Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

Hi Daniweb family !!!
I have an Acer Aspire 4520 with Vista Home Premium and 2GB of RAM.
The Internet Explorer just quit working. When I click on the icon to start it, nothing at all happends. I went into Program Files, Internet Explorer folder and clicked on the icon in there and still absolutely nothing happends. There are no pop-ups of any viruses or trogans so I don't THINK it's infected. The Norton antivirus program ran out and I'm going to put Avast on it.
Any clues why Internet Explorer just quit responding ?
Any and ALL help is greatly appreciated !!!

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Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and quick diagnosis tied to the thread: since reported that Internet Explorer only starts when launched with “Run as administrator,” the root cause is most commonly a shortcut/compatibility flag set to always elevate (or, less commonly, a permission or persistence change put in place by malware). ’s advice to isolate add‑ons and ’s suggestion to check for infection were on the right track — the elevation symptom points next to where the OS remembers “always run elevated.” (howtogeek.com)

Practical steps to clear the elevation flag (most likely fix)

  • Edit the shortcut that’s being launched (Desktop / Start / Taskbar): open Properties → Shortcut tab → Advanced and clear “Run as administrator.”
  • If the exe’s Compatibility tab is present, open Properties → Compatibility and clear “Run this program as an administrator” and click “Change settings for all users” to clear system‑wide.
    These controls are the normal Windows UI for the shortcut/compatibility elevation flag. (howtogeek.com)

Where the “always run elevated” setting can hide

  • If a pinned or Start‑menu item keeps elevating, edit the system‑wide shortcut in the All Users start‑menu folder (Vista/7: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs — use “Explore All Users” to reach it) and fix that copy. After correcting the canonical shortcut, unpin and repin a corrected one. (support.microsoft.com)

If the checkbox is greyed or the setting keeps coming back

  • Compatibility flags can be stored in the registry under AppCompatFlags\Layers (HKCU and HKLM). Export the key first, then remove any value that references the Internet Explorer exe (full path) that contains RUNASADMIN. If the flag reappears after removal, that can be caused by persistent malware that rewrites shortcuts (shortcut modification is a known persistence technique). Run the Windows System File Checker to repair protected system files if corruption is suspected. Back up the registry before editing and proceed only if comfortable with regedit. (stackoverflow.com)

Notes and cautions: always export registry keys before change, fix the shortcut in the All Users location (not just the desktop), and check for any persistent malware that might be reapplying the elevation setting.

Recommended Answers

All 9 Replies

Member Avatar for barney789

Do a virus scan as this appears to be a trojan horse problem. If that does not work, try to install firefox and try and see if it will open. More than likely you have a trojan horse. Check to make sure ie is your default program for html or xhtml.

Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

I will. Thank you for your fast reply ! The charger is in the back of a car and won't be back till Monday so I will have to do what you suggested then ! Thank you !!!

Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

Ok, I have run a few virus scans with Malwarebytes, Spybot, SuperAnti Spyware.... They found a few trogans, viruses, etc...
I still can't get the icon to bring up Internet Explorer at all so I ran HijackThis and created a log. I will send that log to the Virus folks and see what they say.

Member Avatar for demenace

Try starting Internet Explorer without any add-ons.
From the Desktop click Start/run then type iexplore.exe -extoff

this will determine if the problem is an IE problem or some add-on that is crashing.

Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

I tried that and nothing happened. It's as if Internet Explorer isn't even there. But, I know it is there, it's just not responding. I sent a HijackThis log to the spyware folkes but they never checked it out.
Help.

Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

I installed FireFox and it works perfect. So how do I get Internet Explorer working ? If I can uninstall it and reinstall it it, where is a good place to get the right Internet Explorer for this computer ?

Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

Thank you for your reply ! I looked on that page and never did see Internet Explorer for Windows Vista. I saw I E for Windows XP and Servise 2003, but not Vista

Member Avatar for Tumbleweedracef

I found the problem.....
Somewhere in this computer there is a setting that MAKES the user right click on the I.E. icon and choose RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR.
How do I turn that off ? I just want to click on the icon and have it work like in Windows XP.

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