Every so often iexplore takes up 100% of the cpu and stays that way for 5-30 seconds. I have searched and found many others with this problem and the feedback is always that it must be spyware or virus, though few with this problem seem to be able to take that route to fix it. spybot, adaware, and hijackthis all say I am clean. I do not think the issue is spyware or a virus. Just curious if anyone knows how to fix this. Thanks

How many iexplore.exe files are on your system and where are they located ? My sig is on sabbatical.

there is one and its c:\windows\servicepackfiles\iexplore.exe However the shortcut for my browser points to c:\programfiles\internetexplorer\iexplore.exe and that file does not exist. Not sure what to make of it.

If your browser is pulling up a window when you use the shortcut that file "iexplore.exe" must exist in that path. Secondly what is the version of your iexplore.exe (6.0.2900.2180). I've got two iexplore.exe's here and the path are: 0. C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer 1. C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 My sig is on sabbatical.

my version is 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519 and though i realize this makes no sense there is only one iexplore.exe and its in the folder above like your "1." (forgot about i386), which is not in the windows path. I just renamed it to oiexplore.exe and rebooted and now have no files called iexplore.exe on my hard drive. Hidden files are all visible btw. And yet start>run>iexplore.exe still loads the browser. Weird

"And yet start>run>iexplore.exe still loads the browser". Windows File Protection (WFP) prevents the replacement of critical Windows system files, so renaming the file did not really impact IE's functionality since, it was probably automatically restored from the i386 backup. Since IE is an integral part of Windows XP, a repair install of XP should help, but it'd recommend you try another browser or run a registry repair before you consider an installation repair. I for now one very seldomly use IE, I use maxthon and the now free Opera for browsing most of the time, unfortunately Opera has a very annoying refresh bug and it makes posting on forum a little aggravating sometimes. My sig is on sabbatical.

Virus and Spyware scans work better in Windows Safe-Mode. Try this-- Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File Also down that page is another method, rather than doing the HOSTS file, of placing the "DNS Client" Service in Manual (if you are the only user, and not part of a domain). Services restart with every boot, so uncheck the service on the Services tab in msconfig. Then again, you cannot restart the service via services.mmc, but go back into msconfig.