Kill the IE content advisor


Don't tell me, you set a content advisor password and now you can't remember what it was.

Ok, here is how you fix it.

Open the registry editor and browse to the following key:

Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings

Click on the Key (folder) named Ratings in the left pane of Regedit. 
In the right pane, you will see a binary value named "key" that has a 
hexadecimal string that represents the content advisor password in 
encrypted form. Right click on this value and choose delete. 

Exit the registry editor.

Now you need to open Windows Explorer and delete the file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RATINGS.POL.

Once the registry value and the file have been removed, reboot your computer. Now, if you open Internet Explorer and go to Tools/Internet Options and click the Content Advisor tab, you'll see that the Settings button is now grayed out and the Enable button is visible. It is as if content advisor were never enabled.    

 thanks for the tip awk!

Backup one step