Tried Search Icon and Now IE Won't Load!!

[Guest]

I initally was able to use IE without any hitch. One day, I clicked on the
search icon in the toolbar (which I don't nomally do) and the search window
popped up on the left side of the IE window. It acted like it was loadiing
the page and it just continued doing that without ever loading fully. Ever
since, when I click to start IE, the window comes up and acts like it is
loading, but never opens. It doesn't let me click on any icons or menus
either. I continually have to use the task manager to get out of IE and the
cycle starts over. Of course this affects clicking on links in e-mail, and
when websites open new windows. I tried removing IE from my computer (to
reinstall IE), but it won't let me saying IE is being used on my computer.
I'm stuck at this point so please help!

 

[Rob ^_^]

Hi Blair,

What are your Windows Locale settings? (Start>Settings>Control
Panel>Regional and Language Options)

For the time being change your Regional Options to English(United States)
and apply the changes and restart your 'puter. (Please post back on this
thread your original regional settings)

I am asking this because the Search Explorer bar uses your region settings
to display the appropiate search explorer bar for your country and language
settings. MS have been doing some maintence here lately and quite frankly
its been acting foobar'ed! The English(United States) setting seems to be
working well so these changes should point your search explorer bar to a US
search provider.

Please post back your results here.

Regards.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Rob for helping me out. I checked the regional and language settings
and it was lready on English (US).

I look forward to hearing from you again.

 

[Rob ^_^]

Hi Blair,

I guess my guess was wrong.. Next try ....

Go to your Internet Options control panel.....
Start>Settings>Control Panel>Internet Options

Check your HomePage setting on the General Tab. Enter about:blank (an empty
homepage value will also disable the buttons toolbar when IE loads)

On the Connections tab check the properties of your connection.

On the Programs tab click the 'Reset Web Settings...' button.

On the Advanced tab uncheck 'Enable third-party browser extensions'

Apply your changes and close Internet Options.

Ok. Now try again.


If this does not work then please post back again. This time with details of
your Windows version.

If it does work then the problem was probably caused by an Add-in that you
disabled above. You may consider running a spyware scan to remove the
offending add-in.

Regards.

 

[Guest]

I use Windows XP and have IE 6.0 loaded.
I did you suggested things. Now when I click on IE, the page comes up much
quicker; however, it does not load up completely and I'm unable to click on
anything (including the menus and icons). I have let it sit at this point
and nothing happens. Before the latest changes, I had to use the task
manager to get out of the program. Now, I can right click on IE and close it
(but it still pops a window to "end now".

Thanks again and look forward to your response.

---

 

[Rob ^_^]

Hi Blair,

We are getting somewhere at least. Me thinks that an add-in may be causing
the problem (if you disabled third-party browser helpers at least it made
some difference).

If you have a malware detector (Windows Defender?) you may like to give your
machine the once over.

After that you can try a complete repair of IE for XP. You can find the
instructions for doing this here.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378

Regards.

 

[Guest]

I'm getting frustrated because of stupid little thing as clicking on the
search icon. I appreciate your help and time.

I followed the link you gave me. The article is kind of broken but it
prompts me to install the ie6setup.exe . I have already tried that, with the
setup file still on my desktop. when I click on it, a window pops up saying
"setup detects a newer version of Internet explorer running on your computer
and therfore cannot install the setup file."

What now?

Is there a way that I can just uninstall Internet Explorer? I went into the
control panel and clicked on "add/remove programs" but IE does not show up on
the list of programs.

The program is still running the same. Whenever I click on IE, the window
pops up but it never loads and I can not click on anything in the menus or
icons. A blank screen persists. I then have to right click on IE below and
close it.

Thanks again.
---

 

[Rob ^_^]

Hi again.

I haven't looked into your questions yet about re-installing IE.

I thought of something that may work though. Try this...

Select the Start>Run menu

Enter Explorer or Explorer.exe (this will start the windows explorer)

In the Windows Explorer Address bar enter a valid url or about:blank

On my XP machine this morphs the Windows Explorer into Internet Explorer
without loading any Explorer bars.

If this works then close IE and then try starting it from the desktop icon.

BTW. From what you describe as the symptoms... blank page, no Button icons
on the toolbar and hung explorer, it sounds like you have a blank entry for
your IE HomePage (Internet Options-General tab). Did you check it out
previously?

Regards.

 

[Rob ^_^]

Hi Blair,

Just thought of something.

Log on as a different user (create a normal user account if you don't have
one)

Try loading IE. Hopefully it should load Ok. If it does then open a registry
editor (Start>Run>Regedit) and find the key
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer

and export the whole key to a reg file to a shared folder that you can
access from your other account (maybe c:\)

Log off, then log on with your other account and import the registry
settings you just saved.

Regards.