OK having recently installed Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and had problems with it I was determined to find what was causing the problems and how to fix it.
Before trying any of the below first try resetting IE8 to it’s defaults. Open your Control Panel (you will find it in your start menu) and then open Internet Options. Click on the Advanced tab and you will see the Reset button at the bottom.
Also it might be worth trying IE8 without add ons to see if it’s not something you have installed that is causing the problem. Just right click on the Internet Explorer shortcut (not the one in the quick start) and selct Browse Without Add-ons.
Problem:
IE8 takes around 10 – 20 seconds to start up and load first page!
Solution:
I found that this is due to the passive anti spyware method used by programs such as SpyBot S&D and SpywareBlaster (mostly SpyBot to be honest).
To fix it open SpyBot and click Immunize. Untick/deselect the hosts file entry and then click Undo at the top of the window. This should remove all immunization except the hosts file immunization. You can leave the hosts file immunization in place as this is used by the system to block bad domains and not IE8.
For SpywareBlaster I clicked Protection Status then Internet Explorer and unticked/deselected Cookie Protection. I left the Active X protection in place.
Problem:
When I open a link in a new tab the page gets stuck on loading!
Windows Explorer has started opening folders in new windows!
Solution:
After some Googling I found that both of these problems are down to a dll not being registered properly when IE8 was installed. The site I read tried to blame anti virus software for blocking it but I had mine disabled.
Anyway to fix it depends on if you are on XP or Vista as Vista requires the command prompt to be run as admin. I will first explain how to open the command prompt window for each Windows and then the instructions are the same for both.
XP: Open the start menu and click Run (or press Windows key and R). In the window that opens type cmd and press the enter key (or click OK).
Vista: Open start menu then click All Programs. Next click on Accessories. Now right click on Command Prompt and then click on Run as administrator. Click Continue in the window that pops up.
Now we have the command prompt open just type in regsvr32 actxprxy.dll and then press the Enter key on your keyboard. That should fix both problems. Now type exit and press Enter to close the command prompt window.
To be honest you might want to just ditch Internet Explorer. Given the amount of people that have had nothing but problems with IE8 it might be worth your while looking at other web browsers such as Flock, Firefox, Opera, Chrome or even Safari.
English
Cool! I looked so long for a solution, and this here did it for me! Thanks a lot!
My problems with IE8 are that it keeps crashing and I can’t access my online banking website. I get a message that it has encountered a problem and must close. At the bank’s website, I can’t login because the banks website declares that it does not support my browser. Help.
1 – Any particular sites it keeps crashing on?
2 – Which bank is it?
My own bank’s website doesn’t support IE8 yet neither. But then it took them a couple of years to support Firefox. Luckily my bank gives you the option to continue with the login. The odds are that your bank will add IE8 to the allowed list soon but might be worth dropping them an email just in case they are not aware.
Thanks Stewart. I’ll start keeping a list of sites where the crashes are occurring and report back. The bank is Wells Fargo in the US.
Wells Fargo solved my problem of the bank not accepting IE8 browser to login to online banking services. While at the website I was instructed to click on “Tools” and then “Compatibility View” from the drop-down menu. That fixed the problem by adding wellsfargo.com to my “Compatibility View Settings,” which is listed just below “Compatibility View” in the “Tools” drop-down menu within IE8. Also, no more IE8 crashes since I employed your two suggested fixes. Cheers!
Glad you got it sorted out. Damn stupid that IE8 even needs a compatibility mode. No other web browser has to have two modes.
I downloaded and installed IE8 today, and found any http pages couldn’t be displayed for both IE8 and FireFox. Https pages could be displayed. I found “Could not make an HTTP connection” error by clicking Diagnose Connection Problems button. Now I am experiencing the same problem with IE7 after IE8 was uninstalled. I have Win XP with service pack 3. If anyone has some ideas to fix the problem, please help me. Thanks in advance!
Sounds like something may have happened to the socket. Have you tried any other browsers such as Opera or Chrome?
I’ll ask around and see if anyone knows anything but in the meantime try reinstalling IE8.
Spoke to a friend and he suggests resetting all the zones in IE to the defaults. You will find the internet options in Control Panel via start menu.
