Internet Explorer comes up as "about:blank" ?

not everything found to be a bug is truly a bug, it may have a name similar to a bug hence the blockage. ie:gen, key, or similar names or file extensions. sometime when you run into that situation you may have to shut webroot down or any other av programs you have running to dl and or install certain programs.........BUT and a very big BUT, doing so is at your own risk, be sure you KNOW what you are doing before shutting down your av and security programs.

also check your internet connection setting to see if your network settings are correct for your network.

about:blank is the default page in IE if you dont have a homepage setup.

I configure all of my browsers to "about:blank" as the home page because I don't want them to access the internet until I direct them to do so.  It also provides a quick return from the internet  without shutting down the browser if needed by just pressing the home button.
 

but they are connected to the net no matter the content of the loaded page be it blank or a site. only way to stop a complete connection is to pull the plug, even windows explorer is connected back to ms at any given time.

Granted, pulling the plug will halt all local and internet activity.
but...
Just to be sure, I checked my system with a protocol analyzer and web browser debugger to see what traffic was flowing in and out.  I checked using, IE, Firefox, and Aviator and when the browsers first open they checked for browser and extension updates but after that it settled down and there was no HTTP activity at all while on the about:blank page.  As soon as you navigate to a site it is a different story.
 
I saw some of the gadgets using IE for transport while checking for weather, time, and etc. but the browser was inactive.
 
The typical packet traffic and protocol activity that you would expect to see was noted such as:
ARP Broadcasts - Who Has the Gateway and replies
SSDP
Spanning Tree
Master Browser Announcements
NBNS name queries
Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution
 
Just the typical stuff but nothing unexpected and not browser related that would generate cause for alarm.
 

even sitting idle if you have plugins they will connect...ie: webroots password manager, which is the same thing as lastpass and webroot for some ungodly reason uses amazon's servers,  and its connected 100% of the time. did you check for your windows version and how it is connecting also.i know that goes off topic a tad but even when you are not doing anything something on your system is always trying to connect or is connected, most of the time its a browser but windows stays connected even just sittin idle. so does webroot.
 
example =  157.56.100.89                bn1wns2011514.wns.windows.com    destination tcp port = 47873

Ok, let’s do get back on track and not argue or drag this out.  Nobody is disagreeing with you that Windows, some apps, and plugins periodically hit the internet to update… as I mentioned in my last post. 
 
I was merely trying to reveal the benefits of reducing browser based exposure and activity by taking advantage of the about:blank feature.
 
Depending on the apps installed and configuration you will always have intermittent activity such as windows update, Outlook, time sync, weather, stock, and other gadgets, keep alive packets if configured, listening ports, and the list goes on.  
 
I cannot speak to the Webroot issue; you will have to take that up with the developers or someone else who better versed on that subject.
 
Have a great day,
Dave

Many thanks for all the info guys! It is really great to know that their is still a little help out there. I found my problem hiding in the temp files for Mozilla Firefox. It is not listed as an add-on but it appears as " PUP.Optional.SmootherWeb.A" !!! It downloads all kinds of useless advertising amongst other crap. I set up IE to Google and that seems to have solved the about:blank issue - - so much for Microsofts "Trojan" !  Once again, thanks for the response's!
Jesse

Open IE click on the setting icon at the top right corner & then click on "Internet option" from the drop down menu,
now a window will appear in this window you can set your homepage 
where you can found  "about:blank" just replace it with any url which you want as your homepage, just like -
http://google.com
😉