Posted 07 June 2009 - 01:17 AM
Hi Twin.B,
I was thinking there's an update for IE6 called SP3, but in looking at my own version information for IE6, it's more complicated than I can understand. It appears that when you install SP3 for your XP operating system, it makes changes to IE6 which it then refers to as SP3. When I think about this more closely, I recently did a reinstallation of the operating system and did not have any trouble getting IE 6 to load, either before or after collecting the updates for XP. What did take a huge amount of time was getting the microsoft website to load, however, that may have been a time-of-day problem rather than a browser problem. Have you run by the suggestions in the Am I Infected forum to make sure your computer is clean? If it's clean, then I would recommend creating a clean restore point and getting all your Windows updates. However, don't update Windows until you are sure your computer is free of malware. There are very few instances in which the updates cause problems. In general, if you've never updated your operating system, the updates website at microsoft (which you can go to manually through your Security Center by clicking on the option on the left to look for the newest windows updates) will request that you download the software that's needed to download the updates. Then it will install a few updates. Only after some initial installations, will it install SP3, which includes setting a restore point of its own. The Windows updates cause very few problems when installed on a clean computer and they enable your software to keep up with changes which might be behind the problems you're experiencing now.
In the process of updating Windows, your Internet Explorer will get some updates as well. You can also try IE7. IE7 has the advantage of using tab browsing. I use Firefox almost exclusively, but there are some things which require Internet Explorer, so it's good to have one that's working. If you don't have Firefox and want to use it, you can download it at the Mozilla download site. I don't like Firefox 3 as well as the versions of 2, but then that's because I don't like to change away from something that's working well.
If you decide to get your Windows updates, ask in the Am I Infected forum before you do that, how you should best determine that your computer is malware free.
Zllio