Can't Open Intenet Explorer.

[Guest]

I recently upgraded a client's machine from a broken Windows 98 to a fresh
install (new folder, file system left in tact so we didn't lose 'My
Documents') of Windows XP Home w/ SP2 included. On initial install the
machine worked fine. Now a couple of days later, anytime we try to open
Internet Explorer by double-clicking on the icon that's on the desktop, or by
clicking on the icon in the Start menu, we get only the Internet Properties
dialog box. We cannot open Internet Explorer at all.

Initially, I thought it was a stuck ALT key on the keyboard, so I tried
clicking on other icons, but they open just fine. So I'm at a loss.

I am not sure of the version of Internet Explorer that's currently installed
at the moment. As I have not had an opportunity to get access to the machine
to work on it just yet. I will be sitting down at the machine this afternoon,
but I wanted to ask and see if anyone else here has had this problem before.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I recently upgraded a client's machine from a broken Windows 98 to a fresh
install (new folder, file system left in tact so we didn't lose 'My
Documents') of Windows XP Home w/ SP2 included. On initial install the
machine worked fine. Now a couple of days later,

anytime we try to open Internet Explorer by double-clicking
on the icon that's on the desktop, or by clicking on the icon
in the Start menu, we get only the Internet Properties dialog box.
We cannot open Internet Explorer at all.

What happens if you right-click on them instead?

Have you tried using Run... (e.g. press Win-R) and enter:

iexplore.exe

Initially, I thought it was a stuck ALT key on the keyboard, so I tried
clicking on other icons, but they open just fine. So I'm at a loss.

One explanation would be that normally Properties is not the default
action, Open is. So normally you access the Properties action via
the right-click menu. However, if Properties was made the default
action that's what would happen if you doubleclicked the icons.

I am not sure of the version of Internet Explorer that's currently installed
at the moment. As I have not had an opportunity to get access to the machine
to work on it just yet. I will be sitting down at the machine this afternoon,
but I wanted to ask and see if anyone else here has had this problem before.

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Guest]

I still don't know of the cause, but I found a work-around type solution.

The browser installed at the time was IE 7, so I'm led to believe that there
was some minor issue during the install and the links/icons were updated or
something.

The visible icons on the desktop (which was a right-click, drag and drop
type of link from the Start menu) and in the Start menu were nothing more
than a planet. The name was Internet. nothing more. clicking on either, took
you to the internet properties applet. Right-clicking brought up the standard
menu.

I right-clicked on the desktop, went to properties, then customized the
desktop to display the IE icon on the desktop. This gave me a properly
functioning icon, I then drug a copy of that icon to the Start menu to
replace the broken one, and removed the two broken links.

It's now working, but I'm still baffled as to why it happened in the first
place.