IE7 does not open...most of the time

Challenge - Lets see how good you all really are!

Only recently IE7 started not opening properly....sometimes.

When I start IE7 it opens to where you can see the borders of the application and the tile bar, and it just sits there doing nothing until I kill it in Task Manager. Other times it opens with no problem, usually after the laptop has been powered up for awhile...10 minutes or so. If I try to use IE7 as soon as the laptop powers up...nada. I can shut it down, reboot and IE will not open. Give it enough time and it works.

Here's the weird part....when it does not open properly, and while watching it startup in Task Manager, on the Applications tab it shows TWO instances running, while the Processes tab only shows one instance. If I see two instances on the Applications tab I know it will not start and I kill it immediatly. If I restart it a number of times and only see one instance running on Applications, I know it will startup properly.

I've uninstalled/reinstalled IE7, uninstalled any programs that I no longer use, I've run anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-adware, defragged the hard drive, cleared the IE temp cache, rubbed two sticks together (in preparation of building a fire with the laptop), checked for anything out of the ordinary starting at bootup, changed the IE home page, ran HiJackThis, ran Combofix and checked for CWS.

I might add that Firefox runs perfectly.

As a coincidence, my friend called me the same day for help as his was having the same issue. He mentioned he sees something with "about:blank" in IE7. Researched this and am not convinced this is a real threat...even though companies sell anti-spyware that will supposedly clean "about:blank ".

How good are you

 

It probably nearly does the same thing...but I went into IE Tools, Internet Options, Advanced and click RESET. It reset IE back to factory specs and all is well. IE is now functioning properly.

Thanks