I have Adblock Plus (1.0.0.0) on 4 other PCs, 3 DELLs (1 WIN XP Home with IE 8, 1 WIN XP Media Center with IE 8 and 1 WIN 7 Ultra with IE 10 [No “Enhanced Protected Mode” in use]), and a Compaq Presario (Vista Home Premium with IE 9). ...ABP works perfectly on all 4 ...and I love it.
BUT: With an old Systemax Ascent, using WIN XP Home with SP3 and IE 8 (that otherwise performs to spec), I cannot get Adblock Plus to work at all. No ABP icon shows up in the Status Bar. I have re-installed ABP four times (with appropriate clean-ups) in-between each re-install, and have even re-installed IE 8. Each re-install of ABP results in a “Successful” report displayed; the “Repair” feature also reports “Successful”. The only error message I can force is by trying to execute the “AdblockPlusEngine” in the program folder which comes back with: “Adblock Plus Engine has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.” (IE 8 > Tools > Manage Add-Ons shows that “Adblock Plus for IE Browser Helper Object” is enabled with a Load time of 0.08 sec.)
In the registry, I have tried to navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Restrictions and find that the “Restrictions Key” key is NOT present. I have also navigated to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Restrictions and find the “Restrictions Key” IS present, with Name: “(Default)”, Type: “REG_SZ” and Data: “(Value not set)”. There is no value called “NoExtensionMamagement” listed and no DWORD value shown. Therefore, I have assumed that there are no Registry “Policy” restrictions preventing Adblock Plus from working.
Additionally, I have double checked on each ABP install: IE8 > Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Browsing > to ensure that the boxes for “Enable Suggested Sites”, “Enable third-party browser extensions*”, “Enable visual styles on buttons and controls in webpages” and “Enable websites to use the search pane*” are all checked.
I have exhausted my abilities to troubleshoot this problem further; can anyone please help with some suggestions? ...Thanks, Bud