Internet Explorer Crashes Immediately on Startup after Installing KB973687

[Kevin Myers]

The subject update from Microsoft caused problems on at least one of our
machines (all are running Windows XP Professional SP3 32bit), though it
doesn't seem to cause problems on other machines. After installing this
update, Internet Explorer would crash immediately after starting on one of
our machines, even with all add-ons disabled. If you have any problems
running Internet Explorer after recent updates have been installed, try
uninstalling this update via Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs. Make sure
to check "Show Updates".

The problem machine is running IE7, whereas our other machines that did not
exhibit this problem are running IE8. However I am not certain this means
that the problem is restricted to IE7.

If anyone has any ideas how to correct or avoid this problem other than
uninstalling the update, please let me know.

Thanks,
Kevin M.
Round Rock, Texas

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Preparatory step: Uninstall KB973687 & reboot.

1. Stop the Automatic Updates service:

Start > Run > (type in) services.msc > [OK]
Double-click Automatic Updates > Click on Stop
(Stopping the service will take a moment)

2. Delete the contents of the Download folder:

Start > Run > (type in) %windir%\SoftwareDistribution > [OK]
Open the Download folder and delete its contents
Close the window.

3. Go to Windows Update website | Select CUSTOM and allow the scan to
complete | Uncheck/deselect KB973687 and hide it ("Don't show me this update
again").

4. Start the Automatic Updates service:

Start > Run > (type in) services.msc > [OK]
Double-click Automatic Updates > Click on Start
(Starting the service will take a moment)

=====================================

None of the updates released on 24 Nov-09 (including KB973687) are critical
security updates so you don't really need to install any of them. While MS
provides no-charge support for security updates, it does not offer any
no-charge support for these updates.

PS: A number of other non-security updates are going to be released on 8
Dec-09, along with 6 other, security-related updates.