IE6 New Window/Desktop App Issue

This is a complex problem I have been trying to debug for months now. IE6, running on WinXP Pro. I can open IE6 and type in a URL and view pages just fine. I can click a link and view pages just fine. If that link however tries to open the page in a new IE window, the IE window pops up and has just an image of what was behind it in it. You can drag the window around and get funny trails (no refreshing), but it is not completely frozen because the close button works fine (just nothing else, including the page you want). This same problem I believe pops up in two other areas. Any desktop app that uses the IE controls for functionality won't work properly. For instance, if a desktop app has a button that will pop up some page in a window, the window will pop up, but with the same look as the one I described above. The third problem, and this is the most troublesome, is that Windows Update won't work. I can check for updates, select updates, but when the little dialog box pops up and says "Preparing to download..." with it's two progress bars, it just sits there forever.

I believe all these problems are related.

I have Ad-Aware, fully updated, and Spybot, fully updated.

I have IE6 Sp1.

I have done sfc /scannow and it doesn't see any problems.

I have re-installed sp1, repaired XP Pro, etc.. no avail.

I have played with Folder Options stuff (URL:Hypertext etc..) and made sure all links are not shortened to 8-character filenames.

I have made it/un-made it the default browser.

I have done a lot more than I can remember over the last few months. I use Opera most of the time, but need IE for several things, Windows Update being one of the more important ones.

Any ideas anyone? Would appreciate any help I can get on this! Thank you.

 

Some things to try here. More things here. Have a look here, third line down under 'Problem downloading/installing' section.

 

Fixed

Thank you very much, the first link did the trick by running regsvr32 over my .dll files. That is a relief.

Again, thank you!

 

Glad to hear it. Thanks for posting back.