red X on web pages

Keep getting a small box that looks like a web page with a red X
in the center of it and it won't let me enter. What is this thing and how do I fix it?

 

Hi Shelly. Welcome to BBS!

Is this on the desktop? If so, right click on desktop, highlight arrange icons by, and uncheck 'lock web items on desktop' if checked. Small box should now look like a web page with a 'close' button(may have to click on box first , don't remember).

 

hi

Hi Dave,
No this isn't on the desk top. I can go into any web sight, but if I put my cursor on anything and click, I get that little box with the red X and then it does nothing! I am totally frustrated with this!
I've been trying for 2 nights to figure it out, and can't! Help!!!

regards, Shelly

 

Shelly,

There must be at least 100 threads in this BBS addressing this issue, many of which provided fixes for alot of people, but I had the same problem and nothing I tried fixed it, until I altered the HOSTS file. See this thread, starting with psot #8 by brett. My 'boxes with red x' were ads being blocked. Research this a bit and post back if you need more help. I'll try to locate some of the other suggestions from others in the meantime.


Do you have a popup stopper that might be blocking ads?

 

Shelly,

Here are some links to some of the past discussions on this problem.

http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18012
http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22346
http://www.infopackets.com/gazette/20021017.htm
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=59073
http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14834
http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13250
http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13476

There is a link in several of them to a Microsoft Knowledge Base Article that came up 'page unavailable' for me. Some of the folks here may remember the options given in it if it doesn't work for you either.

 

A simple fix I ran across that actually worked on my computer...after putting up with the Dreaded Red X for months...was to go to Tools>Internet Options>Delete files button. Now that's pretty obvious but what I hadn't done was check the box to delete all offline content because I've never had any pages set up to view offline.

I have IE's cache set at a measly 10 megs so I expected the usual 2 second wait while those 10 megs got deleted. However, 20 or 30 seconds later, the deletion process finally ended. Apparently, IE had decided on its own to keep some offline stuff around...or something.

At any rate, that fixed the Red X problem for me and since it only takes a couple of mouse clicks, may as well give it a shot.