked suspicious, so he got rid of it, and we seem to be cured!
Thanks for your help and suggestions guys.

Hi! I currently have the same issue. Could you give me a quick nod in the general direction for fixing this? Thanks.

 

[pooroldcodger]

I will need to ask my son as he was the one who fixed it. You may well ask why I posted on here in the first place if my own son could fix it, but truth be known I didn't think he had that knowledge!
As soon as I can get him in one place for long enough to ask him I will pass on the info. That is assuming he can remember as he is 21 and he has been out on the town (as we used to say) several times since then.