IE6 on XP Pro hangs in Favorites 1

[KVacek]

Internte Explorer 6 SP1 has begun hanging or running extremely slow when attempting to choose a Favorite url. I have read and done the trick requiring removal of the "....\Temporary Internet Files\Contend.IE5
index.dat" file. That worked the first time, but a day or less later the problem returned and that trick has no effect on the problem now.

I R&R'd IE6 the first time this happened, but that only helped for a day or two. What else is there to do?

Thanks!
Karl Vacek

 

[carrr]

Try this...post back if no joy:

1. Open a command prompt window on the desktop (Start/Run/command).

2. Exit IE and Windows Explorer (iexplore.exe and explorer.exe, respectively, in Task Manager, i.e - Ctrl-Alt-Del/Task Manager/Processes/End Process for each).

3. Use the following command exactly from your command prompt window to delete the possibly corrupt file:

C:\>del "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat"

4. Restart Windows Explorer with Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del/Task Manager/Applications/New Task/Browse/C:\Windows\explorer.exe[or your path]) or Shutdown/Restart the computer from Task Manager.

 

[KVacek]

Thanks for the tip. However, that's the trick I mentioned in my original post. It worked the first time i did it (a few days ago) but the problem came back in less than a day. Deleting that file now does no good. Incidentally, I forgot to mention that when I first invoke IE the "Favorites" menu is usually fine on the first access. Subsequent accesses to the menu are very slow, and sometimes are either glacial or hang altogether.

Thanks for the suggestion though !

Karl

 

[carrr]

Ok. I didn't get from your first post that you'd gone as far into the article as the reg fix. Have you tried running a spyware/scumware detection and removal tool? SpyBot works better than most anything (

http://security.kolla.de/)

Give it a go, and post back with results...

 

[KVacek]

Installed SpyBot. It detected some ad cookies, which I removed. It also detected 3 registyr entries related to Windows Media Player (no company names, etc. - just some settings) and 5 unanswered MS security holes. Some background on my system: Before this IE problem I had removed two of the MS security "fixes" that are known to cause problems (per Woody's Windows Watch and Langa List) as I indeed had trouble with them. I assume that's what SpyBot was sniffing. I also removed XP SP1, as it had caused overall system slowness, and after removing SP1 I wound up reformatting and reinstalling XP because lots of things became broken with the SP1 rollback.

What now?

Thanks for your ongoing help!
Karl

 

[carrr]

It seems that XP SP1 has spawned a ton of problems for many users. Here are some of the many articles I've found on the issues:

http://www.practical-tech.com/desktop/d10242002.htm

http://www.isu.edu:8000/kb/disppage.php?doc_id=265

http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/winxp-sp1-problems.html

...but, hey, I'm rambling. Try pulling down a copy of TweakUI (excellent powertoy) from M$oft's site (

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp)

and bump up your menu speed.

Post back with results...

 

[KVacek]

Thanks, but as I mentioned, I don't have SP1 installed. I reformatted and reinstalled XP after I had removed SP1, and I haven't let Windows Update reinstall it.

I have TweakUI, but the problem is not my menu speed overall, it's that the Favorites menu in IE (only after the first access) is glacially slow. Everything else is OK.

Karl

 

[carrr]

KVacek,

I found an reference that suggests you've got a corrupt Favorites folder. It recommends simply deleting your Favorites folder. You should be able to do so in XP by logging in as Administrator and deleting the folder directly from Windows Explorer. (Of course, you'll want to export your favorites first.)

 

[KVacek]

The problem is now spreading to other menus. TweakUI's menu speed option has no perceptible effect on menu speed on this system, although of course that feature works on every other system I've put it on.

The Favorites menus are still the slowest - and now it's not just the IE6 Favorites, but also the Program Files menus are becoming slow.

I did a dirty reinstall of XP and also a full virus scan with Norton's April 30 definitions. No help. I did not do the repair - I just started the Windows CD from within windows and told it to upgrade. I thought that it would take me to the options to repair or install, format, etc. that you get when you boot from CD, but noooo - it just "upgraded".

At this point I've spent so much time working on XP over the past 2 weeks that I'm ready to go back to 2000 Pro on this machine and leave all the other XP licenses on the shelf for another year.

