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Thread: IE8 How Turn Off Suggested Sites

  1. #1
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    IE8 How Turn Off Suggested Sites

    I looked under Tools/Suggested Sites as suggested in many locations. There is no Suggested Sites under tools. I also went to Internet Options/Advanced/Browsing/Enable Suggested Sites which is useless. Whether this box is checked or unchecked IE8 still suggests sites when searching. I hate the damned thing. If I cannot turn it off I will go back to IE7.

    Do I need to restore a HD image back to IE7 and begin all over by installing IE8 and turning it off during setup?

  2. #2
    Mod w/ an attitude Sterling_Aug's Avatar
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    Rather than going back to IE7, why not go forward to Firefox 3?

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    I didn't ask about Firefox. I asked how to fix IE8.

    This is absolutely unbelievable but there is no way to turn "suggested searches" off. I unchecked it in Internet Options. That didn't work. I restored a HD image with Acronis True Image back to IE7. Then I re-installed IE8 skipping the default settings and doing a custom installation. I checked the box to turn suggested searches off. But when I started IE8 everytime I began to type anything in the search field a drop down list of suggested searches, some based on previously visited websites, appeared. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TURN THIS DAMNED THING OFF! I wonder why MS bothers to provide an option to turn it off when it can't be.

    I am going to fiddle around with this thing for a little while longer. If I can't get it to working I will go back to IE7 permenantly.

  4. #4
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    You can try this:

    www.enhanceie.com/dl/disablesuggestedsites.reg

    Or you can go into the registry manually:
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Inte rnet Explorer\Suggested Sites]
    "Enabled"=dword:00000000

  5. #5
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    Thanks Midknyte. But that registry hack did not work. I tried it both ways. It definately did change the dword value back and forth from (0) to (1). But suggested sites is still working. As soon as I type anything in the IE8 search field a drop down list begins to show suggested searches including previously visited sites.

    This feature is totally worthless and a security risk. Why in hell would MS have included a feature that cannot be turned off? Even when using the tools which are supposed to turn it off.

  6. #6
    Mod w/ an attitude Sterling_Aug's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rwinegar View Post
    I didn't ask about Firefox. I asked how to fix IE8.

    This is absolutely unbelievable but there is no way to turn "suggested searches" off. I unchecked it in Internet Options. That didn't work. I restored a HD image with Acronis True Image back to IE7. Then I re-installed IE8 skipping the default settings and doing a custom installation. I checked the box to turn suggested searches off. But when I started IE8 everytime I began to type anything in the search field a drop down list of suggested searches, some based on previously visited websites, appeared. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TURN THIS DAMNED THING OFF! I wonder why MS bothers to provide an option to turn it off when it can't be.

    I am going to fiddle around with this thing for a little while longer. If I can't get it to working I will go back to IE7 permenantly.

    It may not be a good idea to talk like that to the moderators of this web site. We control the user forum, all of the posts, and the users profiles.

    I know what you were asking about but it really would be better in the long run for you to switch to a user friendly, customizable, safer, and more secure web browser than you are now using or what to switch back to.

  7. #7
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    It also might not be such a good idea to hold yourself out to be so high and mighty. If you are that thin skinned you might be in the wrong business.

  8. #8
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    Wow. Everybody take it easy. Just a case of the Mondays.

    Are you looking at the tools in the tab bar (right next to Safety)? The Tools in the menu bar doesn't have Suggested Sites. It's the same thing as going into Internet Options advanced, though. Manage Add-ons is in there too.

    The IE8 button should work and the registry hack definitely should work, so maybe you are mistaking Suggested Search for Search suggestions in the address bar?
    Try running this from a cmd window:
    REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search" /v CurrentVersion /t REG_SZ /d 99 /f

  9. #9
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    Oh and I'm assuming you are running WinXP. If you are running Vista or Win7, Windows search is already installed.

  10. #10
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    If you mean in the Search bar, then maybe you mean to Disable search suggestions in the Live Search addon.

    Tab bar Tools - Manage Addons - Search providers - Live Search (or whatever you chose)
    Right click and click Disable Suggestions OR click the Disable suggestions link in the Live Search info.

  11. #11
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    Thanks Midknyte. I am running Win XP SP3.

    I am talking about the suggested searches that appear in a drop down list whenever I start to type anything in the search box.

    I tried ALL your suggestions. None of them worked. I am amazed that even the registry hack failed. It is just impossible to turn this off. Even when it is turned off during custom installation.

    Maybe I downloaded a defective installation file.

    I reverted back to IE 7. I have had enough of this IE8 stuff for a while. I'll try it again in a month or two. Thanks for your help.

  12. #12
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    My friend, what you are talking about is the auto suggestions feature of the browser. Suggested sites is a separate feature in IE8. What you are doing is turning off suggested sites. If you want to confirm that suggested sites is turned off, there are multiple ways of doing it.

    1. click the suggested sites webslice. It will tell you that the feature is turned off. The web slice would read something like " Suggested Sites is turned off". To turn on, click the "turn on suggested sites" button (green color)
    2. Go to favorites pane and click the button "Turn on suggested sites...". If a pop up appears asking you to turn on the suggested sites feature, that's a confirmation that the feature is turned off. Also, if u feature is actually turned on, then the same button would have the caption "See Suggested Sites".
    3. Disable from registry as pointed out earlier in this thread.

    And still if it does not disable the feature, then there is a bug somewhere. You can contact me for more information about this feature. For me, I can easily turn off the feature and it works perfectly. But I keep it turned on since its pretty good. If you want to use it, click the web slice or navigate to the Suggested Sites page from favorites bar, or else, don't use it.

    About the feature you are requesting to turn off, I believe, u don't want to show the previously visited websites on the navigation bar of IE8 when you start typing the website. Is that correct ? I am not sure of how to do it, someone might be able to help you there. I just jotted down what I know about Suggested Sites feature.

    Hope this helps to filter out your confusion.

    Thanks ---

  13. #13
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    R-click Delete removes the suggested site from the bar.

  14. #14
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    Try delete browsing history.
    In IE8, internet option/General tab, check mark "Delete browsing history on exit"
    and in Settings/ "Days to keep pages in memory" change from 20 days to 0 day.
    I hope this will help

  15. #15
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    Question Suggetsed Sites and MSN Links

    I had the same problem as the one at the top of this thread and have solved it with the solutions listed here however, I still have another problem that I cannot seem to resolve. Whenever I either do a shutdown/restart or simply a restart for any reason, The Suggested Sites link reappears in the "Favorites" bar along with all the MSN links (which I have now deleted at least 10 times) and my Home page reverts back to the MSN default home page you get when insalling IE? Does anone have any suggestions as to how I prevent this from happening? It is a real pain to have to delete all the unwanted links in the Favorites bar and re-establish my preferred Home Page and Home page qualities (how many tabs are opened and what is in each tab) each time I reboot! Any help resolving this would be appreciated.

    Frank

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