Remove Comcast Branding from Internet Explorer after High Speed Internet Install
I recently had Comcast High Speed Internet installed on my PC and was unhappy to find that Comcast had felt it necessary to try and brand my computer. They had changed the Internet Explorer title bar and Outlook Express title bar to now read ” by Comcast”, had changed the Internet Explorer rotating E to now be a Comcast rotating C, and had installed some useless support agent on my computer. Well, if they can put it on we can remove it so here is what I found and how to repair what Comcast branded.
Remove “by Comcast” from Internet Explorer Title Bar
Warning: Whenever you mess with the registery there is a chance you can really mess things up so be careful.
Click on the Start menu and select “Run”
Type in regedit and press enter
Click Edit in the top bar and then Click Find
Search for “by Comcast” which you should find in IE and Outlook Express — Just remove that string or make it whatever you want 
Remove Comcast rotating C logo animation from Internet Explorer
Click on the Start menu and select “Run”
Type in “Rundll32 iedkcs32.dll,Clear” (without the quotes of course) and press enter
Disable the Comcast Support program on your task bar
Click on the Start menu and select “Run”
Type in msconfig and press enter
Click on the Startup tab
Note: The msconfig utility allows you to shut off any annoying programs that always run when you start up your computer. While you are here you should look for any other programs you don’t want to run and un-click them also
Find “tgcmd” and uncheck the box next to it (you will notice support.com is listed and the folder it is in and that clues you in)
Uninstall Comcast Support.com Support Agent Program
I have uninstalled this and have seen no problems
Click on the Start Menu and select the Control Panel
Click on Add/Remove Programs
Find Support.com Comcast Support Agent in the list and click on Uninstall
When it asks are you sure choose yes
Remove the Comcast added Internet Explorer Favorites
After you install Comcast High Speed Internet Service you will notice that they add a bunch of shameless marketing links to your IE favorites listing. To remove these favorites:
Open IE and click on Favorites in the menu
Browse down to the Comcast added favorites
On the ones you want to remove: left click and select delete
–You should find a couple of folders with advertising links and a few other Comcast Links
(Of course if you browse only with Firefox you don’t have this problem because Comcast doesn’t add advertising favorites links to Firefox)
That is all I have found so far. Hope it helps someone else remove Comcast’s high speed internet service branding. This kind of corporate parasitic marketing is one of my biggest annoyances so let me know if you have any other examples of this and I will post the instructions to remove it here. Also, most of this branding really did not affect me all the time because I mostly use Mozilla Firefox for browsing and Mozilla Thunderbird for email but because they did it at all was evil enough.
7 Responses to “Remove Comcast Branding from Internet Explorer after High Speed Internet Install”
July 16th, 2005 at 11:39 am
This branding really annoyed me too.
I would think MS would object to Comcast declaring that MSIE was provided by them despite the fact that I already had it installed.
I think I’m going to write a rather nasty note to Comcast although I guess how much good that will do me.
Also, I don’t think you’re suggestion of running msconfig and unchecking tgcmd is sufficient. You should once again run Regedit and then search for tgcmd and find the Run key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and remove the value listed for tgcmd there. Also, I would delete the support.com directory under Program Files since that directory is nothing more than spyware.
October 14th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
It felt *so* good to open regedit and blast those dudes away. Thanks for the tips!
January 30th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Thanks! Your blogging on this subject was so helpful. I was seriously annoyed after getting Comcast when I discovered they they thought they had the right to add superfluous junk to my computer.
June 10th, 2006 at 7:55 am
FANTASTIC! could not agree more about the annoyance factor. The impact of this of course is a NEGATIVE brand experience from Comcast. That, and the fact that their install package was absolutely horrid makes you wonder how guys like this stay in business. If they were running air traffic control, or doing heart surgery, they’d be arrested…
Thanks again for the tip!
June 15th, 2006 at 9:48 am
I just set up Comcast high speed today, and was also bugged by the “Support” utility. It didn’t even seem to have any real functionality. If they had merely installed a link to an optional software component that would be OK, but forcing an application that always runs in the background and uses memory is very annoying.
September 30th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Verizon DSL did the same thing to my IE browser. They installed a “V” that had some animation in place of the Windows logo. Your fix worked for Verizon’s shameless advertising too! Thanks a million.
March 23rd, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Thanks! Especially for the tip to remove that pesky comcast animation in the internet explorer.
I hate companies that think that they can do whatever they want with your computer just because they provide some services. Comcast, Verizon, they attempt to install something. Comcast even requires it to activate the account. They don’t understand that all we need is the internet, not their crappy ad-ware. The irony is that the antidote is not even hard to find. Your page is the first in MSN Search for “remove comcast internet explorer.”