Hi,

I was helping a user who was trying to change their cache setting for IE under the Control Panel's Internet Options -> under Browser History -> Settings, he would change it to clear the cache Every time he visits a web page but it would always revert back to Automatically.

I noticed if I did this exact same change in IE -> Internet Options -> under Browser History -> Settings we could make the change to Every time I visit a website and it would not revet back. If we go back to the Control Panel's Internet Options it still says Automatically but IE's Internet options keeps the Every time I visit a web page setting.

Are these panels for Internet Options in EI and the Control Panel different in some way? I was able to replicate this issue on multiple computers in my environment.

Hi

There shouldnt be any difference.

Do you have any policies(GPO) at all that update IE?

Are these panels for Internet Options in EI and the Control Panel different in some way?

They have always had different titles, so that tells us that something is different about them.  FWIW I would trace your changes of the two cases using ProcMon and compare them for their essential differences.  Operation Is RegSetValue  may be a sufficient filter to start with.

We do have some policies for the security settings in IE. 

Hi,

I have taken some time to test what you mentioned for IE11 both on Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 with IE 11, and here is the result:

Scenario 1:

1. Open Internet option from IE, and change settings as "Every time..." for history catch.

2. Open Internet option from Control panel, and noticed that the setting keeps on Automatically.

3. Registry key change: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\SyncMode5: 0x00000004

Scenario 2:

1. Open Internet option from Control panel, and change settings as "Every time..." for history catch.

2. Restart IE, and open Internet option, the setting for catch history has been changed as "Every time..." .

3. Now, open Internet option from Control panel, the setting keeps on Automatically again.

4. Registry key change: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\SyncMode5: 0x00000004

Process monitor to track the behavior, and below is the only difference:

From Control panel to open Internet option: C:\Windows\System32\inetcpl.cpl was called.

From Internet explorer to open Internet option: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\inetcpl.cpl was called.

This should be the reason why this setting on UI doesn't keep same as each other:

Regarding current information, I recommend you to feedback this thing to our product team:

Internet Explorer Feedback Program
https://connect.microsoft.com/IE

Thanks for mentioning it out.

Hi everyone,

Just stumbled across this issue, after being fooled by the settings inconsistency (which stalled the research I was doing for a few days).

Process monitor to track the behavior, and below is the only difference:

From Control panel to open Internet option: C:\Windows\System32\inetcpl.cpl was called.

From Internet explorer to open Internet option: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\inetcpl.cpl was called.

After noticing this, I ran a few tests on two IE11 instances:

• a fully updated one, on Windows 8.1 x64 (Pro)
  
• an outdated one (Windows Update disabled for a while), on Windows 7 x86 SP1 (Pro)

I confirm most of what Kate Li pointed out, namely that the registry information read/written is the consistent. On the other hand, I couldn't find any inetcpl.cpl in the Internet Explorer install location (be a sandboxed install or a Beta version of IE, maybe?).

Nevertheless, having performed a few more tests, I believe the issue is an asynchronism between reading the registry information and updating the Website Data Settings sub-form.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open Control Panel, Internet Options (don't use the Internet Explorer shortcut)
2. In the General tab, press the Settings button (opens the Website Data Settings sub-form)
3. In Check for newer version of stored pages, choose any entry other than Automatically
4. Press the OK button (closes the Website Data Settings sub-form)
5. Press the OK button (close the Internet Options dialog)
   
6. Repeat steps 1 and 2 (reopen Internet Options and the Website Data Settings sub-form)
7. Notice that, in Check for newer version of stored pages, Automatically is selected (bug!)
   
8. Press the Cancel button (closes the Website Data Settings sub-form)
9. Repeat step 2 (reopen the Website Data Settings sub-form)
10. Notice that, in Check for newer version of stored pages, Automatically is selected (workaround!)
    

