Internet Explorer will not open

windows-xp internet-explorer internet-explorer-8

7,866

I have run into an issue several times where windows updates attempts to install IE8 on XP clients while IE is still in use. It has a similar effect to the one you are describing, appearing to corrupt several registry entries and critical IE files in the process.

This will likely have made it impossible to uninstall IE even with the tools available from Microsoft if your problem is related (as this tool relies on an un-corrupted registry). The only solution to this issue that I have found to fix is by downloading a copy of IE from Microsoft using a different browser and installing it straight over the top of any existing IE installation that might exist, which should fix any corruption that may have occurred.

You should be able to locate the latest IE version for your machines here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/downloads/ie

This may sound self explanatory, but ensure you are logged in as either the local or domain administrator when doing this, otherwise registry files will not be written properly.

Hope this has helped.

7,866

Author by

hicklypups

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

hicklypups over 1 year

I recently migrated a company to a Microsoft domain environment, logged the users in under their new domain accounts, and then copied the old profiles to the new profile.

I am not sure if that is related since they did not complain about it right away and it may have been a subsequent patch or something, but I have two XP computers that will not open IE8. You click on it, and it nothing graphically happens at all, but you can see a process in task manager. If you click many times, you get multiple instances. It will appear often TWICE per click. It still works in the old profile, so it is specific to the profile, and I would like to fix it rather than blow it away.

Here is what I have done without success: Tried opening without add-ons (the one in System Tools)
Reinstalled IE8
Ran SFC /SCANNOW
I found a script that was supposed to repair any registry entries, and ran it.
I tried exporting the whole HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer key and deleting it, hoping that when I restarted it, it would recreate it...No joy. I restored it.

Any ideas?
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  Did you have two screens at any point? if so it may be off screen. just an idea.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  No, and I also thought about it being moved off the single screen, but although it shows as a process in task manager, it does NOT show on the applications tab. This is very strange.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  Maybe try a system repair with the OS disk.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  Try to start it on safe mode.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  CCleaner has an option in it to clear Window Size/Location Cache that you may be interested in trying.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  System repair would do nothing to the profile, and I did try it in safe mode...forgot to add that.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  @KCotreau - Have you tried clearing cookies, browsing history, etc? These are user specific items. Not sure why they would cause a launch fail, but worth a shot. You may need to navigate manually to tempory internet files folder to do it.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  Create a new user profile and try the profile copy again.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  @KCotreau - Have you tried No Add-ons mode?
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  Try a system restore, it does affect some things in the profile.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  +1 because this question includes a lot of detail and describes attempts already made to solve the problem.
- Admin almost 13 years
  
  @Randolf Richardson Still all the comments and answers covered what I already went over and listed. :)
- Admin over 12 years
  
  When you "copied" the profile over, did you change the permissions of all the files? I think it's possible that IE cannot open its files.
hicklypups almost 13 years

Sorry, I have done that too. Thank you though. Still +1.
barlop over 12 years

You can use IE to download the EXE. All you're saying is to close IE before running the EXE. Are you suggesting the installation doesn't give an error message when IE is already open? and doesn't give an error if not Administrative? These would be substantially strange issues if they were so. Main thing you're saying is run the thing when IE is closed(no other browser necessary to download it), and he probably did run it when IE was closed.