Upgrading Internet Explorer Stops Internet From Working

Hello all, I hope my note finds you doing well. My computer runs Windows XP SP2 and Internet Explorer 6. Lately I have been getting messages from various websites that they do not support my browser and that I should upgrade to IE 7 or 8. This is happening more and more, especially with sites I use frequently (Facebook, ect.)

I tried to upgrade to IE8 first. I found out immediately that the internet would not run, even though my cable modem connection was working just fine. I uninstalled it, my system automatically went back to IE6, and once again the internet worked fine.

I still wanted to try an upgrade. In addition to it not being supported by various web pages, I heard the IE6 was increasingly vulnerable to spyware, malware, etc. This time I tried IE7. Unfortunately, I got the same response "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage."

When this happened after installing IE8, I did some online research to troubleshoot the problem. After IE7 was another bust, I tried to apply the methods suggested:

I clicked on IT Tools, Internet Options, and then the Advanced tab. I restored the Advanced Settings and Reset Internet Explorer Settings. I restarted IE, but still, no internet pages displayed.

I ran Network Diagnostics for Windows XP. I got the message that a repair was needed for the Winsock catalog. I let it run, it said the repair was successful and I restarted my computer. Alas, no change.

I tried to reset the Winsock catalog via the CMD prompt as well. Start > Run > CMD. I typed: netsch int ip reset reset.log, pressed enter. Then I typed netsh winsock reset catalog and pressed enter. I restarted my machine, but still no internet.

My apologies for this novel, but I am flummoxed. I have no idea why trying to upgrade IE completely stops the internet from working. Any ideas, something I missed? I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Cat

Is there any reason why you haven't downloaded SP3 yet? You probably need to do that before downloading IE8.

Hi, thanks for replying. I did have SP3 previously during the first attempts to install IE7 and IE8. Then one of the suggestion I read on another forum said to remove SP3, try installing the upgrade and then reinstalling SP3. Alas, that didn't make a bit of difference. So I was hoping hear from someone about how to make the upgrade work and then I was going to reinstall SP3.

Maybe that was poor advice. My observation is IE8 seems to work better if SP3 is already installed.

Edited by frankp316, 06 August 2009 - 06:21 PM.

Are you able to use other browsers (e.g. Firefox), or does the same problem occur if you try to use another browser?

Have you also checked your firewall settings?

Also version incompatibilities can cause problems, have you checked if you have the latest version of:
Flash Player
Shockwave Player
Java Runtime
Adobe Reader
E-Mail program

Have you tried to go through this (if that's possible due to the connection problems)?
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/pc_ie_v8intro

Edited by Mysterysgames, 06 August 2009 - 08:21 PM.

Hi again! Frankp316, yes, I had SP3 installed and in place the first time I tried to upgrade to IE8, but I still experienced no internet ("Internet Explorer cannot display this webpage). After reading the advice to uninstall it and then to try IE7, I removed it. I installed IE7 without SP3, but it did not make a difference. I then re-installed SP3 to see if IE7 would run, but the result was exactly the same (no internet). The scary thing was, when I went to Control Panel and tried to uninstall IE7 to go back to IE6, this time it would not let me! I was worried that I had finally boxed myself out and would not be able to access the internet again. I had to uninstall SP3 all over again, restart, and then I was able to uninstall IE7. Very strange!

Mysterysgames, thank you for replying as well! Indeed, I had previously checked my firewall settings (I should have included that in my first post of all the things I tried). My firewall was just the Windows firewall and it was turned off. Additionally, I had read that sometimes anti-virus software stopped the upgrade so I made sure that the ones I had on my system were disabled (Ad-Aware and Super Anti-Sypyware). I had also read that add-ons could be a problem, so I made sure that they were all disabled at start-up as well. I even tried to open IE7 without add-ons just in case, but as soon as I tried to access a webpage, I got the same error message. Lastly, someone suggested going to Tools > Internet Options > Connections > Lan Settings and making sure that the box "Automatically detect settings" was checked. Well, I tried it with that box checked and unchecked but I still had no connectivity.

I did try microsoft support; I looked at several of their pages on problems with IE7 and IE8, but none of them addressed the problem I have. The closest one described how to recover from Winsock2 corruption (which inexplicably seems to occur only when I attempt to upgrade).

With regard to Firefox, I had downloaded it once, but rarely used it. When I had problems with the first upgrade, I tried to access the internet with Firefox but got a similar error message: Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at en-us www.mozilla.com." I uninstalled Firefox and downloaded it again, just to make sure I had the latest version, but still no connectivity. I have no idea how to get Firefox to work, however, one problem at a time!

I am still hoping someone can figure out why I cannot upgrade IE. All suggestions welcome!

I think I may have found the source of my problem, but now my situation is out of the frying pan and into the fire.

I did a search regarding FireFox not working and came across a forum that said firewalls like Zone Alarm might be stopping FireFox. I used to run Zone Alarm, but it was loaded on my external hard drive, a 500GB Western Digital My Book. Unfortunately, my WD hard drive died a couple of months ago, so I assumed all the programs that ran on it would no longer run on my PC.

The forum suggested downloading a program EnumProcess.exe to determine if there was an active firewall. Imagine my surprise when it returned with the result "1 Service(s) from ZoneAlarm (TrueVector) detected. Firewall process from ZoneAlarm detected."

I checked Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs and saw that ZoneAlarm was still listed. However, I could not remove it because it was loaded on the external hardrive (E:\) and Control Panel said "An error occurred while trying to remove ZoneAlarm. You do not have access to E:\." No kidding, but why does Control Panel still list a program that it cannot access either?

