Windows Vista: Internet Explorer 7 Freezes on Startup: Solution
I recently encountered a VERY random problem on my Vista machine. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, my Windows Update settings were modified to not download or install updates without me doing so manually – which I hadn’t done in a long time, and I haven’t installed or modified anything. But, for some reason, IE7 just decided to freeze when I opened it. I restarted my computer, it still froze; I ran IExplorer with no add-ons, and it still froze. I used Firefox to do some research and found alot of people have had this problem but no one had a definitive answer. If running IE7 without add-ons didn’t work, people just gave up. Well, I have a solution.
There are two things to do. The first thing is to make sure you don’t have any spyware/adware/malware on your computer. Get an antivirus/antispyware software and do a full scan. If you run it, fix all problems, and still cannot get IE7 to work, here’s a solution.
Run a System Restore. If you’ve done any updates in the past on your Vista machine, there is bound to be a restore point. When you run your System Restore program, simply pick the most recent restore point, and let System Restore do it’s thing.
Once you start up, your Internet Explorer 7 should be running fine. It worked for me.
It’s interesting; the System Restore option has come in handy for me. I don’t typically use antispyware programs because if I ever run into a malicious website and begin to get popups, I simply hit CTRL+ALT+DEL, click the “Processes” tab, end the “iexplorer” process, then run System Restore. This has always fixed my problems. Now, I don’t really want to reccomend this for everyone, because I don’t really know how stable a solution this is for given problems, but for many things – system restore has been a big help and has saved alot of headaches for me.
Now, if you don’t want to do the whole system restore thing, get yourself FireFox. It doesn’t look exactly like Internet Explorer, but it’s close enough to where you won’t have to put much effort into getting used to it. I mainly use it to test my work with, but sometimes I often forget I’m even using a different web browser. It’s very comfortable and I would definately reccomend it as an alternative to any version IExplorer.
What Do You Think?
Did this article help you? Do you have another fix for this problem? If you do, I want to know! Send your comments or questions to david@funkytower.com :) I would love to hear from you 
Take it easy,
David
Tags: 7, freeze, frozen, Internet Explorer, Vista
