# Internet Explorer crashes on opening **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947 "2004-06-12T05:29:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/1 "2004-06-12T05:29:44Z")
I don’t know if this has ever been covered (i searched, but came up naught), **but I can not open Internet Explorer.** On the plus side, if any pop-ups try to pop up in IE, they get snuffed out. But the ol’ “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience…_Send Error Report_ _Don’t Send_”-message pops up instead. This becomes a problem when I try to manually open IE, or I try to run an update that opens in IE. I can’t even open up Internet Options in my Control Panel (it opens, then immediately closes). Is this worthy of a new thread? Or can someone point me to an existing thread? help! ---
**Author:** ![larsenmtl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@larsenmtl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/larsenmtl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/2 "2004-06-12T06:11:59Z")
What version of IE? Version 6: Start | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Find IE 6 | Change/Remove | Repair Internet Explorer | OK ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/3 "2004-06-12T14:41:35Z")
The window that opens for Add/Remove programs immediately crashes when opened too. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/4 "2004-06-12T19:10:57Z")
What version of Windows are you using? With 2000 or XP you can go to **Start|Run** and type **sfc /scannow**. It may prompt you for your Windows CD. It will then scan your system files and replace any corrupted ones. If that doesn’t work then you could try reinstalling IE using Method 2 from [;318378"]KB article 318378]([http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;)[LN). ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/5 "2004-06-12T19:46:47Z")
Just forget IE and switch your browser to Opera. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/6 "2004-06-12T22:21:30Z")
**zamboniracer** , Your comment is not helpful. We are not going to have a discussion about which browser is better. The question is how to stop Internet Explorer from crashing. Suggesting a switch to another browser is not appropriate. **DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/7 "2004-06-12T23:41:26Z")
> [@Number](#): > > What version of Windows are you using? With 2000 or XP you can go to **Start|Run** and type **sfc /scannow**. It may prompt you for your Windows CD. It will then scan your system files and replace any corrupted ones. > > If that doesn’t work then you could try reinstalling IE using Method 2 from [;318378"]KB article 318378]([http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;)[LN). Thanks, I’m gonna try that. I have XP, btw. Happy ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/8 "2004-06-14T06:24:18Z")
I hate to bounce this to the top, but **Number** , thank you! That did the trick. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/9 "2004-06-14T14:14:41Z")
> [@DrMatrix](#): > > **zamboniracer** , > > Your comment is not helpful. We are not going to have a discussion about which browser is better. > > The question is how to stop Internet Explorer from crashing. Suggesting a switch to another browser is not appropriate. > > **DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator With all due respect, my response was helpful because that is how I solved the problem. When neither I nor my computer guru could figure out how to stop IE from mysteriously crashing, we decided to bypass the problem by going to another browser. Since doing so two years ago my non-IE browser hasn’t crashed. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/10 "2004-06-14T14:41:16Z")
I have seen the CoolWebSearch “virus” cause IE to crash on opening. After running CWSShredder.exe, IE resumed operating normally. By the way, I switched to Firefox a couple of months ago, and am very happy with it. I am contemplating offering it to my users as part of the standard workstation configuration. If I do so, I will continue to offer IE, as there are sites that seem to require it (bad webmaster! Bad! Bad!), but will put the link to it a level or two down in the startup menus. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/11 "2004-06-14T15:07:22Z")
I had this problem the other day; certain websites would crash IE6 (under Win98 in my case) - it turned out that one or other of the applications I’d recently installed had brought along its own copy of msvcrt.dll (the Visual C Runtime Library) - in the end, I booted from a floppy, deleted msvcrt.dll from the C drive and extracted a fresh copy from the windows .cab files on my install CD. Worked like a dream. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/12 "2004-06-14T15:21:50Z")
I meant to say that I diagnosed the fault by scrutinising the report file that it wanted to send; there’s a bit where it tells you the ‘modname’ in which the error occurred and in my case, this said msvcrt.dll. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-explorer-crashes-on-opening/249947/13 "2004-06-14T19:48:48Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > With all due respect, my response was helpful because that is how I solved the problem. When neither I nor my computer guru could figure out how to stop IE from mysteriously crashing, we decided to bypass the problem by going to another browser. Since doing so two years ago my non-IE browser hasn’t crashed. And how is switching browsers going to fix the Add/Remove Programs applet or the other problems that having corrupted system files will cause? Opera and Firefox are good, but they are not the answer to the OP’s problem.