Various Error Messages May Be Displayed After You Install Internet Explorer

ID: Q225040

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

When you start your computer after installing Internet Explorer, you may receive one or more of the following error messages:

Windows may then display a blank desktop. This issue may still occur when you start your computer in Safe mode.


CAUSE

This problem can be caused by the following conditions:


RESOLUTION

Invalid Registry Entry

To resolve an invalid registry entry, use the Windows Registry Checker tool (Scanreg.exe) with the "/restore" switch to restore a previous copy of your registry.

NOTE: You may be unable to uninstall Internet Explorer 5 after following these steps.

To restore the registry to its state when you last successfully started Microsoft Windows 98:
  1. Restart your computer, press and hold down the CTRL key until the Windows 98 Startup menu appears, and then choose Command prompt only.


  2. At the command prompt, type scanreg /restore, and then press ENTER.


  3. Select a previous copy of your registry with a date prior to the problem, but after Internet Explorer 5 was installed, and then press R to restore the registry.


  4. Press ENTER when you are prompted to restart your computer.


To restore the registry to its state when you last successfully started Microsoft Windows 95:
  1. Restart the computer. When you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, press the F8 key, then choose Safe mode command prompt only from the Startup menu.


  2. Type the following command to move to the Windows folder
    cd \windows
    where windows is the Windows 95 folder. For example, if Windows 95 is installed in the Windows folder, type the following line:
    cd \windows


  3. Type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line:
    attrib -s -h -r system.dat
    ren system.dat system.bad


  4. Restart your computer. Windows 95 uses the System.da0 file when it cannot find the System.dat file. If this file works, Windows 95 renames it to System.dat.


If the above steps do not resolve the problem, use the Repair Internet Explorer tool:

If You Can View the Desktop

  1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.


  2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs, click Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools, and then click Add/Remove.


  3. Click Repair Internet Explorer, click OK, and then click Yes when you are prompted to repair the installation.


  4. Click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer.


If Windows Displays a Blank Desktop

  1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to start Task Manager (Taskman.exe), click Run Application on the File menu, and then type control appwiz.cpl.


  2. Click Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools, and then click Add/Remove.


  3. Click Repair Internet Explorer, click OK, and then click Yes.


  4. Click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer.


If the above steps do not resolve the problem and you have access to the desktop, reinstall Internet Explorer 5 by double-clicking the Ie5setup.exe file in the Windows Update Setup Files folder.

If you do not have access to your desktop, you may need to change the "shell=" line in the System.ini file to "shell=progman.exe":
  1. Restart your computer, press and hold down the CTRL key until the Windows 98 Startup menu appears, and then choose Command prompt only.


  2. At the command prompt, type cd windows, where windows is the folder in which Windows is installed, and then press ENTER.


  3. Type edit system.ini, and then press ENTER.


  4. Change the "shell=" line to "shell=progman.exe".


  5. Press ALT+F, press S to save the System.ini file, press ALT+F, and then press X to quit the editor.


  6. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.


  7. In Program Manager, click Run on the File menu, and then click Browse.


  8. Double-click the drive C:\, double-click the Window~1 folder, double-click the Ie5setup.exe file, and then click OK.


  9. Follow the directions on the screen to install Internet Explorer 5.


If Diamond InControl Tools or Diamonds Monster Fusion Drivers Are Installed

Diamond InControl Tools and Diamond Monster Fusion drivers replace the Comctl32.dll file located in the Windows\System folder. To work around this problem, extract the Comctl32.dll file from the Windows Update Setup Files folder to the Windows\System folder.

Extracting Comctl32.dll from a Command Prompt

  1. At the command prompt, type cd\c:\windows\system, and then press ENTER.


  2. Rename the Comctl32.dll file in the Windows\System folder to Comctl32.old by typing the following line and then pressing ENTER:
    ren c:\windows\system\comctl32.dll comctl32.old


  3. At the command prompt, type cd\windows\command, and then press ENTER.


  4. Type the following line, and then press ENTER:
    extract c:\window~1\setupw95.cab comctl32.dll /l c:\windows\system


  5. Restart your computer.


Extracting Comctl32.dll Using System File Checker

  1. Click Start, click Run, type sfc, and then click OK.


  2. Click Extract one file from installation disk, type comctl32.dll, and then click Start.


  3. Click Browse next to the Restore from box, double-click the drive C, click Windows Update Setup Files, and then click OK.


  4. The Save file in box should display "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM." Click OK.


  5. If you are prompted to back up the file before overwriting it, click OK.


  6. When you are prompted to restart your computer, click Yes.



STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: office2000 


Keywords          : kbenv kberrmsg msiew95 msiew98 
Version           : WINDOWS:5
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: August 12, 1999