And I'm also seriously considering doing at least a dual-boot with Linux. I've been a huge Microsoft supporter since the mid-80's and I've had it. Product activation, spying, bloatware, fixes that break other things and then will not roll back properly, creating upgraded products by removing useful features from a product that was fine to begin with, and incredibly high prices. And that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm foaming at the mouth all over my keyboard ;-)

Karl

Any further thoughts before I spend another 4 hours going back to 2000?

 

[carrr]

I sympathize...
Personally, I'd go back to 2k...don't have much love for XP. But...before you make the jump, have you run the IE repair function? (

http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_ie6.htm).

I know you said you r&r'd, but I took that to mean removed/reinstalled.
Also, try disabling the Norton. Does that change anything?

 

[KVacek]

Tried both of those - no deal. Whatever it is, it's afefcting the common portions of IE and Windows Explorer. Even the Programs menu in Start is slow now, although Favorites is the worst.

XP won't let me - as Administrator - remove the favorites folder itself and if I rename it it just uses the new name and it remains a system folder. I have deleted all the contents of the Favorites folder and reimported twice. Incidentally - if you export to the default filename and then remove all favorites from the folder in Windows Explorer, when you import from that default filename (bookmarks.htm) you get just the default entries IE creates when you first open it with an empty Favorites folder.

 

[KVacek]

OK - it is definitely a corrupted Favorites folder. But when I import my exported favorites the problem comes back.

Is there by any chance a maximum number of favorites before XP gags? I have a large number of entries - 16 KB - although I have actually removed some in recent weeks / days.

The apparent origination for this is that the repair procedure where you remove the "...content.IE5\index.dat" file mentions that purging temporary Internet files in tools/Internet Options can cause this. I did indeed clear all temp files before this happened, as I often do. But it never was a problem with 95, 95b, 95c, 98, 98SE, ME, or 2000.

 

[carrr]

Hmmmm...two things to look at.

1) Go to Start, run. Type in msconfig. Look at the startup tab. Anything strike you as unusual there? You can uncheck any app found there and it will not run next time you startup.
2) Ctrl+Alt+Del to the Close Program window. Systematically close out programs up to, but bot including Explorer and Systray. Does the closing of anything change the situation?

 

[KVacek]

Nope - I keep the startup junk to a minimum anyway, but I have had a few additions in the last week, and I just did a diagnostic restart with all that disabled, and the problem is still there. Now I have none of my old favorites, but I did put in 2 new ones into an otherwise default Favorites menu, and it immediately slowed down.

And not that it's related why in the world does Clear Type keep turning off?

I'm beginning to hate XP. I was a support guy from 1984 till the mid-1990's, but for the last few years I have been down to only a few clients, and thus I only keep up with what they run. I've kept everyone off XP, and I didn't run it myself till just now. I know that I will have to deal with some new XP machines in a few months (or sooner) so I need to run it. I use this machine to take to clients, and thus it's pretty much got to run the latest thing (that they have at least).

Thanks again for all your efforts. Maybe I need to start drinking.

Karl

 

[carrr]

I've got one idea left...and a long shot at that.
Try right clicking on your desktop, selecting Properties, and the Effects tab. UNcheck "Animate windows, menus, and lists."
Anything...?

 

[KVacek]

Maybe a long shot, but an accurate one. That was it - specifically the "Show Shadows Under Menus" selection. Click it and the menus bog down - the more entries in the menu system, the slower. Hence, Favorites were very slow, Program Files noticeably slow, but by comparison most other menus are fairly short and after waiting for the glacial menus, the short ones seemed OK. Now I can see that everything was slowed, just not so much on the short menu trees.

Actually my Properties dialog box has a tab for "Appearance" under which there's an "Effects" button that gets you to a dialog box with the various selections. I took everything out and then put each option back in one at a time, checking at each step. Clear Type does produce some slowness as well - tolerable, but perceptible. I still wonder why it turns itself off so often.

Thanks for staying with me on this. I feel like a fool for not having found it myself, but I was still convinced that since removing "...\Temporary Internet Files\...\index.dat" had an effect the first time, it was related to that. Maybe there is another similar-appearing bug that I coincidentally had too. Or maybe there's more to it, and something related is what's slowing down the "Shadows Under Menus".

Anyway, thanks a million.

Karl

 

[carrr]

No problem, and glad it's fixed. I don't have the "Shadows Under Menus" bit, but I'm not running XP. I'd seen something peripheral, though, that suggested the shadows feature might contribute as well. The ClearType issue, I'll have to research more, but...at least you've got some relief.