Can't connect to the internet getting a runtime error?

Question

Can't connect to the internet. It was working fine until I let my cousin use my cpu last night. Everything else seems (itunes, MS word excel etc) to be working fine, a little slow but it works. But I can access the internet at all I receive the following;

runtime error C:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exp

Please help.

thanks,

Answer 1

You may have some malware, courtesy of some careless surfing or downloading by your cousin.

Try running Internet Explorer in Safe Mode With Networking. Safe Mode With Networking sometimes keeps malware from running, and might enable you to run IE successfully.

If it does, it's time for some anti-malware scans, probably also in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking.

If you have an anti-virus, I suggest you make sure it has the latest virus definitions and run a scan with it.  If you don’t have one, many people here swear by AVG (it’s free).

I suggest you also download Ad-Aware 2008 and Spybot S&D (they’re free), install them, update them and run them. If any of the above (or any anti-malware, for that matter) doesn’t seem to be able to run properly or get rid of everything it reports finding, try running it again in Safe Mode.

Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there.  

To get into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking:

1. Log out and reboot your machine.

2. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.

3. Select Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking from the resulting menu.

4. When the login screen comes up, log in as Administrator.  By default, Administrator has no password.

5. The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different.  

6. When you're finished doing what you need to do, log out and reboot back into normal mode.

Note that even if the anti-malware programs get rid of the malware, they may not be able to reverse the effects.  Search the Web for possible fixes.

Update and run everything regularly, not just when you think you already have malware.

Good luck.