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What To Do When... Article Last Reviewed October 2009 |
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 You Lose Your IE Content Advisor Password |
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 Creating passwords—and remembering them—is a staple for computer users, especially those who use the Web frequently. The method for creating passwords is usually the same: You enter a password once, re-enter carefully to confirm it, and sometimes type in a hint so you can remember your password later.
If you forget a password for, say, a Web site you frequently shop at, the site administrator can email you the hint, if not the password itself. But if you can’t remember the password you created for the Content Advisor tool in Internet Explorer, you can solve the problem yourself.  About Content Advisor IE’s Content Advisor is a nifty help for parents who want to prevent their kids from viewing objectionable sites on the Web. Content Advisor gives you the ability to rate sites based on their language, sex, nudity, and violence. In addition, you can exempt Web sites that you want to allow access to, regardless of how they are rated. To use Content Advisor, open IE and click Tools, Internet Options, and the Content tab. If you haven’t ever used this tool before, the Enable button under Content Advisor will be active. Click this if you want to enable it for the first time—and then keep this article handy in case you forget the password later on. On the Ratings tab, you can specify the “levels of offensiveness” you will permit other users of the PC to encounter on the Web. Use the Approved Sites tab to enter the URLs of Web sites that all users can view without needing the password you are about to create. Then click the General tab to create it. First, click the box next to Supervisor Can Type A Password To Allow Users To View Restricted Content. Next, click Create Password and enter and re-enter the password of your choice. Also, enter a hint to help you remember the password.
The problem, of course, is that if you set up the Content Advisor to allow for a password-enabled exception to viewing certain sites, you won’t be able to access the sites if you can’t remember the password. When you attempt to access the site, you will be prompted to enter the password. If you can’t enter the password correctly, IE won’t let you view the site.
As always, we advise you to back up the Registry before you make changes to it. There are several reliable methods for backing up the Registry, or portions thereof. For instance, System Restore (Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore) lets you create a Restore Point for your PC to which you can revert if a Registry edit goes awry. Always create a System Restore point immediately before editing the Registry if you choose this route. Another way to back up the Registry is to use the NTBackup utility. By default, this utility is not installed on Windows XP Home Edition, so if WinXP Home is your operating system, you’ll need to install it from the installation disc. To run the utility or see if it’s installed, click Start and Run and type ntbackup.exe, and then click OK. You don’t need to worry about which parts of the Ratings folder you should delete. Simply right-click Ratings, and delete the entire folder. It’s possible you may need to restart your computer. However, our system accepted this change to the Registry right away. By deleting this key, we wiped out the ratings settings, the password, and the hint. Therefore, when we reopened Content Advisor, we saw the Enable button. It’s as if we had never created a password in the first place.
You may encounter a slightly different situation, especially if you choose to delete only part of the Ratings folder. For instance, we found tech assistance sites on the Web that suggest deleting only the password key (labeled “Key”) in the Ratings folder. However, when we tried this method, and then reopened IE, we were prompted to enter a password. If you encounter this scenario, leave the password blank and click OK. This workaround will enable you to use the Content Advisor to create a new password. We found that deleting the entire Ratings folder in the Registry is the best solution to a forgotten password. Should this not work for you for whatever reason, there are third-party options for help. Keep in mind that the following sites can only be accessed if you previously set your Content Advisor to allow access to Web sites that don’t have a rating. This is accomplished by selecting Users Can See Sites That Have No Rating in the General tab of the Content Advisor dialog box. This is the same area where you set up your password. If you don’t have this option selected, you won’t be able to access the sites below from the computer on which Content Advisor is enabled without your password. |
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