Here's a wierd one for you, please help... I have IE 6.0.x with SP1, and I'm on Win 2K, P4 2 Ghz, 1 Gb ram, rest is standard stuff.

When I launch Internet Explorer - iexplore.exe (through any method, start menu, shortcut, etc) and enter any URL (google for example), I will get 'page cannot be displayed' error message.

However, when I open windows explorer - explorer.exe (Windows 5.0 SP3) and enter www.google.com in the address bar (where you'd normally see c:\temp) the page loads fine. I click on the 'x' of the 'Folders' frame, and the windows explorer completely converts to an Internet Explorer window. Bookmarks work, I can enter any URL correctly, no probs with simple navigation.

I said 'no probs with simple navigation' and I emphasize 'simple'. When I click on any link that opens in new window, page will fail to load in new window, page cannot be displayed, blah blah blah. I can copy/paste the new URL into a Windows Explorer address like before and get the page to load, but obviously this work around is not 100% effective - java applets, new windows with no address bar (i'm not patient enough to search through page source code to get these urls).

I have updated my Norton AV virus defs and did complete scan, nothing turned up. I have spybot running, got lasted updates, dix a scan with default settings, nothing turned up. I re-installed IE 6.0 SP1 from microsoft.com and forced a re-install of all components, still nothing.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm desparate here, thanks!

Have you tried a IE repair.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318378