My computer (Dell XPS 400 running Windows XP, service pack 3) was infected with a couple of trojan viruses which I believe are now fully removed using a combination of anti-spyware and malware removal tools. When I was working on the virus infection, I began having trouble with the launching of Internet Explorer 7.0. From the shortcut I will get an hour glass that does not change. Sometimes an error message occurs saying “The instruction at “0x…….” referenced memory at “0x…… The memory could not be written.” In either case, I have to use the Task Manager to end the non-responding program and try again. I can usually open Internet Explorer on the 2nd or 3rd try, particularly if I go to the Program menu, right click, and then click Open. It then seems to work fine.
To fix this problem of inconsistent opening of the program, I have tried to (1) delete the old shortcut and create a new one, (2) use the Reset command in Internet Explorer advanced options to reset the program to the original, (3) disabled plug ins, (4) reinstalled Internet Explorer 7.0 from the website, and (5) tried System Restore to set things back to an earlier date. Nothing has worked. I have since downloaded FireFox and will see if that runs okay, but now I’m worried that I (or the virus) have done something to the operating system files. Does that sound likely, given what I have described?
Do you have any thoughts on what I can do to restore the operation of Internet Explorer 7.0? Would I have to reinstall the entire Windows XP operating system to possibly restore critical corrupted files associated with IE, or could I be missing something more simple?
Thank you.