To make matters worse, while ZoneAlarm was on my E: drive, another program called ZoneLabs was saved on my C:\ drive. Somehow it was saved under C:\windows\system32\ZoneLabs and this is where the firewall service TrueVector resides. The executable is vsmon.exe (I also found this file running under processes when I opened Task Manager). Somehow this darn file has hijacked my system! Everytime I try to disable this service or delete it I get the "Access Denied!" message. I have always been the only administrator on this machine, but suddenly I do not have the right to change anything in regedit, msconfig or services.msc.

I tried deleting or disabling it in Safe Mode, but I still got the Access Denied error. I tried other suggestions like Zfix.zip, which is supposed to remove any traces of ZoneAlarm that remain after uninstalling, but it did not work. I also tried MoveOnBoot, which is supposed to delete files upon the next reboot, but nothing happened with that program either. I stopped all services from loading at startup. I verified that vsmon.exe was not running under Task Manager, but I was still unable to delete it. I got the message that I did not have access or the file was in use.

This is making me absolutely MENTAL. Any ideas how to fix this?

The best thing to get if you want to remove anything is Revo Uninstaller.





http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Revo Uninstaller is a nice program. Alas, it doesn't work for my Zone Alarm problem. Since it was installed on my external hard drive which died (E:\ drive), I don't have the Zone Alarm software and the uninstaller that comes with it. Revo Uninstaller looks for the uninstaller component of the software and so it gave me an error message. It did continue on to a section that supposedly removed any remnant of Zone Alarm in the Registry, but unfortunately I did not see TrueVector in any of the sub-folders or keys removed.

TrueVector, the firewall component of Zone Alarm is the problem. It is on my internal hard drive (c:\), in a folder c:\windows\system32\ZoneLabs\. It did not come up as one of the installed programs in Revo Uninstaller and I could not navigate to it. It has no uninstaller component that I could see; just the executable file vsmon.exe, which I am unable to delete, even though I managed to stop the process from loading upon start-up.

The issue now is how to get rid of this darn thing. Like a virus, it has wrested control of my machine away from me. I get access denied errors like I am not the administrator of my own machine. I cannot make changes in msconfig, services.msc, or regedit.

Thanks again for your replies, I hope someone has a suggestion to help!

Then check the Zone Alarm website. All of these companies have uninstall tools for this sort of thing.

CatBlue welcome to B/C. I have a simple idea. Start button Search, type in the program you are looking for. That should find them and you can remove them from there. I have had some things found them and remove them. In a few cases I would have to right click,send to, and email them to myself. In a few seconds when I get the email delete it. DO NOT OPEN.

Hello! Alas, ZoneAlarm is not much help. I did peruse their webpage and their forums in search of an answer, but all they offer are instructions I have seen before, tried and am unable to execute. They list the files to manually delete from the computer and within the registry, but of course, they do not address my problem that I am being denied access to delete any of the files.

I tried to "take ownership" of the file by right-clicking and changing the properties under the Security tab, but all my permissions are grayed out. I tried Layback bear's idea of sending the file, but it only sent a copy of the file and left the originally right where it is in the system32 folder. Interestingly enough, I was able to delete the copy of the file that I sent to c:\My Documents, so I can only assume that the ZoneLabs file is protected by virtue of being in the c:\windows\system32 folder. I tried moving it (instead of sending it) to my desktop, but I immediately received the error message that my "Access was denied."

Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more. . .

I got another reply from someone at the ZoneAlarm forum. They insist it isn't their software at all, that I must be infected with a virus. I ran Malwarebytes but came up with zero infected files. They also suggested trying Malwarebytes FileAssassin on the files. FileAssassin is found under the Other Tools tabs and I had forgotten about it completely! So I tried it, with semi-successful results:

The files for TrueVector are in c:\windows\system32\ZoneLabs. FileAssassin managed to delete every file within the ZoneLabs folder, but it left behind these 3 empty folders/directories:

c:\windows\system32\ZoneLabs\lib\pyd

c:\windows\system32\ZoneLabs\streamapi

c:\windows\system32\ZoneLabs\Updates

Also, there are additional files pertaining to TrueVector in the system32 folder:
- vsconfig.xml
- vsxml.dll
- vsregexp.dll
- vsdata.dll
- vsdata95.vxd
- vsdatant.sys
- vsmonapi.dll
- vspubapi.dll
- vsinit.dll
- vsutil.dll
- vswmi.dll
- zlcommdb.dll
- zlcomm.dll

Using FileAssassin I was able to delete all of them EXCEPT: vsconfig.xml and vsdatant.sys

Once again, I ran into the problem of being unable to delete these empty folders and remaining files. I tried deleting them in Safe Mode and at the DOS command prompt, but I keep getting the message Access is denied. I am logged in as the Administrator and shown as the owner of the files, but still access is denied. Any thoughts?

hello, I seem to have the same problem but havent had the will power to go down so many dead ends as you have. What interests me is that your symptons are very similar to mine, ie i can only now work with ie and the internet connection is not as it should be. I stopped all the updates. I am surprised no-one has been able to offer you a proper way through this fog. All the responses you have received are aspects you have already tried and if you havent yet tried them still do not work. I agree with your frustration re not having admin rights to your own system re the Zone stuff. What is annoying is that one cannot see easily on the system what causes what. This problem with the internet is the first internet connection I have had since first using the internet many years ago. The microsoft site was baffling. I am now restricted to internet connections with existing programmes.
Any new programme or different browser wont connect. I too have disabled the MS firewall to no effect. I have reset the winsock stuff. I have posted here to no response but found other posts such as yours interesting. I cannot imagine how much time you will have spent on this issue, so that when you describe going mental paints a picture. Is MAC / Linux the only solution ?
I thought your descriptions were very good for what its worth.

try Unlocker

Ever had such an annoying message given by Windows?


It has many other flavors:

Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.