After installation of Windows updates IE and email will not work

I have a 1 year old Dell with XP SP1. About 6 months ago after downloading
windows updates, my IE did not work. It would log me in, verify password but
IE (6.0) would come up page cannot be displayed, and my Outlook Express would
not down load email. Just received POP3 errors. After talking with ATT’s
support (my ISP) for hours on the phone having me do everything from
recreating a new account to clearing the DNS my only solution was to restore
the system from an earlier date and then it worked fine. Recently with all
the news on windows vulnerabilities, I tried to download Windows updates
again, and received the same errors and problems. I again had to restore the
system to an earlier date (before the updates downloaded and installed) and
it now works fine but I am not comfortable with not downloading these
updates. Any one else have this problem? All I can think of is to download
one update at a time and find out which one is causing the problem. And any
ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!!!

What I have been doing for some time is saving each update to specific
download folder(s) under say a new folder like My Downloads e.g. Windows or
IE folders within that main folder, then loading the update from the
downloaded file, doing the oldest ones first. Basically carrying out a
manual update rather than auto.
Also, what has become apparent from a number of newsgroups is that certain
AV guards are interacting with the update process, causing them to fail. If
you are then updating from a previously downloaded file, disconnect from the
internet and turn off the AV guard and Firewall. Then do one update at a
time. Of course when you are saving the files in the first place, you will
have to note what they are and for. Don't rely on the article number as
these are sometimes not in sequence. You could also ensure you have the
latest versions of the AV's, in particular Panda AV which has been
highlighted as causing problems with downloads.
Alan
"Yvonne" <> wrote in message
news:F7E41B9F-DE79-4E29-A834-...
> I have a 1 year old Dell with XP SP1. About 6 months ago after
downloading
> windows updates, my IE did not work. It would log me in, verify password
but
> IE (6.0) would come up page cannot be displayed, and my Outlook Express
would
> not down load email. Just received POP3 errors. After talking with ATT's
> support (my ISP) for hours on the phone having me do everything from
> recreating a new account to clearing the DNS my only solution was to
restore
> the system from an earlier date and then it worked fine. Recently with
all
> the news on windows vulnerabilities, I tried to download Windows updates
> again, and received the same errors and problems. I again had to restore
the
> system to an earlier date (before the updates downloaded and installed)
and
> it now works fine but I am not comfortable with not downloading these
> updates. Any one else have this problem? All I can think of is to
download
> one update at a time and find out which one is causing the problem. And
any
> ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated!
> Thanks!!!
>