Hello, My family has been having a problem on one of our two computers for about two weeks now. The two computers are set up on a network together. The problem is, whenever we try to open Internet Explorer, Explorer in general, Instant Messanger, the Control Panel, or ANYTHING that may have anything to do with the internet, the computer crashes. An error message appears that states an error in WININET.DLL, and that the program will be terminated. It even does this if we try to open My Computer. It wont even complete a ScanDisk, something that once took 3 minutes to complete, now we let it run for 12 hours at a time only to have it crash 100k short. We have tried everything to fix it, and our last attempt is to uninstall IE. If that doesn't work, our best bet, as far as we are concerned, is to reformat the entire hard drive. Does anyone have any advice they can offer before we go this far? The problem is, we cannot open any websites on the computer so patches and what not can't be downloaded. Its hideous. Thanks for your time, Amanda

Amanda, sounds to me like you are fighting a corrupt file. Try a system restore before you take such a drastic step as a reformat. You can choose to put your machine back like it was on a previous date. A new date is set with each reboot so don't tarry. HTH. Ed in Texas.

I would much more suggest getting a new, fresh copy of the file you mentioned. On the computer that ISN'T giving you problems, go to the URL below: http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?wininet Download the file, save it to a disk. And Bring that WinInet.dll into the comp that you are having problems with. So Steps being... [1]Go to the URL Provided (with the wrkin comp. [2]Download the WiniNet.dll [3] Save it to your desktop [4]RightClick it (on your desktop) and extract the .DLL file. Because, it will be zipped up. [5]Save the .Dll to an empty Floppy disk [6]Bring the Floppy to the comp that isnt working properly. [7]Save the WinInet.dll to C:\Windows\System folder [8]It Might prompt you to replace the existing file, and click yes. [9]Hit the F5 key to refresh the folder. [10]Exit the folder, and try doing what you couldnt do before. If it does not work, then try a restart. This SHOULD work. That is, IF YOU CAN GET INTO MY COMPUTER. If you cant get into My Computer, try opening Some random folder, and Navigate to where you need to go from there. If there is something that is stopping you from any step in this procedure such as the error itself. Please tell me, so That I can find another way. :) Hope this helped. ____-SamZee-_____

Ah yes, and one more thing, If the Error itself is stoping you from doing the steps I provided, try booting up in safe mode, see if that helps. If even that doesnt, THEN tell me otherwise. :)

Ah, sry about all the posts but, this ALSO might help, not sure if It will but It might. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=160158 Also try Clicking Start/Run And in the Dialog box, type RegSvr32 WinInet.dll Then Click Ok.

Wininet.dll is inside the latest ie cumulative patch and since it would be a good idea to keep to the correct version of wininet.dll VS all the other files in the 832894 update running the same, I would try to install/reinstall that particular update. http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/catalog/ But you said you can't, and it's too big to fit on one floppy. Perhaps downloading on a friends computer and using WinZip to span it across several floppies would work? Applying the update would assure the correct version and take care of the registering of all the files as well. This is why I keep my ie installation cab files handy - I would just reinstall ie offline.

I'm having the EXACT SAME PROBLEM! Did any of these fixes work Amanda? Also, I want to know that if I do a System Restore, can I ever go back? What could be the cause of this problem? Also, you can't replace wininet while windows is running. But evne in Dos it still didnt work