Bryan,
This is probably being caused by third party programs- malware/parasites.
From Control Panel> Internet Options> Advanced> uncheck "Enable third party
browser extensions." That should allow IE to work.
You might also be able to browse and download programs from the address bar
of Windows Explorer.
Download and run Run CWShredder from
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
CWShredder is only about 125 KB so it could be downloaded from another
machine onto a floppy disk if necessary.
Then download, install, *update* and run both of these programs:
Ad-aware from
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/
Spybot from
http://security.kolla.de/ (Remove items listed in red-others are
optional.)
Both programs should be updated after installation- before use.
Security tips and other information at:
Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
You should re-enable browser extensions after the cleanup.
There are other possible solutions in this MSKB article:
276393 - Understanding and Troubleshooting Unrecoverable Errors (Faults) in
Internet Explorer:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=276393
Don
