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Apr 09, 2008

Possible reasons why Internet Explorer is not responding

by windshell / General

H-Desk.com Forum Index > Articles archive > General

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You were in the middle of your daily work, replying in your favorite discussion board, completing important transaction, when suddenly your Internet Explorer browser froze with a message “Internet Explorer is not responding”.
All work was lost. But, what causes this malfunction? What are the most common reasons for that?

Microsoft official page logically will be the first stop to seek for an answer. There you’ll, also logically, receive a respond: “How about repairing your Internet Explorer?”

Repair can be done through the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel or by the help of installation CD, choosing option Repair in both cases.

Basically, this isn’t helpful in majority of cases, so you’ll receive a new suggestion – installing a new version of Internet Explorer (IE).
To install a new version, first you have to uninstall current version by following these steps:

1. Click Start, Settings, and then Control Panel.
2. Double-click Add/Remove programs icon.
3. In Add/Remove programs, select Internet Explorer.
4. Click Add/Remove button.

After removal, you should install a fresh version of IE, which has been downloaded before the removal.

If IE still isn’t responding after you did all steps above, Microsoft will offer you a hotfixes. But, they’re not free, so you’ll probably try other solutions which are more pocket friendly.

Majority of community boards and experts will tell that the most common cause for non-responsive IE browser is malware.
To check if there are those naughty pieces of software on you machine that interrupt normal functioning of IE, you can run scan with one of the free programs available: AdAware or Spybot S&D.
Also, you should perform antivirus scan as well. Remember to enter the Safe Mode before performing scan.

Soon after you found that your system was clean or after you removed malware, you’ll realize that IE still freezes with the same message “IE is not responding”.

Next step is the registry. Cleaning of some entries there could be relief for the IE and system.
Especially removing of the BrowserHelper Objects. You’ll find them when you run Start - Run – regedit and then remove entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionexplorerBrowserHelper Objects
Also, be very careful when dealing with the registry, because if you delete some vital process or entry, that will affect not only IE, but also your whole system.
So the best solution is to ask expert, what should and shouldn’t be removed.
Good solution is to use CCleaner or some other free registry cleaner program.

But, your IE is still non-responsive, even you cleaned registry.
Then try to delete cache files from your IE browser. The easiest way to do that is following these steps: Tools > Internet Options > General > Browsing History – Delete...
If that didn’t help, then you should delete content of the Temp folder as well.
Go to C:DOCUME~1LOCALS~1Temp and in the folder, click Edit > Select All and then press the Delete key on your keyboard.

After all of these steps you should reboot your PC.

If anything of mentioned didn’t help, you can always switch to another browser.

The most popular choice today is Mozilla FireFox. It will spare you a lot of headaches.

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