IE 6.0 Dosen't Work for Me Help Please

It's been awhile since I've been here and I feel bad. There is alot going on in my life and until now I haven't had any problems with the Machine. I'm posting here because I think my problems started with IE 6.0. Lately I have been having problems opening email from friends. It seems that it comes in mime format and I can't view it. So last night I thought I should update my IE and OE to 6.0 and as soon as I did I could view the mail. The problem is after I did I had frequent lock ups and errors.I unstalled IE 6.0 and went back to the previous ver.5.50.4522.1800 and the lock ups stopped. Now I have a problem that when I open MS Word I get the message "WINWORD caused an invalid page fault in module RICHED20.DLL ".
Also When I open Win. Explorer I get the message "EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in module OLEAUT32.DLL ". I'm lost. I have tried the repair tool in Office 2000 Pro. but it did not help. I also tried to repair IE using " rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE5Maintenance "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Setup\SETUP.EXE" /g "C:\WINDOWS\IE Uninstall Log.Txt ", because my repair tool has disappeared from add remove programs. I have searched through the Knowledge Base and some of you know I have been here before. I found nothing. I will also tell you that if I click on a link in a thread here I get " A fatal exception OE has occured at 0028:c0005338 in VXD VMM (01) + 00004338. The current application will be terminated.
Just the basic Info. is Win 98 se, two 6.4 g hard drives,256 mg of ram, Inoculate IT virus protection updated daily. Thank you all so much in advance, Steve.

 

Hi Steve! I remember you.

The problem is , IE6 changes/updates so many files and when you elect to go back, it leaves it's imprint for the old system to cope with.

Unfortunately, the old system doesn't do well with those leftovers. It's a case of versionitis.

What you need to do is run SFC and allow it overwrite any previous files and restore you to the original versions. That's rather contrary to the norm but quite necessary in this case.

It may also require reinstalling Word AFTER you do the foregoing.

I must warn you that reverting to original files may cause some newer programs that you have installed to malfunction. Tough, but unavoidable.

Good luck.

ps, There is also a program called IEradicator but I have no experience with it and have heard it may not be all it's cracked up to be. I mention that in passing and you can locate it with a Google search I'm sure.