I didn't search the site, since I don't know what to call this. I have two PC's on a home network and they have worked fine for the past few months, until last Friday. I shutdown my main PC normally. Saturday when I powered up I had several things to do that didn't require the internet, but I noticed once that when I clicked Internet it brought up the Internet Properties screen, where you can change your Homepage, clear files, etc. instead of going to my Home page. Later I tried changing the default page but it still would not go to the internet. I checked the settings, all ok. Finally I turned on the other PC and it came up normally, went to the internet, no problem. OK, so I tried running SFC /SCANNOW and when it finished (1-2 hours later) I rebooted and tried again. Still nothing. Then I tried a repair reinstall of XP. Same thing. But during these things I found that if I went to the Help and Suppport screens I was able to get to Microsoft and then I could go whereever I needed to go. Well, I re-downloaded IE7 and reinstalled it. Still, no way could I click on Internet and go to my home page. This is why I couldn't figure out what to search for. Since I can get to the internet with this round about method, I know the network is good. (I even reinstalled the network software!) So, how can I get it to take me to my home page directly? I have no IE icons anywhere, just the button on START that says Internet. I hope this explains it enough, but if not I will be glad to take any questions. And I appreciate any help offered. Thanks. A positive attitude won't solve all your problems, but it will annoy just enough people to be worth the effort.

Try this: Open My Computer > C:\program files > Internet Explorer and double click Iexplore.exe (or iexplore if it doesn't have the exe). If that works, it appears that the 'Internet' icon that you have been clicking on is messed up, and you will have to delete it and create a new one.

Well, I did a search for ie 7 icons, didn't find any. Now, I am trying to find out exactly where the ie7 application is. I tried reinstalling it and went through a long process, but it never asked me where I wanted to install it. I usually put everything on my E: drive but I found parts of it there and in my D: drive (data) too. So I am looking. Once I find it I will right click and add an icon to my desktop. I hope. Thanks for the ideas, at least it gave me something to try. :) A positive attitude won't solve all your problems, but it will annoy just enough people to be worth the effort.

OK, here's what I did. I don't know if this will ever help anyone else or not. I was able to get on to Google.com through the MS site. I googled Consolidated Communications (my internet portal) and got into my email screen. When I clicked on the file drop down it has a Send To button and the only choice I had there was to send it to the desktop. This made an icon for my email. So, that's what I am using now. It works. Whoo hooo. I can't believe I have spent app. 10 hours working on this problem! Thanks for the help. Bob A positive attitude won't solve all your problems, but it will annoy just enough people to be worth the effort.

You have something else teribly wrong with your system. You need to search through the log files using event viewer and try to find the issues. There is no way that using system file checker should take over 20 minutes with your system as you listed it. 1 to 2 hours is just not acceptable. Possible causes could be virus and spyware/malware and or a harddrive going bad...In which some of this may be what is causing your other problem as well! It is the disadvantaged who habitually elect Democrats on the belief of personal change--- yet they remain disadvantaged.

Thanks for the reply lurkswithin. I really like your avatar, too. Well, I might have exagerated a bit on the SFC time, but it did take awhile. Towards the end I started getting the messages that this file or that (.dll's) were not found. I told it to skip over them and it finally finished. But, when it didn't help any I decided to put my XP cd in and do a repair install, again. I always keep my Avast! and AVG up todate and just ran complete scans with them the other day. I also keep my AdAware up to date and often run it daily. There was a notice of a trojan last week, but my AV's took care of it. So, I don't THINK that was a problem. I try diligently to stay away from sites where you can pick up that trash, too. I do sometimes open Youtube stuff (videos) but they seem (?) to be ok. What I did was to go out to MS's website and then enter the URL for my email. When it came up I entered userid and PW and it looked normal. So, I clicked on File and did the send to and put a shortcut on my desktop. Then I closed it and clicked on the icon and it took me to my email program. So I now have an icon for that. I'm happy. Just in case, last night I ran Registry Defragger and then Defraggler with disk checker. That all came out fine. I will now cross my fingers and watch it for awhile. Oh, and I finally found the right IE7 installer and reinstalled it, again. AND the updates for it. Seems ok, now. Thanks for the help and good ideas. Bob A positive attitude won't solve all your problems, but it will annoy just enough people to be worth the effort.

Just out of interest, is there a specific reason why you need to be running IE7 on your computer? I would have thought that installing Firefox or Safari would have been a whole lot easier as a work around rather than uninstalling Windows XP and starting from scratch! I'm guessing the registry fixer may have cleared up some bad settings. http://www.pcfixreview.com