Category: Geeks r Us
So she was updating Realplayer and unbeknownst to her installed to Google Toolbar, which I'm sure the lot of you know is largely inaccessible. It therefore interfered with the use of Internet Explorer. She could not uninstall it, and began troubleshooting. I was not involved in the situation until a later time, so did not see what went down but rather only have her descriptions of what happened. Keep in mind she has Window-Eyes and Windows 7. She also has Microsoft Security Essentials, and her computer appears to be protected. My grandfather successfully uninstalled the Google Toolbar sans Window-Eyes, but the following issue prevailed:
She pressed the Start button and typed "Internet Explorer" but did not press ENTER. Instead, she pressed the List button and selected "Open With." She chose to open it with Internet Explorer (Microsoft Corporation), which anyone would think would work, right? Well, a dialog box came up that asked her if she wanted to download or save the file. Come to find out, whenever trying to open any other program, whether or not it's Microsoft-related, this happens. I tested it with a few others and made sure the default programs corresponded with the program being opened. But still, no luck, and always that stupid dialog box. So my next thought was to go to the Control Panel so that I could tap into Default Programs on a larger scale, but even that won't open because it's based out of Windows Explorer.
So, my question is, what the fuck did my sister do to here computer, and how shall I fix it? Meanwhile I'll be Googling this issue, but honestly I have no idea where to start. Any guidance is muchly appreciated.
Melissa
Try a system restore. Restore it back before she installed the tool bar and you should be okay. Next run the Microsoft and see if it finds anything. Keep posting and I'll tell you more after you try this.
Okay, how do I do that? Can I do so accessibly? What if we have rebooted several times in the troubleshooting process--will we be able to restore it or is the RAM lost? Or does that even have to do with RAM at all? Show me the way!
Some more findings:
Update:
After some more tweaking, I found that because Window-Eyes and MSE run in the background at startup, as long as they are not exited, they run well. Doing an MSE scan now while I'm at it.
I can run WordPad from the search box.
If I type in a search term or web address, Internet Explorer works beautifully; but if I cannot tell IE to run or click on it without the stupid dialog box. Other programs that do this are Firefox, Outlook, etc. Also tried to run IE as administrator and that changed nothing.
I can get to Default Programs after all, but it sure is a weird method I did. Anyway, things look pretty normal, but I'm also not familiar with Windows 7 yet so I could be missing something.
Note: The file that the dialog box is wanting to open is a .lnk file.
P.S.: You do not know how much I love you! Just sayin' :P
Hehe.
In the start min in that search box type backup and restore or just restore. Before you finish you hear it repeat.
tab down until you hear Recover System settings for your computer.
Hit inter. You'll hear open system restore hit enter.
Tab until you find next. Keep going until it says okay and tells you it is going to go and that if you say okay you can't stop the process. It doesn't matter how offten you rebooted the system to anser your question..
If you keep tabing you will find other dates before the suggested restore point. If you need to go back more let me know and I'll post that. Also tell me if this is clear and I'll do better if not.
Case solved!!!!! :D Thanks again, you rock!
I was going to suggest a system restore as well. Is that what you did, and if so, did that solve your problem? I'm so glad you got it figured out.
system restore under XP has saved me. i make it a point to do one before i do stuf that i want to have a restore point set for. mels, i'm wondering what the hell happend? that's just beyond weird
It fixed her problem. It was the fix.
Now Windows, any Windows saves restore points. Go ahead restore. The only problem comes when something else is causing the issue that restore doesn't work.
In this case it was the solution.