Thanks Carbonize for your reply. I tried to reinstall IE8 and had no help. I couldn’t install and try Chrome because it has to be installed directly (it cannot be downloaded from another computer and then copied to this computer). FYI, my p2p applications work fine. These are the messages from diagnostic:
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity
warn HTTP: Error 12031 connecting to http://www.microsoft.com: The connection with the server was reset
info FTP (Passive): Successfully connected to http://ftp.microsoft.com.
warn HTTP: Error 12031 connecting to http://www.hotmail.com: The connection with the server was reset
info HTTPS: Successfully connected to http://www.microsoft.com.
error Could not make an HTTP connection.
I also did “resetting all the zones” by clicking Reset all zones to default level button and then restarted the computer, and had no help. Thanks.
I did by clicking Reset all zones to default level button and then restarted the computer, and had no help. I tried to reply your previous message two times and my messages didn’t show up. Thanks.
I tried to reinstall IE8 and had no help. I even cannot access my router from the machine.
IE8 just crashed again. Go to http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/03/plane-crash-2.html Scroll down to the picture of the plane crash fire and click to play the video viewer. That’s where IE8 crashed. Thanks for your help.
Worked fine here. Possibly your Flash needs updating.
Reset Winsock catalog and solved the problem by running ‘netsh winsock reset catalog’ on command line. Note: it should be used with care because any previously-installed LSPs will need to be re-installed. Thank you for pointing out the socket problem.
Here’s another site thats causing IE8 to crash. It crashes as soon as I go to it. How do I update my “flash?” Thanks.
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=10072777&nav=menu227_6/Global/story.asp?S=6830551,menu227_2_2
You can update Flash at http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
Try this. Open Internet Options and click the Advanced tab. At the bottom of the advanced options is a button marked Reset… which resets everything in IE8 to it’s default.
Hi. I downloaded IE8 enhanced for ebay to use the web slices for watching auctions.
Prblems is the web slices do not show over the items listed as microsoft say thet should. What am I doing wrong or does this just not work anyway.
Thanks in advance.
Try my suggestion above of resetting everything to default.
You should credit the MSDN blog of which this information came from
It came from several forums but the MSDN forum wasn’t one of the ones I visited. And I do say I had to Google to find the answer.
I have the same problem of “Diagnose Connection Problems” after upgraded from IE 7 to IE 8. even though I have turned off all the add-ons and the anti-virus programs, I also have the problems when I browse some sites with two-pane layout. The pages don’t show little thumb images.
I tried to go back to IE 7, but it won’t let me do that, saying the computer has a newer vesion in it. I am stuck here can’t do anything about it. I used to trust MS products, but now have to take some reservations.
– Scott
Did you follow my instructions for removing IE8?
http://carbonize.co.uk/wp/2009/03/21/remove-ie8/
I’m still working with my issue, but no fix for it yet… Whenever I go to a website that plays a video or has one embedded like myspace music videos or any other random thing… it automatically stops working. Like on Youtube, it’s fine, but otherwise it ‘stops working’, tries to recover and all that but can’t.
Also, opening another tab takes forever too, was reading a few things on here I’m going to try and fix that with.
thanks for your help.
also ? have a problem with opera. after installing , it can not connect the internet and it gives error message
Hi.
Thanks for the info.
Did the default reset and ebay settings sprnag into action.
Andy
I have a small problem. If I start up IE8 it will give me a message saying something like “Another program on your computer has corrupted your default search provider settings.” Then it brings up the add-ons manager which I then have to close. Is there a fix for this (my search providers are: Google (default), Live and Wikipedia)?
I installed IE8 on a laptop running XP Home with SP3 and after the installation completes and the system is rebooted, IE8 is nowhere to be seen (no icon anywhere that I can find and I don’t see an executable with this name any place either). I went through this twice last evening and still nothing. I do have Firefox installed and it works fine. Also, no version of IE in now on this computer. Any help would be appreciated. Thx, Jim
I’m guessing it is still listed in the add/remove programs? What happens if you open run (Win + R) and type in a web address? Does IE open?
I’ll give it a try and see when I get home this eveining. Thanks for the tip.
