Did W10 Security Update KB4019472 on 10-May Remove IE11 Tile Links?

RetiredEngineer · 12 May 2017

My current W10 version is 1607 (OS Build 14393.1198). 5/10/2017 my Security Update KB4019472 downloaded & installed wihout error messages. As best I recall, I made the changes indicated in "Choose privacy settings for your device.png", and recorded the image of this window.

On 5/11/2017 I opened IE11 to a normal 5x5 grid of URL's, as shown in "IE11 opening (first) tab.png". After checking a few websites, I opened a second tab, but found the 5x5 tile grid was replaced by the webpage shown in "Second tab display.png".

Right now I'm bewildered by the contents of the second tab, because opening more tabs just keeps redisplaying it.

So I have the following questions.

1. Is the KB4019472 Security Update responsible for this?

2. Did I do some dreadful thing by turning off the Location switch? Note: I have not been able to redisplay this privacy settings window because I don't know where to find it again; and I'm not sure if it will fix my "disappeared tiles" problem, which affects all new tabs opened beyond the first one.

That's my W10 disaster for today. Does anyone know how I can restore the 5x5 tile array for all newly opened tabs?

Bree · 12 May 2017

RetiredEngineer said:

1. Is the KB4019472 Security Update responsible for this?

Quite possibly, there were a number of Internet Explorer updates in the Improvements and Fixes list.

2. Did I do some dreadful thing by turning off the Location switch? Note: I have not been able to redisplay this privacy settings window because I don't know where to find it again; and I'm not sure if it will fix my "disappeared tiles" problem, which affects all new tabs opened beyond the first one.

That privacy settings window looks like the preparatory step before you receive the Creators Update through windows update. Microsoft want you to be clear what privacy setting you have chosen and what each does before installing Creators. Microsoft got a lot of bad press in the past about not being open about privacy, so this is their way to make amends. It runs just the once, so you won't be able to get it back, but all the same settings can be set in Settings > Privacy if you've changed your mind. Nothing you chose here would affect your tiles.

That's my W10 disaster for today. Does anyone know how I can restore the 5x5 tile array for all newly opened tabs?

My W10 disaster for the day was that I started to play with the settings in my IE to try and recreate your problem. I did so too well and had to restore a recent system image to get back to where I started. :)

By your '5x5 tiles' I presume you mean the Frequent Sites ones. You can display the Frequent Sites page by typing about:tabs in the address bar. The default is actually 5x2 tiles, presumably at some point you edited the registry to get your 5 rows. This is controlled by the DWORD NumRows in...
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TabbedBrowsing\NewTabPage
I have mine set to 4 rows.

To open IE at Frequent Sites you probably already have your IE's Internet Options set to 'Start with home page' and your Home page set as about:tabs.

To make all new tabs open at the same page, on the General tab of Internet options, click the 'Tabs' button. Here in 'When a new tab is opened, open:' select 'Your first home page' or 'The new tab page'. Looks like you have somehow been reset to the default 'The new tab page with my news feed'.