Here's some of the the conclusions of www.tek-tips
Step 1
Run the following commands from start/run.
Run each line individually.
After each run, you should see a short message stating the command was successful.
The first command is the one most likely to work.
regsvr32 Urlmon.dll
regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 Shell32.dll (only applicable to Windows ME, Windows 2000 and XP)
regsvr32 shdoc401.dll (only applicable to Windows 95, Windows 98)
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll
Reboot Computer and test.
Step 2
The problem can also be caused by the version of oleaut32.dll, and can be resolved by replacing oleaut32.dll version 3.50.5014.0 556kb 8/23/01 with oleaut32.dll version 2.40.4275 492kb 5/11/98.
This is an older version of the file and has been known to remove the problem.
The file is located in MDAC_IE5.CAB
Or
Ie4_1.cab on earlier versions.
If the cab file is not available, it can be downloaded from:
http://193.125.152.107/pub/Infovisor/v6.0/DOWNLOAD/WIN32/EN/MDAC_IE5.CAB/ (Size = 2.1 MB)
Or
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/pop.shtml?oleaut32 (Zip file size = 308 Kb)
This can be done on most Windows versions by using the "System File Checker" utility.
To do so, follow the steps for the appropriate version of Internet Explorer:
Internet Explorer 5/6:
The Oleaut32.dll file is located in the Mdac_ie5.cab file in Internet Explorer version 5.
For Internet Explorer 6, you will need to obtain a copy of the file from an older version of Internet Explorer.
Windows 95/98: If the Internet Explorer .cab files are unavailable, or if extracting the Internet Explorer version of the Oleaut32.dll file does not work, you may be able to resolve the issue by extracting the Windows version of the file, from the Windows installation disk or .cab files.
For Windows 95, the Oleaut32.dll file is located in the Win95_09.cab file on the Windows 95 CD-ROM.
For Windows 98, you can extract / replace this file by using the SFC utility.
Reboot Computer and test.
Step 3
Download and run the following file:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/msninvestor/Patch/1.0/WIN98/EN-US/mcrepair.EXE
Step 4
Read MS article
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q281679