setting background color of links using mshtml

[P9142]

I am trying to set, and then unset the background color of links using html. Setting the background color is easy enough using something like this:

Dim htmldoc As mshtml.HTMLDocument
htmldoc.links.item(1).style.backgroundColor() = "#AAFFFF"

However, to unset the background color I need to remove the backgroundColor attribute. Is there a way to just get rid of the backgroundColor so it will go back to how it was, or once you set it is it always there?

 

[P9142]

If there isn't a way to remove the tag, is there a simple way to tell what the color of the background behind a certain link is so I can set it to this?