Yet another IE problem

[jaksback]

Ok, now my IE isn't working!! I did all the searches and have come up with no solutions. I have not downloaded or installed anything in quite awhile, updated and ran spybot, adaware, my AV, even ran hijackthis and I am pretty good at reading the scan but nothing seems out of the ordinary. I uninstalled the servicepack and reinstalled it. Still Nada. Any other suggestions?

p.s. I can access the internet if I goto 'my computer' and type in a web address or click on one of my favorites, just not from any of the IE icons. My other 2 browsers (mozilla and firefox) work just fine though)

microbell, mikesgroovin, lone wolf?

 

[Lone Wolf]

Sounds like a rather perplexing problem considering you're running all the spyware removal tools.

My first thought is that it MAYBE that one of the persistent handler keys for your IE (in the registry) has somehow gone awry. As evidenced by the fact that you can type in a URL but not launch it via the IE icon...

I've gotta get back home but i'll give you two quick suggestions/ideas. Maybe a mod will have some better ideas.

1) Have you got a restore point you can revert back to??

2) Create another user account and see if the same problem occurs to rule out that it's something not related to the user settings.

3) Look at the support site for Mozilla and see if you find other users w/ similar problems as you. Do they have a support forum??

 

[jaksback]

thank you.....I could look but how many reg keys are there for IE? if they don't number too many maybe someone can post them and I can compare them to see if they match. There are probably way to many to even sensibly list.....but.....

 

[Lone Wolf]

jaknlisa619,

Create a new shortcut on your desktop, and in the dialogue box that pops up, just type in the URL of something common like "www.yahoo.com"; press enter.

Now double click on the shortcut icon.... does it work correctly? Does the website come up?

If that does not work, open up your IE favorites folder. Copy & paste one of your favorites onto your desktop. Couple click on the icon.... does that work?

If both of these methods fail, i suspect something in the could have gone awry w/ the icon handler registry subkey. However, w/out knowing some more details, it's hard to say for sure.

Given that you have already scanned your system w/ spybot, AdAware, etc., my next question would be what happened w/ your system before this problem began? i.e. Did this occur after you installed Mozilla & Firefox?

Also did you try my suggestion above -- #2?

 

[jaksback]

ok, i'll give all of the above a try and get back w/you soon.....

 

[jaksback]

ok, i did as you suggested and created another user account....and IE worked. Also, I installed mozilla and firefox many moons ago so that was not the problem as this had just started out of the blue. Now....what do I do to fix this? start over with a new account? (god, I hope not cuz I have so much in the current account.)

 

[Lone Wolf]

ok, i did as you suggested and created another user account....and IE worked.

Ok, so the problem w/ the first account is that double-clicking on the IE shortcut Icon doesn't launch the browser -- correct? Can you launch the browser via the quicklaunch bar as well?

When you created the new account, when you say that IE worked, are you saying that you can launch the browser by double-clicking on a IE shortcut? or by accessing IE through Start | Programs ?

Just for sh*ts & giggles, I want you open up your registry and drill down to the following key, look in the right pane, and copy & paste the long string value data that you see. Do not change anything.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx\IconHandler

 

[jaksback]

ok, on the original account, i've tried accessing IE thru various different methods, all icons, from program files, quick launch etc....no go. i had IE set as my default browser so when i tried accessing the net thru say a link in an email like from Outlook, again, no go. on the new account i could access the net thru any means that IE can be started.

now, under that reg key, it looks like this:

no iconhandler....
now what?
i don't think my prob has anything to do with icons but instead with a corrupted reg key....where i don't know....thank god for mozilla and firefox as my backup....

note...since this prob started I have changed my default browser to mozilla.

 

[Lone Wolf]

No Jak, you got the wrong key... look again in my post above. You drilled down to the file extension key... scroll further down.

 

[jaksback]

ok, here we are further down: