This page is fairly technial and it is assumed that you are familiar with reading and editing the registry.

To begin with, this product contains RealNetworks which automatically connects to the internet without your permission (detected using ZoneAlarm) and continuously hits the registry (this is guaranteed to slow down your system).

It also loads AOL Instant Messenger and something from U.S. Robotics. It adds 21 new file extensions, mostly for RealNetworks.

There is also a design problem - one of the registry entries is wrong.

   HKCR\NetscapeMarkup\shell\open\ddeexec\Application\@="Netscape"

The InCtrl file for loading Netscape 4.75 is 191 Kb, of this 163 Kb is just the registry changes. 45 Kb after most of the RealNetworks crap is removed. With some additional cleanup, I've kept 38 Kb for reference.

One of the more insideous changes (hey, there is a reason that I call this BrowserWars) is the reconfiguration of IE.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
  "Check_Associations": from "Yes" 
                          to "no"
  "Search Page":        from "http://www.msn.com/access/allinone.htm" 
                          to "http://home.netscape.com/home/winsearch.html"
  "Start Page":         from "file:///H:/My%20Documents/html/index.htm" 
                          to "http://home.netscape.com"

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl
  "@":                  from "http://home.microsoft.com/access/autosearch.asp?p=%s" 
                          to "http://keyword.netscape.com/keyword/%s"

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
  "Default_Page_URL":   from "http://www.msn.com" 
                          to "http://home.netscape.com"
  "Default_Search_URL": from "http://home.microsoft.com/access/allinone.asp" 
                          to "http://home.netscape.com/home/winsearch.html"
  "Search Bar":         from "http://home.microsoft.com/search/search.asp" 
                          to "http://home.netscape.com/home/winsearch200.html"
  "Search Page":        from "http://home.microsoft.com/access/allinone.asp" 
                          to "http://home.netscape.com/home/winsearch.html"
  "Start Page":         from "http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd={SUB_PRD}&clcid={SUB_CLSID}&pver={SUB_PVER}&ar=home" 
                          to "http://home.netscape.com"

• HKCU - The current user
• HKLM - Local machine - New users

It also hijacked the expected extensions

HKCR\.htm
  Value "@": from "htmlfile" to "NetscapeMarkup"
HKCR\.html
  Value "@": from "htmlfile" to "NetscapeMarkup"

The https and http open commands were both changed from IE to Netscape. The following advertisements were added to my desktop

AOL Instant Messenger (TM).lnk
Netscape Communicator.lnk
Free AOL & Unlimited Internet.url

Well, I finally gave in and captured the folling changes.

• Icons (branding) were changed for ftp, gopher, http, https

• Both .htm and .html had their default values changed from "NetscapeMarkup" to "htmlfile"

• In both ftp and gopher, shell/open was re-writen to use IE instead of Netscape

• I do not know why the http\shell\open and https\shell\open structures were added. They should have already existed. Perhaps it is related to how I captured the system, the "I miss you" dialog box was already open and perhaps the snapshot process could not see these keys.

From the IE menu, select

Tools / Internet Options... / Programs

Unfortunately, this creates a right-click menu which contains no reference to Netscape. Personally, I prefer to have all browsers and several text editors listed in the right-click menu.

URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / BrowserWars / DefaultBrowser.html