I have been trying to install Internet Explorer 6. I have 5 now. Whenever I click on the “download now” link, one of two responses comes back. It’s either"The plug-in did not initialize properly" or “The plug-in was found, but an error in the plug-in has occured.”
I am ashamed to admit that I do not know what an .exe file is, so I can’t answer the question. Probably why I am in the fix I am.
I think I need to contact the Computer Sciences department at the local high school and hire me a sutdent that can answer some questions without laughing at the old fogey. I feel like such a doofus.
Internet explorer allows “plug in” modules. In some ways this is a good thing. Every time someone comes out with a new whiz-bang thing you don’t have to upgrade your explorer, all you have to do is install the plug in for it. For example, if you install the plug in for Adobe Acrobat, you’ll be able to view .pdf format documents in Internet Explorer.
The bad thing about plug ins is that any malicious person can write one. So if someone wants to write a plug in to automatically take over your explorer and set your home page to porn, they can do that. Some people disable the warning for plug-ins, so they wouldn’t even know something like that was happening.
I’m taking a few guesses here, but I suspect Microsoft is doing its update through some sort of plug-in, which is failing miserably. This could be because something got mucked up the first time, and now you have a partially installed plug-in, or it could be because some other plug-in is interfering with it. It used to be that you could download an executable file (.exe) to use to install Internet Explorer 6. You might try that route if it’s still available.
Baker, I’d be happy to stop by and help you out for a cookie or two. Or I could drop off a CD that will have the entire IE6 installation on it. Email me if you’d like.