Disable content advisor passwords

Helpline Q&A Directory

I recently bought a secondhand laptop. It works fine, apart from Internet Explorer. The previous owner had enabled Content Advisor and used a password, which I have no way of finding out. Is there a way to disarm Content Advisor without the password? I'm having to use Netscape to surf the web, but I don't like it.

The Content Advisor password is held in encrypted form in the Registry. Why Microsoft bothered encrypting it is a mystery, since to disable the password altogether you can just delete it. However, at least it makes this problem easy to fix.

First, back up the Registry (see tip, Back up the Registry). Now start the Registry Editor (click Start, Run, type Regedit, and hit Enter) and then open these Registry folders: Hkey_Local_Machine, Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version, Policies.

Select the Ratings folder. On the right you will see a value named 'Key'. This holds the encrypted password. Delete it, setting the Content Advisor password to blank. You can then go into Content Advisor, disable the ratings and suffer with Netscape no longer.