IE6 loads several incomplete instances of itself

[Guest]

I have Windows XP Home SP2, w/IE 6.0

Here's the problem:
I click on Start - Internet Explorer to launch the browser. Sometimes it
loads fully and works fine, but most of the time the hourglass pointer
appears for 5 secs or so, and then nothing. I click again on IE and it
launches fine.
I open Windows Taskbar - Processes, and along with the fully loaded
ieplore.exe (31,200 K), there's a smaller instance running: ieplore.exe
(sometimes 15,804 K, other times, 16,004 K). By the end of the day, I can
wind up with 4 or more such instances. Under Taskbar - Applications, only the
full working instance of IE is listed.

When I first noticed this problem, I immediately thought of some adware or
spyware program. I scanned my PC thoroughly and did not find anything. I scan
regularly for viruses and spyware, anyway, and I run ZoneAlarm Security Suite.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I have Windows XP Home SP2, w/IE 6.0

Here's the problem:
I click on Start - Internet Explorer to launch the browser. Sometimes it
loads fully and works fine, but most of the time the hourglass pointer
appears for 5 secs or so, and then nothing. I click again on IE and it
launches fine.
I open Windows Taskbar - Processes, and along with the fully loaded
ieplore.exe (31,200 K), there's a smaller instance running: ieplore.exe
(sometimes 15,804 K, other times, 16,004 K). By the end of the day, I can
wind up with 4 or more such instances. Under Taskbar - Applications, only the
full working instance of IE is listed.

When I first noticed this problem, I immediately thought of some adware or
spyware program. I scanned my PC thoroughly and did not find anything. I scan
regularly for viruses and spyware, anyway, and I run ZoneAlarm Security Suite.

Are you sure you don't have a malware problem? <eg>
If not you made the same typo for iexplore.exe twice!

What are these instances doing?
Check with netstat -abeopv tcp in a cmd window for clues.
Notice that the -o switch ties the session with a PID,
which you can get from Task Manager (among other places.)

In XP Pro you could also use tasklist /m /fi "Imagename eq iexplore.exe"
to see if there were some explained modules present. Apparently XP Home
users don't normally have this tool but supposedly they can download it from
somewhere.

Alternatively, you could try using Process Explorer (freeware from SysInternals)
which can show you the same sort of information and more.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Guest]

Are you sure you don't have a malware problem? <eg>
If not you made the same typo for iexplore.exe twice!

What are these instances doing?
Check with netstat -abeopv tcp in a cmd window for clues.
Notice that the -o switch ties the session with a PID,
which you can get from Task Manager (among other places.)

In XP Pro you could also use tasklist /m /fi "Imagename eq iexplore.exe"
to see if there were some explained modules present. Apparently XP Home
users don't normally have this tool but supposedly they can download it from
somewhere.

Alternatively, you could try using Process Explorer (freeware from SysInternals)
which can show you the same sort of information and more.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle

First, sorry about the 2 typos. I meant "iexplore.exe" in both cases.

I'm pretty confident it's not viral or trojan-related, because I checked my
system against several adware/malware scanners and came up clean.

Thanks for your suggestions, I will check them out.

JP2005