Help People, I'm working on a friends computer and she had a bunch of viruses on it. Well that's old news, they're gone but there's one thing that is not working on the darn thing. IE loads slow but when it does it seems ok. Then when I close it, it won't load again, it just hangs and hangs. I click to close it and then I get the message that Internet Explore stopped responding and do I want to report it to Microsoft. Well no, I'm sure they'll get right back with me in a year or two? To get it working again, I have to log off and back on then it will load again. Anyway also if i click on the connection tab on IE properties, it hangs there too sometimes. I also use Firefox and it seems to be ok although it crashes at times. I've been searching for a solution on the Internet but I haven't really found anything useful. I've done a repair installation on my OS which didn't seem to do anything for this problem. I found a file called IEFix that is supposed repair IE by registering it's core DLL files and through the INF file. Well anyway, nothing is helping for me. I sure can use some help. HELP!!!! Thanks, Larry

Larry L, my first thought, since the repair failed is a Trojan. Be aware that a virus and a Trojan are similar, but not the same. Many times, an AV detects one it can't clean , other times, it gets missed entirely. If you need to clean one, Superantispyware can do the job and you can get it free @: http://www.superantispyware.com/ among other places. They have a Vista compatible version if needed. If it turns out that you need to use it, be sure to update prior to running. They just released a new update recently and it changes all the time. Things are in a constant state of flux. That may not be the deal, but worth a try. Next thought is that your index.dat file has grown too big. It's kinda a log file and records the addy. of every place you visit on the net. Over time, it can get huge and reading it can take forever, seeming to kill proggies. Empty, it's 32K. It's a 'Windows protected file' and can't be cleaned by normal means. CCcleaner can do the job and you can get it free @: http://www.ccleaner.com/ The file gets rebuilt automatically on the next boot so not to worry. May not help, but won't hurt. HTH. Ed in Texas.

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Ed in Texas, I downloaded the spyware program you suggested and used it and it did find quite a bit of stuff that the other programs didn't. As far as the user.dat file, I renamed that file to user.old as suggested by someone else. I also used CCleaner and Hijackthis and ran an online scan from trendmicro.com called HouseCall. And Spybot SnD and well about everything I could think of. I'm trying to refrain from doing a clean install since she couldn't find her setup or restore disk and I dont' want to use mine. Anyway, thanks for the reply and any other suggestions you have I'd appreciate. Oh by the way, after the scan IE still did the same thing. Thanks, Larry

I would try this before the last resort you mentioned! Seeing as IE is playing up, go to Control Panel. Open Internet Options, click the Advanced tag and at the bottom look for 'Reset' click it and accept all warnings. This will reset IE to its newly installed state, disabling all add-ons such as toolbars, the worst thing invented for all browsers! Hopefully this will restore normal operation. For the removal of 'badware' use MalwareBytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/ This is extremely good at removing bad software. Computers... designed to entertain,help with work but most of all to frustrate you!