Every now and then I found I couldn't access a page - I'd get a Cannot Display Page page. Hit refresh and it would work. I suspected my connection (DSL, ultra-lite through Rogers), but after going through the trouble-shooting and tech-help, they decided it was my browser. I thought it was a cop-out, but I found that every other program I have that connects to the internet works. So I used Limewire to download a copy of FireFox. It worked. Everything's snazzy, right? No. I'm starting a web-course in 10 days and it REQUIRES Microsoft Internet Explorer. It won't work with any other browser. I tried a Winsock repair tool, but to no avail. So I download IE7. Every time I start it I get an error message and it closes down. Whatever - I delete it. I download IE6 and attempt to re-instal, but it says it won't cos I already have it. I don't have the repair/reinstal option in Add/Remove Programs. But that's not all my problems - my computer's acting odd. Programs freeze. The Start Menu, when it pops up, freezes that way. Taskbar icons remain after a program is closed. I can't tell you how many times I've had to restart this thing. I've updated AdAware, Spybot, and my virus program (McAffee) and they've found nothing. Well, AdAware found a few small ad programs, but that's not unusual. I'm stumped! What do I do? What do I have? I want my computer to work again! I want my IE6 to work again! I'd rather avoid taking it to a repair shop if I can! Thanks for any help/advice/suggestions!

I personally never use Internet Explorer, but I can give a few suggestions. First as to the program menus that freeze in place when you click them, instead of restarting when this happens try ctrl+alt+del .. go to processes.. end explorer.exe then go to the applications tab, and click new task, type in explorer. Not a fix, but faster than restarting. Now to IE, sounds like something may have infected it. You said its not in add/remove programs, but thats not how you get rid of internet explorer. Control Panel, add remove programs, then on the left there is a menu one option being "Add/Remove Windows Components" you can try to uninstall IE from there and reinstall. You WILL need your xp disk handy if you plan to do that, or of course, just try to install from a download online. Try this, update on status.

Cheers! Thanks for the info. Explorer.exe never appears in my crtl+alt+del menu though. I'll have to have another look for the disks and try your other suggestion. I'll let you know...