Internet Explorer won't open; appears in Task manager 1

[elyk7]

I am trying to help a freind whose Internet Explorer 6 won't open in Win XP (Home). When I Control-Alt-Delete and access the processes in Task Manager, all the instances of Interent Explorer appear to be running. I have deleted temp internet files, cookies, history. I have attempted to uninstall/re-install it via Win XP installation disk. I have downloaded and installed Internet Explorer 6 and its service pack from Microsoft website. Still nothing has worked. The virus scan is up to date, so I don't believe a virus has caused this.
Also, I have another freind whose Internet Explorer 5 is doing something similar in Win 95. Both people don't know each other and do not swap files or network with each other.
I appreciate all the help I could get. Thanks.

 

[search66]

http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

Give this a shot.

 

[carrr]

Is there a pop-up killer type program on the machine that could be causing this?
If so, shut down the pop-up killer and retry IE.

Also, have you run thorough scans with:
SpyBot

http://www.safer-networking.org/

CWShredder

http://www.webattack.com/get/cwshredder.html

Post back with results.

 

[Dirman]

There is a chance that it is really open and minimized, try hiding your toolbar and see if it is buried on the screen. If so, right click and maximize the window! Yes, this does happen!

 

[bcastner]

Do a good job with the instructions of this FAQ:
faq608-4650

 

[jacksondorado]

This same thing happened to me and I could not open Internet Explorer. It turned out to the the latest Google toolbar causing it. I guess the popup blocker was doing it.

thanks for the tips.

 

[NetReamer]

Wanted to thank all those in this thread for pointing me in the right direction. Don't know exactly which thing I did fixed this for me, but I had both the Google and Yahoo toolbars installed and running and both blocking pop-ups (though it seemed only the Yahoo companion was working for that).

When re-installing the GoogleToolbar didn't fix the issue of IE not opening, I tried uninstalling the Yahoo Companion and now I'm back in businesses - and the Google toolbar pop-up blocker seems to be working now.

So thanks again to all.