Solution: This is a big reason why Kearney.Net does not use custom internet set up CDs. On today's PCs, you already have everything that you need to connect to the internet. Some companies feel that this is not enough, however, and provide an "installation CD". Unfortunately, we have seen that these installation CDs tend to cause more problems with customers' computers than anything else. The WebCombo CD places a rather stubborn program called "webcon.exe" on a Windows computer that locks the homepage to http://www.webcombo.net, and stops anyone from changing it. This program also tends to hinder system performance as well. After consulting with Microsoft on this issue, we have found a way to rid your computer of this tiny nuisance.

Systems affected by this problem:

• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows Me

• Windows 2000
• Windows NT
• Macintosh

In order to rid your computer of webcon.exe, we need to delete it off your hard drive. The problem is that webcon.exe loads when your computer starts up, and Windows will not let you remove a program that is in use. So the first thing we need to do is wipe webcon.exe out of your computer's memory.

1. While in Windows, press the Control, Alt, and Delete keys on your keyboard all at the same time. This will bring up the Close Program box, as shown in Figure 1 below.
2. You may see several items in this window. Find the item named "Webcon". Click once on Webcon, and then click "End Task" in the bottom left of the window. This is shown in Figure 1 as well.
3. Now, wait for 15 to 30 seconds. This program is quite stubborn, and Windows can take a moment to remove it from memory. After a brief period of time, you will see something similar to Figure 2 below telling you that the program is not responding. Click "End Task" again. This will remove Webcon.exe from memory so that we can delete it. Once this is done, proceed to Part II.

Figure 1: Hit End Task

Figure 2: Hit End Task Again

Part II: Removing Webcon from the hard drive.

Now that Webcon is shut down and removed from the computer's memory, Windows will let us remove it from the hard drive.

1. First of all we need to locate the Webcon file. If you're using Windows 95 or 98, click the Start button, point to "Find" and click "Files or Folders". If you're using Windows Me (Millennium Edition), click the Start button, point to "Search" and click "For Files or Folders...".
2. In the window that pops up, make sure that the "Look In" box has the text "C:" printed in it. There may be a name just before the C: such as "Local Hard Drives". This is fine, and normal. Just make sure that there is nothing after the "C:" (for example, "C:\documents" or "My Documents"). If this is the case, click the down arrow to the right of the "Look In" box and choose the "C:" drive.
3. If you're using Windows 95 or 98, type the word webcon in the field labeled "Named". If you're using Windows Me, type the word webcon in the filed labeled "Search for files or folders named."
4. Hit the "Find Now" or "Search Now" button. Alternately, you can hit the Enter key on your keyboard.
5. You will see something similar to Figure 3. Using the RIGHT mouse button, click on the webcon icon and choose "Delete". You may get a warning message. Make sure that you tell the computer to delete the file.
6. Close the find file window by clicking the X in the upper right corner. Now proceed to Part III.

Figure 3: The Dreaded Webcon.exe File

Part III: Removing any traces of Webcon in the win.ini file.

Now that Webcon is gone from the hard drive, we need to tell Windows to stop looking for it when the computer boots up. To do this, we need to remove an entry in the win.ini file.

1. Click the Start Menu and click on "Run".
2. If there is any text in the box that pops up, delete it. Now, type win.ini and hit the Enter key on your keyboard.
3. You will see a text file pop up. Locate the line in the text that reads run = C:\WINDOWS\webcon.exe and delete it. You can do this by highlighting the text and hitting the backspace key on your keyboard.
4. Click the "File" menu and choose "Save".
5. Close the text file by hitting the X in the upper right corner of the screen.
6. Restart the computer by clicking the Start Menu, clicking "Shut Down", choosing "Restart" and clicking "OK" or "Yes".

We can now set your homepage to anything you'd like. We recommend setting it to www.kearney.net, but anything will do (such as www.yahoo.com).

1. Click the Start Menu, point to "Settings", and click "Control Panel".
2. Double click the control panel marked "Internet" or "Internet Options".
3. At the top of the screen that pops up, you will see a line labeled "You can change which page to use for your homepage". Erase the http://www.webcombo.net and type in whatever webpage you would like as your homepage.
4. Click "Apply" in the bottom right corner, and then click "OK".