Nope. Not even listed. I did find IE in the i386 folder and it works but even though the “About” screen says it’s IE8, it looks more like IE6 (or earlier). No tabs or anything else I came to like it IE7.
Thanks for your help with ‘new tabs’ getting stuck loading – seems to have worked the trick.
small but irritating issue. using the IEAK wizard to customize ie 8 for our corporate environment. however the installation by default no matter what option i choose to avoid this puts a hotmail shortcut on the toolbar. don’t use hotmail and its banned in our corporate environment so don’t want this added by default. any help ideas appreciated.
Just installed the IE8 update and now can’t insert pictures to our newsletter with cold fusion…Help
Same problem here in Holland since I installed IE8.
Some websites crash, but worse is that my lan-router was “reachable but there is something wrong with the webpage http error 400″
CHROME does the trick still without any problems. I think Microflop has made IE8 to secure. Gee, thanks Bill
Cheers
I hope one of you can help me. I’m on XP. My computer went down for the count and I lost almost everything. Back up and running good again (after a week in the shop!). Anyway, it came back with ie6. I reinstalled ie7, but it deletes my ability to access any internect connection, and blanks my internet options out in the control panel. It does not show up in the add/remove programs file so I have to restore my computer to remove it. I have done it several times with the same results. I installed ie8, but everytime I open it, a small addons page appears in front of the home page. I have done everything I can to try and stop this, but nothing works. I’ve gone through every single item and path in the addons page thinking it just needed to be setup, but it didn’t help. It is so annoying and i can’t manuver anywhere without going through that page first. I am stuck with ie6 right now so am running opera and firefox, but there are just somethings that ie works better for.
Can anyone help me pleaseeeee!!! Thank you.
by the way,
If someone could tell me how to get ie7 to install and work right, I’d do that instead of ie8. Nothing I have tried works, so I am wondering if the issue is caused because of sp3. It takes a long time to download that though so I don’t want to uninstall it unless I have no other option. Thanks.
Thank you Carbonize. My issue is fixed. You rock!
Just so others know we fixed Diane’s IE8 problem by installing it via Windows Updates.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957700 I installed IE8 had nothing but probs with it , if you installed IE8 after xp sp3 this fix it will unstall IE8 and roll back to what last IE you were using
I’m using IE8 and now my Facebook keeps freezing. Anyone know of a fix to stop this?
Did you try resetting to it’s defaults?
IE8 will not load my site AMMOMAN.COM but worked perfectly before the update.. We found that if you change the settings in IE under “error correcting” that it works.. – Hope this helps.. -Rob
IE8 is absolute GARBAGE. I had it for three days and it was hell. Everytime I closed a tab the damn browser would crash. Open tabs crashed regularly. It choked on websites IE7 handled fine. I got Java errors. It hung several times a day. GARBAGE!!! I got rid of it and reinstalled IE7. I will never let IE8 touch my computer again.
Back to IE7 and things are great.
I installed IE8 and wound up reformatting my hard drive, but to be fair, I had a lot of old programs, and C# beta developer programs. After the hd wipe and the reinstalls (IE7, not IE8), computer’s faster than ever, and I don’t see anything in IE8 that would make me attempt it again.
Also, after reading the above fixes, I have to ask the same question favored by Enron, “Why?”
I don’t trust Windows Update. They screw up my settings and Registry everytime. Not worth the trouble.
The fixes you offered worked, thank you.
I can see my entire website in IE7 but not IE8 can you help.
To be honest sounds like your website might need rewriting but other than that try clicking Page and then Compatibility View.
I just checked your site and it works fine in my IE8. I also looked in Firefox and you seem to have a few problems. A lot of the images are not showing due to permissions problem.
“You don’t have permission to access /index_files/image552.gif on this server.”
how do I fix the permissions problems?
Or get my IE8 to work like yours?
The compatability view doesn’t fix it for me.
So by the site needs to be rewritten means you think it has bad html?
thank for your help
I think the issue is some code in your htaccess file. I would have to have a look at it to fix it for you. I think it is down to some hot link code you have in place.
I created this website in publisher. I know it is not a friendly program for websites, but you know hind site is 20/20 right.
