IE Vanishes

[thomas]

I was just visiting a friend who is running XP (home edition). When
she opens Intenet Explorer (IE6), it flashes on the screen and
immediately closes again. I run Win98 by preference, so I am no whiz
with XP, but I can work my way thru it. I removed several toolbars
she had, removed all sorts of oddball programs she did not know where
they came from or were unwanted. Then I uninstalled IE and
reinstalled it. None of this helped. She has System mechanic so I
let it repair the registry. Rebooted. Still the same problem. I
then downloaded IE7 and installed it. Still the same problem. No
matter what I do, as soon as I click on the IE icon, it opens and in
under a second, it closes again.

I suspect a virus. She has some spyware checkers. Nothing shows up.

What the heck is causing this?
I gave up at that point. Dont know what else to do....

Anyone?

 

[Blinky the Shark]

I was just visiting a friend who is running XP (home edition). When
she opens Intenet Explorer (IE6), it flashes on the screen and
immediately closes again. I run Win98 by preference, so I am no whiz
with XP, but I can work my way thru it. I removed several toolbars
she had, removed all sorts of oddball programs she did not know where
they came from or were unwanted. Then I uninstalled IE and
reinstalled it. None of this helped. She has System mechanic so I
let it repair the registry. Rebooted. Still the same problem. I
then downloaded IE7 and installed it. Still the same problem. No
matter what I do, as soon as I click on the IE icon, it opens and in
under a second, it closes again.

Great chance to introduce her to Firefox.

 

[thomas]

Great chance to introduce her to Firefox.

She already uses FF. But some online game she uses wont run on FF. I
should have also mentioned that her computer (a Pentium 4 - 2000mhz is
running incredibly slow. My 700mhz PIII is much faster. Once again,
it has to be a virus, but what? She has some anti-virus software and
nothing showed up. I dont know what she is running for anti-virus. I
did not bother to look. She already ran all the scans before I got
there. I know she has spybot though. I saw it on the list.

 

[thomas]

Great chance to introduce her to Firefox.

I should also mention that we had to use FF to download the install
for IE7. Obviously because IE wont load (and stay loaded).

 

[Jennifer Attenborough]

Are you in the us or uk?

 

[Franc Zabkar]

I was just visiting a friend who is running XP (home edition). When
she opens Intenet Explorer (IE6), it flashes on the screen and
immediately closes again. I run Win98 by preference, so I am no whiz
with XP, but I can work my way thru it. I removed several toolbars
she had, removed all sorts of oddball programs she did not know where
they came from or were unwanted. Then I uninstalled IE and
reinstalled it. None of this helped. She has System mechanic so I
let it repair the registry. Rebooted. Still the same problem. I
then downloaded IE7 and installed it. Still the same problem. No
matter what I do, as soon as I click on the IE icon, it opens and in
under a second, it closes again.

I suspect a virus. She has some spyware checkers. Nothing shows up.

What the heck is causing this?
I gave up at that point. Dont know what else to do....

Anyone?

Run msconfig.exe and msinfo32.exe and look for suspicious entries in
the Startup or Software Environment sections.

Otherwise try reposting to a newsgroup in the microsoft.public
hierarchy.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[32andtwentyseven]

She already uses FF. But some online game she uses wont run on FF. I
should have also mentioned that her computer (a Pentium 4 - 2000mhz is
running incredibly slow. My 700mhz PIII is much faster. Once again,
it has to be a virus, but what? She has some anti-virus software and
nothing showed up. I dont know what she is running for anti-virus. I
did not bother to look. She already ran all the scans before I got
there. I know she has spybot though. I saw it on the list.

Backup her Data and reformat & reinstall XP?