WinXPHome: clean IE6 install

M

Marc Jamison

Is it possible to get a clean installation of IE6 without reformatting my
hard drive? I get errors, pages won't display, I can't download some
programs.

I've disabled my firewall and virus scan and tried to open up web pages, but
that doesn't work. Re-enabled firewall and virus scan and tried again, but
still I'm having too many problems with IE6.

As a last resort, I went into Tools and found my way to reset everything,
yet STILL I'm having problems.

H E L P !
 
A

Ariel Hoffmann

You can go to this site http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_ie6.htm which has
information on repairing different versions of IE, and/or reinstalling.

I had my search function stolen by a website (twice) and never did get it
back fully, but at least I can click my search button and do a real search
from the sidebar now. (I followed the "reinstall" instructions).
 
M

Marc Jamison

I tried this and found the ie.inf file and when I right-clicked it and
clicked "install" I got an error window "Files Needed: The file
"IEXPLORER.EXE' on Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 CD is needed"

I never got a CD because XP Home Edition came pre-installed!

Any other ideas?
 
F

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP

Marc Jamison said:
This didn't do anything. No install, no reboot, nothing.

First time I ever heard of Method 2 in the article not working.
 
D

Dave

Frank Saunders said:
First time I ever heard of Method 2 in the article not working.


Frank,

Here is another one. This was posted on 8/10 in my series of post about ie6
shutting down with out warning due to HOSTS blocking or a misspelled URL.


Sandi

I tried to repair IE6 by using method 2 in 318378. After changing the
89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383 IsInstalled word from 1 to 0, I still
got the "Setup has ---- Setup can not continue." warning when I tried to
install IE6. I rebooted several times and got the same results even after
letting XP "cleanup my personal ie6 settings." (Which I had to reset.)

What am I doing wrong? I do not think this problem is big enough to push me
into reinstalling XP. I did rerun sfc /scannow again and did not find any
errors.

MORE INFO:

Q818529 was installed on 6/4 and this problem seemed to start about then.
The next earlier IE6 update was 4/23 and that is well before this started.

Dave
 
F

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP

Dave said:
Frank,

Here is another one. This was posted on 8/10 in my series of post
about ie6 shutting down with out warning due to HOSTS blocking or a
misspelled URL.

Sandi

I tried to repair IE6 by using method 2 in 318378. After changing the
89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383 IsInstalled word from 1 to 0, I
still got the "Setup has ---- Setup can not continue." warning when I
tried to install IE6. I rebooted several times and got the same
results even after letting XP "cleanup my personal ie6 settings."
(Which I had to reset.)

What am I doing wrong? I do not think this problem is big enough to
push me into reinstalling XP. I did rerun sfc /scannow again and did
not find any errors.

MORE INFO:

Q818529 was installed on 6/4 and this problem seemed to start about
then. The next earlier IE6 update was 4/23 and that is well before
this started.

Dave

These instructions are from Jim Byrd:

Yours is a fairly common complaint, and this is my standard spiel
about such install problems. There are three things you might want to
check. In any of these install fixes, to quote Steve Cochran, "It is
essential that no "interfering" software be running during the install and
subsequent reboot. This is particularly true of antivirus software. Most
or many of the corrupt installs involve installations while AV or other
software is loaded and these prevent the ability of the setup process to
upgrade dlls, and consequently installations fail or are incomplete." In
addition, I would suggest disabling ALL Norton software, particularly System
Doctor, if present.

Fix # 1: Try running ie6setup in Safe Mode. This was suggested by
Microsoft Support to one correspondent and worked for him after he had tried
the fixes described below. If it doesn't for you then try the following.

Fix # 2: First, make sure in Win Explorer/Tools/FolderOptions/View that you
show hidden and system files and show extensions. If your OS is NT, then
you MUST be logged on as Administrator both to install and for the first
reboot. Based on my own experience, I believe this is also a good practice
for Win2k, but MS does not say it's required in that case.

Look in your c:\windows\inf folder and see if you find any files named
oemxx.inf which have a length of 0 (zero), where the xx can be any number.
There could be potentially many thousands. If you do, you need to erase
these. To do this, first select the c:\windows\inf folder, then hit Search.
In the Search pane on the left, enter oem*.inf and down at the bottom click
Size and At Most and 1 (one). Then do Search. When it finishes, you should
have all of the zero length oemxx.inf files listed in the right pane along
with possibly some of size 1K. Do CNTL A to select all of them. Now hold
down CNTL while you click on (de-select) all of those at the top that are
1K, so the only the 0K size files are left selected. Now hold down SHIFT
and click DELETE to delete the zero length oemxx.inf files without sending
them to the Recycle Bin. It will take some time if you've a lot of these
files, so be patient. You'll know when it's done.

Now re-start your computer into DOS and run Scandisk C:, fixing any errors.
If you're not NT or Win2k, also run Scanreg /fix. Re-boot to Windows and
defrag your computer (which will also probably take a little time), and try
your install again from Safe mode.. If it works, fine.

Fix # 3: If not, or if you didn't have such zero length oemxx.inf type
files to start with, try the following. Find the c:\program files\internet
explorer\uninstall information folder (It may be named something slightly
different depending on your operating system, for example, just Uninstall in
WinME.) It probably will be hidden, and you will have to un-hid it. Right
click on the folder, select properties, then un-tick the Hidden attribute.
(If you don't have this folder, then create an empty one named: c:\program
files\internet explorer\uninstall information - now try your install again
in Safe mode, re-selecting all components, even those already bolded. See
below.)

Now create a new empty folder and call it something like "IE Delete Backup".
Move the contents of the \uninstall information folder to the new folder you
created. (Just the contents - leave the old folder there.) Now try the
install again from the start in Safe mode, re-selecting all components, even
those already bolded, that you want using the Advanced option, and see if
this works. It has in many, many cases, but not all. If it doesn't, you
can just restore the files you saved in "IE Delete Backup". Let us know how
you make out, so that if this doesn't help, perhaps someone else can suggest
something else for you. Regards, Jim Byrd
 

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