When you open Internet Explorer 7, it may default to runonce2.aspx or runonce3.aspx (Customize Your Settings) page. When saving the custom settings, a script error displaying Element not found message appears.

Microsoft issues a workaround for this problem in article Q945385, which says to create the RunOnceHasShown and RunOnceComplete registry values manually. While this can prevent the runonce3.aspx page from coming up the next time, the real question is why Internet Explorer is unable to successfully write the settings to the registry in some systems?
Resolution
While working on this issue, I found that the problem is caused due to incorrect data in the following key:
The (default) value should be set to C:\Windows\System32\ieframe.dll
The above problem occurs if the value data is pointing to module shdocvw.dll, which also causes the following problems in Internet Explorer 7:
- Error "Element not found" when adding a Search Provider in IE7
- "You’ve opened a new tab" message does not go away
Registry Fix
Download ie7tlbfix.zip, unzip the archive and run the file ie7tlbfix.reg.
This should solve all of the above problems in Internet Explorer 7.
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Thank you. Fixed the problem and allowed me to choose search provider, etc…
didn’t do anything for me same problem even after the zip file above
Thank you very much. It is so simple :)
By the way, John; when I set it manually c:\windows\system32\ieframe.dll it did not work but when I double click the
ie7tlbfix.reg
then it became
%systemroot%\system32\ieframe.dll
After these operations it will show the runonce2 or 3 page but this time when you click Save the settings button it will work :)
Thanks again.
I had this problem after installing then uninstalling I.E. 8.0
I added the registry key values;
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Value “RunOnceHasShown”=dword:00000001
Value “RunOnceComplete”=dword:00000001
This fixed it.
I still have the key;
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{EAB22AC0-30C1-11CF-A7EB-0000C05BAE0B}\1.1\win32
(Default)=string”C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHDOCVW.DLL”
Works like a dream many thanks
Excellent!!! It worked fine, Internet Explorer default is not runonce3.Aspx page anymore, and i have changed my search provider to google.
Thanks you for your help. I’ve this problem for a month and it is very difficult to find the solution.
I’ve solved partially the problem with the http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945385 but the some Javascripts error persists (ie google search) and wasn’t impossible to add new search providers.
The change in the registry key solves the problem perfectly.
Yours sincerely
Nicolás
I reset my IE7 and encountered the above issue. After I ran the fix, I opened IE7 and was able to save my settings as well as add google to be my default search which was something that never worked before. Until now I didn’t realize it was related to the same problem.
Thank you.
This does not work. The default is already c:\windows\system32\ieframe.dll but the problem persists.
Great, thanks.