BleepingComputer.com: A problem with IE8 (and Firefox)

Greetings,

I should say before anything that I am trying to resolve this for my friend over the phone as she's in Boston and I'm in Minnesota.

My friend is having problems with her Windows XP Tablet laptop. She is a doctor and the hospital requires Internet Explorer for some reason (I originally set her up with Firefox). She tried several times to install IE8 on her own, but every time after the restart there would be no IE icon anywhere (neither desktop nor start menu). I have navigated her to Program Files\Internet Explorer\[I forget exact address]\iexplorer.exe which brings up IE8, but it can not connect to the internet (Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage error). Several attempts to re-install IE8 resulted the same, however she was still able to go online via Firefox. Last night, she attempted again to install IE8, only this time, after the reboot, not only did IE8 not work, but Firefox is unable to connect as well (I forget the exact error Firefox gives). The computer DOES have internet according to the Network Manager. I talked her through uninstalling Windows Internet Explorer 8 - which gave several warnings about software installed after IE8, including (oddly enough) something about Firefox, however after the uninstall completed and the system restarted, nothing was changed. I could still access IE8 via the Program Files path.

Automatically detect settings and Use a proxy server for your LAN are both unchecked in Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings

Any suggestions are most welcome! My next attempt will be trying to uninstall IE8 in Safe Mode, and if that does nothing I will have her borrow her roommate's laptop and grab Malwarebytes' and go from there.

Thank you very much in advance! I really appreciate any help; I'm at my wits end.

Keith

P.S. I am sorry if this is the wrong forum. I wasn't sure if to post here or in the Software forum.

1. Click Start>Run (Start>"Start search" in Vista).

2. Type in (or copy and paste):

cmd /c ping google.com>%temp%\$.$&notepad %temp%\$.$

and press Enter.

3. Notepad will open.

4. Copy all text in Notepad ([Ctrl-A], then [Ctrl-C]), and then post it (paste = [Ctrl-V]) in your next reply.