Additional details:

As stated above, as a workaround for current systems and/or until the bug is fixed, when opening Internet Options outside Internet Explorer don't trust the contents of Website Data Settings sub-form when opened first time - simply dismiss the dialog and press Settings again.

Note that, for some reason, it doesn't seem to affect Internet Options when opened from inside Internet Explorer - only the Control Panel version seems to suffer from the symptom. The reason is probably that Internet Explorer reads the SyncMode5 key early on (when starting the application, even before the Internet Options dialog is open).

Process monitor to track the behavior, and below is the only difference:

From Control panel to open Internet option: C:\Windows\System32\inetcpl.cpl was called.

From Internet explorer to open Internet option: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\inetcpl.cpl was called.

Regarding current information, I recommend you to feedback this thing to our product team:

There were no more updates on this issue. It just hit me in the last few days, almost one year later (!)...

1. Was the issue reported and is there a link available to that report?
2. Is there a hotfix available already?

Cheers,
  Helder Magalhes

• Edited by HelderMagalhães 20 hours 48 minutes ago (whitespace fixes)
• Proposed as answer by HelderMagalhães 20 hours 33 minutes ago

Hi everyone,

Just stumbled across this issue, after being fooled by the settings inconsistency (which stalled the research I was doing for a few days).

Process monitor to track the behavior, and below is the only difference:

From Control panel to open Internet option: C:\Windows\System32\inetcpl.cpl was called.

From Internet explorer to open Internet option: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\inetcpl.cpl was called.

After noticing this, I ran a few tests on two IE11 instances:

• a fully updated one, on Windows 8.1 x64 (Pro)
  
• an outdated one (Windows Update disabled for a while), on Windows 7 x86 SP1 (Pro)

I confirm most of what Kate Li pointed out, namely that the registry information read/written is the consistent. On the other hand, I couldn't find any inetcpl.cpl in the Internet Explorer install location (be a sandboxed install or a Beta version of IE, maybe?).

Nevertheless, having performed a few more tests, I believe the issue is an asynchronism between reading the registry information and updating the Website Data Settings sub-form.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open Control Panel, Internet Options (don't use the Internet Explorer shortcut)
2. In the General tab, press the Settings button (opens the Website Data Settings sub-form)
3. In Check for newer version of stored pages, choose any entry other than Automatically
4. Press the OK button (closes the Website Data Settings sub-form)
5. Press the OK button (close the Internet Options dialog)
   
6. Repeat steps 1 and 2 (reopen Internet Options and the Website Data Settings sub-form)
7. Notice that, in Check for newer version of stored pages, Automatically is selected (bug!)
   
8. Press the Cancel button (closes the Website Data Settings sub-form)
9. Repeat step 2 (reopen the Website Data Settings sub-form)
10. Notice that, in Check for newer version of stored pages, Automatically is selected (workaround!)
    

Additional details:

As stated above, as a workaround for current systems and/or until the bug is fixed, when opening Internet Options outside Internet Explorer don't trust the contents of Website Data Settings sub-form when opened first time - simply dismiss the dialog and press Settings again.

Note that, for some reason, it doesn't seem to affect Internet Options when opened from inside Internet Explorer - only the Control Panel version seems to suffer from the symptom. The reason is probably that Internet Explorer reads the SyncMode5 key early on (when starting the application, even before the Internet Options dialog is open).

Process monitor to track the behavior, and below is the only difference:

From Control panel to open Internet option: C:\Windows\System32\inetcpl.cpl was called.

From Internet explorer to open Internet option: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\inetcpl.cpl was called.

Regarding current information, I recommend you to feedback this thing to our product team:

There were no more updates on this issue. It just hit me in the last few days, almost one year later (!)...

1. Was the issue reported and is there a link available to that report?
2. Is there a hotfix available already?

Cheers,
  Helder Magalhes

• Edited by HelderMagalhães Wednesday, July 22, 2015 10:36 AM (whitespace fixes)
• Proposed as answer by HelderMagalhães Wednesday, July 22, 2015 10:50 AM