Can't set default home page

My neighbour is getting annoyed because he used to have AltaVista as his home page but now, when he fires up IE8 it flashes AltaVista in the webpage bar for a second or two and then defaults to Yahoo. I've tried changing the default via the Tools menu to other things but it always ends up at the Yahoo page. AltaVista is in the box where you choose your homepage via the Internet Options tab but it seems to be ignored. He uses Windows Vista by the way.

I think it is setting home page correct, if I put altavista.com in my browser I end up at http://uk.yahoo.com/?p=us

AltaVista I am afraid is dead - see Among them is AltaVista, now slated to go dark on July 8

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2493729

Edited by camieabz (Wed 17-Jul-13 18:23:40)

That explains it! Many thanks.