IE 11 back button not working on windows 7 machine

Hi folks. Worked on this issue that a client was having today and couldn't find a working fix. I eventually found a fix on my own, so thought I'd post it here for The Greater Glory of The Internet.

This probably won't apply to many folks with this issue, but in my client's case, it was related to Norton Safe Search.

Not sure if it is all installs of this lousy product, but if the browser is set to N.S.Search as a default, then you can search in the address bar, but you can not use the back button. For my client, they had Google as the default search in IE, but nonetheless, the disallow of the back button was still in effect even though the search engine was not used.

In my situation, I reinstalled IE and removed all the search engines besides Norton Safe Search, and then I added a Google search toolbar for my client (this didn't work before), and now everything works. The still can't go back if they search in the address bar with dumb Safe Search as the search engine, but the back button now works using the Google search toolbar.

Not sure if this helps many folks. But if you have this issue and have Norton installed, then I would wager the problems are related. Before taking this approach I tried every other thing recommended, such as disabling add-ins, change zone settings, changing the IE settings, etc etc.

Best of luck to you all and use Linux whenever possible

The fix for us was enabling UAC. Running internet epxlorer (no add-ons) also worked, but surprisingly, even though all add-ons were disabled in add-on manager, running IE normally still suffered from the same back button issues. Opening F12 developer tools also fixed the back button.

hi I had the same issue the back button did not work in ie 11 I clicked the gear wheel in ie then internet options then the advanced tab then reset internet explorer options. I then closed ie and re-opened ie.