Prevent your setting from being changed in Internet Explorer 6/Windows Explorer.

Are you tired of your toolbars or status bar not staying the same way each time you start internet explorer or open a new window?  I hate it, so I have done some research and come up with this solution.  This solution works for me at least, I am running IE 6 SP1 with Windows XP professional SP1, I haven't tested in with others but I believe it should work with IE 5 and above and Windows 2000/XP.  Here is a list of steps to take:

1) Open one internet explorer window and set all of your setting up the way you want.
2) Hold Ctrl down and click the X to close, this forces the setting to be written to the registry.
3) Open one windows explorer window (Windows Key E) set all of your settings up especially turn on the Status bar if you want it to be displayed in Windows/Internet explorer.
4) Under Tools>Folder Options set any settings and then Click the "apply to all folders" button.
5) Hold Ctrl down and click the X to close the windows explorer window.
6) Open regedit (Start>Run type regedit) goto the key "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main"
7) Rick click on the key "Main" and select permissions, then click the advanced button.
8) Find your username in the list then click the edit button.
9) Check the box next to "Set Value" under deny column.
10) Press OK to all the dialog boxes (should be three of them) and close regedit and you should be all set.

I have found most of this information on this thread -> http://www.anetforums.com/posts.aspx?ThreadIndex=3467.  If you are interested in registry tweaks in general http://www.regedit.com is an excellent web site.

I hope this will help someone.

Wes

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. I cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.