Help! MS Internet Explorer toasted!

[plh]

Hello All,
I apologize for what may seem like excessive length of message: please be
patient.
My daughter came to me the other day with her Dell Inspiron 1531 (IIRC) laptop
complaining that is was taking forever to start up. I mean it was never fast but
it has really gone to extremes. Anyway one thing I noticed is that MS Internet
Explorer, when started, returns and error pinpointing Google Toolbar then shuts
down. What's the best way to repair or re-install MSIE? My understanding is that
MSIE is integral to Vista so this could be at the root of some other problems,
such as that the window that is supposed to open for "Default Applications"
immediately shuts. Also, updates sit there waiting on the tool bar in spite of
the fact that it is set to update automatically. When I click on the icon a
window opens and shuts immediately.
I did a boot time scan with Avast! which generated an list of obscurely named
files which it said were damaged and unreadable. They are all located folders
which I guess would normally be hidden. I am wondering if these have anything to
do with the registry and are therefore slowing things down as Vista struggles to
rebuild. Another clue in that direction is that Ad-Aware hangs when trying to do
the deep registry scan. If I skip that part of the scan it hangs during the file
scan one or another obscurely named file. I have not yet correlated one these
with the list generated by Avast!, maybe it will not be necessary if I can find
another way to address these problems.
Thank You in Advance for Any Suggestions,
-plh

 

[JP Levasseur]

We don't know if your laptop is vista???? start/default program/set your
default programs/choose internet Explorer/and set this program as default
and push OK.You should be alright. Bye JP

 

[Charles W Davis]

wow that sounds frustrating.
do a system restore to an erler date and if that does not work then
try a work around by downloading Firefox and install it to a disk for
installation in the laptop
then download and scan with AVG and ADDAWARE FREE from lavasoft
if that didn.t fix the problem then a system restoration from the
recovery drive is in order wiping out all your data on the drive
download and burn or purchase a pclinux disk just in case your system
becomes un bootibal so you can still get online using the laptop using
the live cd
good luck

ps
an older explorer can be installed fixing the problem if it is run in
super user compatibility mode for windows xp
adaware mus be run in super user mode

a system recovery from the backup partition is the best bet simply due
to the grogginess of the os

if this is your child's pc then i mite sujest installing the pclinux os
beside windows and booting to that instead.
or moving back to xp like so many others have

William, the poster is running Windows Vista, IE7 is the only release that
will run on Vista. On XP, one can uninstall IE7, which reinstalles IE6.

I know that you would rather boost pclinus instead of giving valid
assistance to the poster.

 

[Charles W Davis]

Hello All,
I apologize for what may seem like excessive length of message: please be
patient.
My daughter came to me the other day with her Dell Inspiron 1531 (IIRC)
laptop
complaining that is was taking forever to start up. I mean it was never
fast but
it has really gone to extremes. Anyway one thing I noticed is that MS
Internet
Explorer, when started, returns and error pinpointing Google Toolbar then
shuts
down. What's the best way to repair or re-install MSIE? My understanding
is that
MSIE is integral to Vista so this could be at the root of some other
problems,
such as that the window that is supposed to open for "Default
Applications"
immediately shuts. Also, updates sit there waiting on the tool bar in
spite of
the fact that it is set to update automatically. When I click on the icon
a
window opens and shuts immediately.
I did a boot time scan with Avast! which generated an list of obscurely
named
files which it said were damaged and unreadable. They are all located
folders
which I guess would normally be hidden. I am wondering if these have
anything to
do with the registry and are therefore slowing things down as Vista
struggles to
rebuild. Another clue in that direction is that Ad-Aware hangs when trying
to do
the deep registry scan. If I skip that part of the scan it hangs during
the file
scan one or another obscurely named file. I have not yet correlated one
these
with the list generated by Avast!, maybe it will not be necessary if I can
find
another way to address these problems.
Thank You in Advance for Any Suggestions,
-plh

PLH,

Uninstall the Google tool bar (Control Panel> Programs and Features). If
that solves the problem, download and install a new version of the Google
tool bar (if you feel it is necessary).

 

[Andrew]

every body is posting good ideas.

all I have to say is NEVER EVER use registry scanners\fixers.
they do more harm than good

 

[LesleyO]

Um, he says it is...
LesleyO

We don't know if your laptop is vista???? start/default program/set your
default programs/choose internet Explorer/and set this program as default
and push OK.You should be alright. Bye JP