Internet

How to Fix Internet Explorer 8 from Defaulting to Mobile Browser Version of a Site

by Updated December 13, 2011

For about a month now, whenever I visited certain sites like Mashable.com using Internet Explorer 8 browser, I was getting redirected to the mobile browser version of the site instead of the regular web version.  This was pretty annoying and I wasn't quite sure what was causing the problem until today.

Essentially, for whatever reason a program called 'Creative Software AutoUpdate' seems to be the culprit causing IE8 to default to the mobile layout for some sites. I have a Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit sound card in my computer which is why I had the 'Creative Software AutoUpdate' installed.  However, the program isn't really needed on my computer, and since it's the cause of the IE8 mobile browser redirection problem I went ahead and uninstalled it and it solved the problem.

So to fix the problem of Internet Explorer 8 defaulting to the mobile browser version of some websites, follow these steps to uninstall the 'Creative Software AutoUpdate' program:

  1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
  2. From the Control Panel window, click Uninstall a program. (If your Control Panel view is in Classic View, then click on Programs and Features)
  3. Select the program called Creative Software AutoUpdate and then click Uninstall.
  4. Once you've successfully uninstalled Creative Software AutoUpdate, open up Internet Explorer 8.
  5. Click on the Tools menu, and then click Delete Browsing History...
  6. Make sure Temporary Internet files and History is checked, then click the Delete button.
  7. Wait a few minutes for the deletion to complete, then close Internet Explorer and reopen it.
  8. Browse to a site that was defaulting to the mobile browser version (like Mashable.com) and you should now see the regular website (if you still see the mobile version, just hit the Refresh button in Internet Explorer and it should change).
  9. That's it.

 

 


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MORE: ie8, mobile browser, wap, creative

17 Comments

anonymous by Turnip on 2/14/2010
Tried it and it worked. Thanks!
anonymous by Mike R on 2/28/2010
This works! I've had probelms in the last month from newspapers to hotels to airlines all defaulting for no reason I could find to the mobile versions (Delta, Mandarin Oriental, Colorado Springs Gazette, Papa Johns pizza, and more). Finally I don't have to open those sites seperately with Safari just to see them. Thanks!
anonymous by Lpool_Rob on 3/7/2010
I love quick answers to silly problems. God bless the www
Cheers!
anonymous by Hugh on 4/4/2010
Works as advertised... I didn't even have to delete my browser history. THANK YOU!!!!
anonymous by DNAgc on 5/27/2010
WOW, thanks a whole lot, Creative drives me crazy sometimes with their blotware. Saved what was left of hair you did. :) Cheers.
anonymous by James on 7/25/2010
I had the same issue, and your fix worked for me. Who would've thought? Thanks.
anonymous by joshua on 11/3/2010
I'm having this problem with all newspaper sites as well as some banking sites. I have searched throughout my registry key and do not have any "creative autoupdate" entries at all. Does anyone know how to fix this problem when it is not the registry key? Please see my key below:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; NET_lghpset; GTB6.6; SLCC1; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; .NET4.0C)
anonymous by KK on 11/11/2010
Thanks, the fix worked.
anonymous by Gilbert on 12/2/2010
This didn't work for me since I did not find Creative Software on my computer. In fact I apparently have not had any recent installations save something from Dell named "browser address error redirector." Could that be the culprit? Does anybody else have any ideas? Thanks for any help.
Doug by Doug on 12/3/2010
Gilbert,

I'm not sure if the Dell "browser address error redirector" is the culprit, but I'd try uninstalling it, since I don't believe it's really necessary to have it installed.
anonymous by Person on 2/13/2011
That does not work. I do not even have that crap installed on my computer and it is doing the same thing with defualting to the mobile sites. so tell me how to fix that.
anonymous by Nick on 4/11/2011
This is happening to me in all web browsers. I don't have that Creative software, though. I can't figure out what the problem is.
anonymous by RP on 12/13/2011
Thanks man, that was driving me crazy. What a stupid a$$ bug!!!!!
anonymous by Mike on 1/2/2012
Best answers and Work great. I tried 4 different fixes before this one.
anonymous by Leonard on 2/17/2012
works great I guess. But what if you don't have the Creative Software Autoupdate?
anonymous by nik on 6/10/2015

This didn't work for me since I did not find Creative Software on my computer.
anonymous by kate on 11/4/2016

Good morning, thank you for this article. Very helpful indeed. More power and goodluck.

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