The default behaviour after you install Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is to visit the link show in the above image. http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx

But what if as in this case the site is down or experiencing problems?

Every time I open IE7 on a machine I have just reinstalled Windows XP on it keeps trying to get to the same page and it cant.

At first I got Server is too busy.

Then just the error page as shown below.

But what can you do if you are stuck in the IE7 first run loop.

Well on the Microsoft support link below they tell you to copy and paste a registry command into notepad and save the document with a .reg extension, then you run the reg file to import it directly into the Windows Registry.

That seems to work however I suppose the real question is why on earth do we have to visit the runonce link in the first place.

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945385