BleepingComputer.com: Internet Explorer doesn't open after removal of malware

I'm using Windows XP Home Edition and have Avast Antivirus on it. Initally, the computer became infected with XP Antivirus 2010, which I tried to remove with
Malwarebyte but was unable to properly install Malwarebyte. Thus, I did a system restore and was able to properly download Malwarebyte and remove the infected files (ran numerous full scans with both Avast and Malwarebytes). After this, i had a problem with exe file associations (nothing would open) and was able to fix this with exefix.reg.

Now, everything is running properly on my computer except for Internet Explorer. My computer is able to connect to the internet (Avast is running and I'm able to download Windows updates), but when I launch Internet Explorer it opens for a second (quick flash) and then immediately closes. I've tried to reset the internet settings and uncheck the "enable third-party browser extensions" box, but none of this worked. I had recently updated to IE8 (one of the windows updates after the system restore), so I tried to uninstall IE8 but I had the same problems with IE7. I then tried reinstalling IE8 but it was no help. Please let me know if there is a solution for my problem.

Thanks in advance for your help - mckli

Hello


When you start Internet Explorer, it opens, flashes, and then closes immediately
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967896

I'm having the same issue with IE.

Hope this helps

Thanks, Sashacat. That is exactly what is happening when I try to open IE. I've already tried each of the steps provided at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967896 to no avail. I'm still unable to properly open IE.

Try IEFix: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

Hello
In my case, I had IE6 and Windows XP SP2.
Yesterday I did Windows Updates and got IE7 and XP SP3.

I did try resetting the settings as instructed in the Microsoft bulletin, and it didn't work for me either.
I uninstalled IE7 (to revert back to IE6) and it still does the same "opens, flashes, closes" thing.
I downloaded the file to install IE8, but have not installed IE8 because I have a feeling that IE8 is going to have the same issues.
I am seriously considering just leaving it "as is" because I wasn't a fan of IE to start with (I use Firefox),
and I don't like the idea of uninstalling SP3 (because of security vulnerabilities in Windows XP SP2).

I do wish there were not so many issues and computer wierdness that can and DO happen as a result of updates.

I continued to search through the Microsoft site this morning, and did not find any other articles or other possible fixes, which was disappointing.

Thanks for the response, Broni. I tried the IEFix but it didn't work. To give you the full details, when I first tried to run IEFix, I followed the prompt as shown on the link you provided. I found the link for C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386, but then a few more prompts followed that I found that correct paths for. These other prompts asked for the locations of 'mswrd632.wpc', INSTALL.INS, & IEINFO5.OCX. I found the locations of these 3 files and provided them, but at the end of install I received an error message: "RUNDLL, Error in iesetup.dll Missing entry: IEAccessSysInst".

Thus, I restarted the computer and IE still wasn't working so I tried IEFix again, but chose to simply click "Cancel" this time to see if it might install correctly. A window appeared that said that the install was complete. So, I restarted the cpu again but IE still does the same thing: opens, flashes, then closes immediately. It appears as if IEFix might not solve the problem.

Thanks again for the advice, and please let me know if you have any other ideas that might help me.

Your computer may still be infected.
I'd start new topic in "Am I Infected?" section.

Thanks for your help, Broni. You've been very helpful.

You're welcome