help! cannot open internet explorer

baron777red

can someone please help, i am having a problem opening internet explorer, i have IE8 installed and when i try to click on my icon i get the hour glass for a second then nothing.

i have tried to re-install IE8
i have tried to do a system restore but it failed
i have done a windows update
i have even installed mozilla firefox but not even this works

i'm not getting any error messages and all my other programs work fine, and my laptop works fine, so i know there is no problem with my internet connection.

i am able to access the internet throught clicking start then search then search the internet, which i show i have been able to write this.

anyone got any ideas?

thanks

penrhyn

Don't take this the wrong way but have you tried switching it off and on again?
BTW What is your operating system?

mochyn88

First rule of problems with computer

Switch off then switch on

Solves many problems

mrtom21

Try loading My Documents up... Once this is up just type a website under the address bar and click go. This might be a temporary workaround until you get this fixed.

baron777red

operating system is XP

i did switch it off a few times and rebooted, also a few times

do you think i should re-install windows XP

macman

Inability to do a System Restore makes me think you have an infection possibly.
How much free disk space do you have?
Which version of XP-are you on SP3?

baron777red

hi yes it is SP3.

its now working again, i uninstalled IE8 and restarted and when it booted back up again IE7 was there, and it worked fine.

keeps asking me to update to IE8 but im a bit wary now after the problems i had

am i right in thinking that microsoft have have quite a few complaints about IE8, just like they did with vista?

thanks for the help everybody

CrabPaste

Switch to a 'decent' browser such as Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Safari.

Pretty much anything other than Internet Explorer. You'll notice the difference.