Windows Update: IE6 hijacked

I manually updated Windows with one of the non-critical updates and now when I start IE 6 the Microsoft update page appears, even though I have set the Explorer options to 'about: blank'. This happens even after re-booting.

Is there any way to turn this off so I get my blank page back again? I don't want to have the update screen appearing every time I use IE6.

Thanks

 

Yes, as above. The update was a sound driver, as it happened, the wrong one, even though it had a similar name.

 

It was this one:
C Media Electronics Incorporation - Sound - C-Media AC97 Audio Device
C-Media multimedia software update released on May 20 2005.

And sorry, I forgot I'd also downloaded this:
Update for Windows XP (KB900930), which addresses certain security issues.

I uninstalled the audio device, so presumably that leaves me with the other as the culprit? It says I can uninstall it, but I don't want to do that if there's another way around the problem (assuming that's the cause).

Thanks

 

Thanks for that but I haven't enabled System Restore (as I don't like it).

I found 2 other alternative solutions:

1. Use a filtering program (in my case it was AdAware SE Plus) to block the offending Microsoft page

2. More simply, go into IE6 Properties (right-click its icon), then, in the Target box, after the filename, type a space then 'about:blank'. This boots it to a blank screen, and gets around the issue of this Microsoft update effectively disabling that setting when it is selected in IE Internet Options.

Doing either of the above has no effect on getting Windows Updates. It seems that the issue is specific to this particular update. The filtering program will prompt you to accept or block unless it's set to Automatic. I imagine other programs would behave similarly. Going directly to the update site, however, doesn't pose that problem as no attempt is being made to write to the Registry, as the update was doing.

Hope people find this helpful.