Has he updated IE7? The current version on WindowsXP is 7.0.5703.11.
My version is not modded and I've had absolutely no problem with it.
I saw someone reported the identical problem here, but no reply with a solution:
http://www.ureader.com/message/4056493.aspx
and here:
http://help.lockergnome.com/windows2/Issues-IEAK-ftopict483369.html
But see this page:
http://www.chcs.com/knowledgebase/article.cfm?aId=143
Here's something showing where M$ keeps the links for this process:
http://boards.cexx.org/index.php?topic=16501.msg67883
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.comcast.net/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 -
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Connection Wizard,ShellNext = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=74005
This particular report was about a Firewall problem and fixed with Hijack This.
CHECK THIS ONE FIRST!
Here's an apparent solution from the Systernals Forum:
http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8576&PN=1
The search criteria I used was:
fwlink/?LinkId=74005 
Regards,