How do I get you this info so you can see.
Thanks for your help
Replied via email.
I have now just finished uninstalling EI8 from my computer for the 3rd time .My computer was at a virtual crawl this morning .Took forever for pages to load .if I am being honest thats the only real problem I have had but that is too much .I liked the security feature and the page compatiblity .When they create new programs don’t release them to the public until they have ALL the bugs fixed. My son said says he thinks EI8 is only for newer faster computers , mine is 5 years old. I hope they do something soon to fied the problems
I did everything I saw on this page to try to rectify the problem , nothing worked
IE8 has wrecked my PC. I can’t view pictures in websites and it takes however to open a new tab.
How do I uninstall IE8 and reinstall IE7?
Thanks for your help.
http://carbonize.co.uk/wp/2009/03/21/remove-ie8/
After downloading IE8 on my desktop running XP Pro I had the following problems: 1. No toolbar – No “TOOLS”; can not cut & paste, etc. 2. Printer will not print e-mail pages.
3. My “DELETE” button does not work on e-mails. 4. I can not attach anything to an e-mail. There are probably more problems waiting to be found …, I can hardly wait!
In IE8, the login credentials or session is auto-copied into the new opened window. I entered the login credentials of my website then opened a new window and went onto my website. the previous login credentials is automatically used and logged onto the website. This is a serious flaw and anyway to fix it.
I have IE8 (32 Bit)….I also have Vista Ultimite 64 Bit OS….I have been having problems….most times when I sign on to the internet I get this box popping up 3-4 times before it signs me on: “Internet Explorer has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.”
I had this same problem when I had IE8 (32 Bit) with Visa Home Premium 32 Bit OS also….I don’t want to use the IE8 64 Bit because a lot of graphics places don’t support it yet and I really do like IE8…please help me….I need your help badly…if you can’t can you direct me somewhere to get help??? Thanks for any information you can give me.
Tried uninstalling it then reinstalling? Also tried resetting everything to defaults?
I will try both….first resetting then it that doesn’t work reinstalling it….I know this is going to sound like the stupidest question to you…but how do you reset everything on IE8??
Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced tab
Reset is at the bottom.
I tried resetting it and ended up having to reinstall it….wanted to make sure that reinstalling it was by going into the control panal and removing IE8 through the update history….and having to reinstall it through the Windows Update??? That is what I did and it seems to be working but did have one small problem….but keep your fingers crossed that it was only once….is there anyother way to uninstall and reinstall if what I did didn’t work??? So far you have been great in all your help….and I have to say I really appreciate it….David
If you read http://carbonize.co.uk/wp/2009/03/21/remove-ie8/ you will see there is the way you have used and then MS has released a program to do it.
Buddy you ROCK….I am trying all that you have suggested….sorry for taking so long to thank-you…I am still having the problems but am going to try the no add-ons…keep your fingers crossed.
I installed ie8 update. When I start up computer, I get a flicker of the start up screen and then it goes black. Cannot get any farther. Cannot get into safe mode. Cannot get to login. Running xp home. Please help.
When you say you cannot get in to safe mode can you explain a little further?
When I press to turn computer on, it shows a flash of the start up for 2-3 seconds and then it goes black. I cannot get to the sign in screen. Never gets to the desktop. Nothing but black screen.
The power button is lit and another light next to the power light blinking. Before it went totally black, I did a restore to an earlier date – twice and restarted but still it would flash for a few seconds and then go black. I was able to go to the safe mode once but computer frozen Now it flashes the Dell start up for 2-3 seconds and then goes totally black. This is all after installing ie8.
Sounds like possibly a hardware issue or your windows files have become corrupt. If you have a copy of Windows you could boot from the disc and select repair.
Interesting line of debate and thanks for all the info. I had problems with IE8, not least a number of sites I couldn’t access even in compatibility mode. I rolled back to IE7 to find I couldn’t enter form information, i.e. couldn’t type info into the google search bar for instance. Fortunately I had downloaded IE7 before rolling back and reinstalling this solved the problem. I wonder how long before Microsoft realise they have a dud here?
IE8 creates new computer sales. End of story.