How to fix IE7 if it crashes when you run it

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Today Internet Explorer 7 on my PC started crashing immediately after launching it. This happened every time I launched IE7, and sometimes resulted in one of those 'Report Problem To Microsoft' (or whatever they are called) windows, plus a lengthy upload of a logfile to Microsoft after some (but not all) of the crashes.

At first I thought the problem was caused by spyware, but a scan by all my anti-spyware tools showed my PC was clean. Eventually I fixed the problem, and below I explain two methods in case this problem happens to you in future and you want to resurrect IE7 rather than use another browser such as Firefox (which is a nice alternative to IE7).

I tried uninstalling IE7 and reinstalling it twice. I also tried uninstalling the Yahoo Toolbar. Neither of these cured the problem. By the way, each time I uninstalled IE7, IE6 was automatically restored and worked fine, but I'm used to IE7 and wanted to get it working again.

Eventually I managed to get IE7 working again, as follows:

1. Right-click on the IE7 icon on the desktop and select Start Without Add-ons.

2. Click on Tools and select Internet Options.

3. Click on the Advanced tab.

4. Click on the 'Restore advanced settings' button and the 'Reset...' button.

5. Exit IE7 and launch it again as normal.

Another method of fixing the problem is as follows:

1. Right-click on the IE7 icon on the desktop and select Start Without Add-ons.

2. Click on Tools and select Internet Options.

3. Click on Programs tab.

4. Click 'Manage add-ons' button.

5. Select the add-on that appears to be the cause of the crashing and click Settings|Disable or Delete ActiveX.

The trouble is, in my case the list of add-ons was long and it was not obvious which one/ones was/were causing the problem. After disabing and deleting various add-ons without curing the problem I gave up and used the first method described above, which worked first time without needing to guess which add-on was the culprit.

By the way, I read have read on the Web that the Google Toolbar or the Yahoo Toolbar also cause IE7 to crash this way on some PCs, and the solution in those cases is just to uninstall the Google/Yahoo Toolbar. In my case, uninstalling the Yahoo Toolbar did not fix the problem but you should try that too just in case.

Hope this is of help.