IE, Control Panel, WIndows Explorer won't open!!

[JasperJazz]

Hi y'all!

I am at a friend's house and trying to repair her computer. 2 days ago, she
found she was unable to open Internet Explorer or Control Panel. I came over
and ran Norton's and it found no viruses. I then ran Spy Bot and it found
203 incidences of Spyware which I then deleted. I went into msconfig and
unchecked all the entries that had to do with hijacking software, bogus
search engines and tool bars, etc. I turned off system restore so it would
remove all incidences of that mess that was saved on the computer. I also
ran chkdsk /f and it didnt find any disk errors.

Her installed executable programs work and she can use Outlook Express and
Mirc as far as the internet. But when I right click on START and left click
on EXPLORE, Windows Explorer does not open. It doesn't open when I click on
the blue e for internet explorer or when I click on Control Panel. (was
trying to get to add/remove programs) I thought, perhaps that the icon file
was corrupted so I went to start/run and typed in ieexplore.exe and it still
wouldnt open.

She does not, of course, want to use her restore disk and lose everything.
This is a fairly new HP Laptop running Windows XP Home.

Any suggestions?

Thanks~!
Mary

 

[Malke]

Hi y'all!

I am at a friend's house and trying to repair her computer. 2 days
ago, she found she was unable to open Internet Explorer or Control
Panel. I came over and ran Norton's and it found no viruses. I then
ran Spy Bot and it found 203 incidences of Spyware which I then
deleted. I went into msconfig and unchecked all the entries that had
to do with hijacking software, bogus search engines and tool bars,
etc. I turned off system restore so it would remove all incidences of
that mess that was saved on the computer. I also ran chkdsk /f and it
didnt find any disk errors.

Her installed executable programs work and she can use Outlook Express
and Mirc as far as the internet. But when I right click on START and
left click on EXPLORE, Windows Explorer does not open. It doesn't open
when I click on the blue e for internet explorer or when I click on
Control Panel. (was trying to get to add/remove programs) I thought,
perhaps that the icon file was corrupted so I went to start/run and
typed in ieexplore.exe and it still wouldnt open.

She does not, of course, want to use her restore disk and lose
everything. This is a fairly new HP Laptop running Windows XP Home.

You may need to use this fix to repair Winsock2 settings:

http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

Malke

 

[JasperJazz]

Malke,
Thanks for your reply. I am unable to open IE to get to that link to repair
the Winsock settings. Is there a file there that I need to download or is it
just instructions? If instructions, could you please paste them here in a
message? If a file, could you please mail it to (e-mail address removed)?
Thanks SO much!

Mary

 

[Ramesh [MVP]]

To enable IE/Windows Explorer functionality, try this:

Disable third-party browser extensions in Internet Explorer
1. Click Start, Run, and type inetcpl.cpl. [or control inetcpl.cpl]
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Under Browsing, clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires restart) check box.
4. Restart Internet Explorer.

Then, inspect what BHOs are loading. You may use ToolbarCop for this:

Using ToolbarCop to remove the unwanted Toolband, Toolbar Icons and BHO:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/toolbarcop.htm

--
Ramesh - Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell

http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k
http://www.mvps.org


Malke,
Thanks for your reply. I am unable to open IE to get to that link to repair
the Winsock settings. Is there a file there that I need to download or is it
just instructions? If instructions, could you please paste them here in a
message? If a file, could you please mail it to (e-mail address removed)?
Thanks SO much!

Mary

 

[Guest]

did anyone solve this problem yet
I have the EXACT problem and did everything Jazz did

My Folders and IE and now dsl connection do not work
please help.

 

[Greg]

You need to run in Safe Mode with networking and IE will
work. Then download Ad-aware 6 form www.lavasoftusa.com
and get the update. Then run Ad-aware. It removed the BHO
hi-jacking programs.

I also shutdown and powered off the PC just to clear the
memory. You may not have to do this. Rebooted and
everything works.

-----Original Message-----
To enable IE/Windows Explorer functionality, try this:

Disable third-party browser extensions in Internet Explorer
1. Click Start, Run, and type inetcpl.cpl. [or control inetcpl.cpl]
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Under Browsing, clear the Enable third-party browser

extensions (requires restart) check box.

 

[Malke]

Malke,
Thanks for your reply. I am unable to open IE to get to that link to
repair the Winsock settings. Is there a file there that I need to
download or is it just instructions? If instructions, could you please
paste them here in a message? If a file, could you please mail it to
(e-mail address removed)? Thanks SO much!

Mary

You've gotten some good suggestions, but you will have to get to a
computer with Internet access and a cd-burner in order to continue
helping your friend. As for me sending you the lspfix, sending an
executable as an attachment in an email would not be a good thing - you
shouldn't be opening attachments (even though I know it would be clean,
you don't know that) and your ISP may not let it in the gate. Far
better to either have your friend take her computer to a good local
repair shop (not a BestBuy or CompUSA) and have them fix it for her or
you'll have to do as I suggested in the first sentence.

Good luck,

Malke

 

[Guest]

I've been having the same problem - neither IE or Windows Explorer would open at all. I tried Ramesh's suggestion to disable third party extensions and it worked like a charm. Now all is wel

limeylan

 

[ScratchMyBack]

Hi - just wanted to let everyone know I had this same problem.
Couldn't open IE, couldn't access My Computer, Control Panel, My
Documents, My Pictures, My Music. I could access MS Word, Excel, etc
as well as MS Outlook and MSN Explorer which I used to download
Ad-Aware. Once I scanned, that did the trick. I'm now back in
business. Didn't even have to reboot.

Thanks to everyone who posted here, I was able to resolve my problem
in a relatively short and painless manner. My friend found this
thread and emailed it to me.

Laura

 

[Ramesh [MVP]]

You're welcome, limeyland. It's also advisable to run a full scan using Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com)

--
Ramesh - Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k

ExportZone - for Internet Explorer:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/ExportZone.htm



I've been having the same problem - neither IE or Windows Explorer would open at all. I tried Ramesh's suggestion to disable third party extensions and it worked like a charm. Now all is well

limeyland