IE6 broken after uninstalling IE7 Beta 2 Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

I uninstalled IE7 seemingly fine. IE6 came back up and everything
afterwards, but as soon as I try to browse to any url in IE6 it
freezes. It's a really odd "freeze" because when you bring another
window up in front of the frozen IE6 window, in a few seconds IE6 comes
to the foreground again yet it hasn't repainted itself at all. It's
completely broken. I'm using FireFox to get here and I'd be fine with
using it going forward but I'd rather not have a hosed IE6 if I can
help it. Any suggestions? I don't run system restore so that's out.


I'm running XP SP2. My IE6 is 6.0.2900.2180

 

Format & reinstall Windows, if you check for hijackware yields no results.

 

I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel just yet.

 

Do you have HP software installed? One of the updates caused issues like
yours, if so, uninstall it and that may sort it out for you...
--
Chris Cost
Rous and Associates, L.L.C.
Computer Consultants for Arizona
http://www.rousllc.com

 

No, update all your HP software to the newest versions, see if that solves
the issue.

 

I don't mean to sound mean, but some of you guys seem format happy...

 

And you're hosting MS-copyrighted files, making them available for anyone in
the world to download (via a really slow server)! Watch your back, Chris.

 

As I said in another post; these files should already exist on the user's
computer, if anything, we are offering a download that restores files that
*should* exist on a user's computer after the installation of IE7. It is
useless to anyone that does *not* have IE7. It offers no way to install IE7,
nor does it offer some strange option. All it does is uninstall a IE7 version
that *MUST*already be installed (try activating the uninstall without having
IE7 on your computer, it does absolutely nothing). Besides, if "anyone in the
world" wants them, they can download and install IE7 to get them (as far as
those with pirated software, the uninstall directory isn't going to help them
*install* IE7). It is a free download from Microsoft, the only people who can
really use *our* download are people who have deleted - or lost - the
uninstall directory... and cannot reinstall IE7 for that very same reason,
along with the fact that most people may not have a second computer handy.
What is "anyone in the world" going to do with it, other than uninstall IE7?
It offers to do nothing else.

By the way, if Microsoft wants them removed, a kind email asking us to from
their legal department will remove them pretty quickly, as we would then know
their wishes. Even though it would severely inconvenience their customer
base, insofar as uninstalling IE7.

I'm sure, as a Mcrosoft Most Valuable Professional, you can inform them in
some way of our hosting (maybe a way for us to get permission, or a wavier of
liability form for Microsoft that would wave all of their liability? So, they
wouldn't care that we host it.). From Sandi's blog, it seems you guys visit
Microsoft's building quite a bit - at least more than any of us do - just ask
one of the lawyers to visit our site, and request we take the offered
downloads offline, or send us something that would wave their responsibility.
We haven't made our hosting a secret, quite the opposite (it's posted on
Microsoft Communities for crying out loud), and if we had some easy way of
asking permission, we would - even though we don't think it's a violation of
copyright to begin with, as it does not offer to install anything, nor does
it run as a separate Windows program and is only valuable to the people we
have stated above: IE7 users that have lost or deleted the uninstall
directory. Last time I checked, they should have it anyway. Also, a lot of
Microsoft IE people read these forums, are you telling me they haven't seen
one of the dozens, if not hundreds, of postings offering this as a potential
solution to try, before reformatting? Not only from me, but other people
suggesting it (including some MVPs) as a possible solution? I know Microsoft
employees have said it's "dangerous", but no more so than reformatting your
entire hard drive. My guess is that they're probably just ignoring it, why
bother with it? Our way is just another "recommendation" to try.

If you really look at it, our hosting of them has been more of a favor to
Microsoft (perhaps in helping them save face in the sight of some of their
customers who haven't had to reformat and waste hours of their day?) than
anything else, even more so to their customer base, it has in no way been
malicious or designed to damage them, either financially or by reputation. We
have not defaced them on our website, as I have seen else where on the
internet, or insulted them in any way. We are not offering (or even
attempting to offer) something that would violate Microsoft's copyrighting of
IE7, only uninstall it according to their own specifcations... (or close
enough to remove IE7) something I can't build from scratch without looking at
their source code, or trying to find out what files were changed where, plus
I don't have that kind of time. All we've done is help their customer base
who have been trying to upgrade. To us, it's about helping people... I
thought that was what these communities were about? I'd agree with you; if we
tried to charge for (or make conditional) the download, but we haven't, not
at all. Plus, it's helped dozens of people uninstall IE7 and upgrade (or not,
depending on their own decision) to the newer version, who can complain about
that? Microsoft keeps stating how they want us to have control over our own
computers, I would assume that would include the ability to uninstall IE7 and
decide if we want to fool around with the next Beta?

As for our server being slow, I never made it a secret that downloading
files was *not* its' primary purpose. Its' primary purpose is to redirect our
consultants to their base station computers on the internal network (So they
can get information from outside our network), after a SSL login. Speed will
fluctuate with current useage and no, it's not on a T1 line, that would be a
waste. Cable has proven fine for our purposes.

By the way, the issue this guy is facing may not require reformatting, why?
I remember reading about an IE6 update that HP software, and some other
software, were conflicting with. That's - most likely - his problem. My
problem is I can't remember, for the life of me, what update it was or where
the Microsoft fix was... I think they "re-released" it, but he may not have
updated to it yet.

Thank you for your concern,

 

[The files we host are] a free download from Microsoft

While a user of a WGA-approved Windows version may be able to download them
from Microsoft, I see nothing on your webpages stating that you have
permission to host and distribute them, Chris.

Yes, I can and I have done so.

These public newsgroups are not moderated by MS. While some members of the
IE Team may drop in here from time to time, they do not monitor all
posts/threads.

A new version of MS06-015 (918965) was released on 25 Apr-06:

"When the update is re-released, it's going to be very much targeted to
people who are having the problem, or people who have not installed MS06-015
yet. That means if you have already installed MS06-015 and are not having
the problem, there's no action here for you. Windows Update, Microsoft
Update, and Automatic Update will have detection logic built into them to
only offer the revised update (which essentially includes the reg key fix)
to those customers who either don't have MS06-015 or are having the
problem."
Source: http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2006/04/21/425838.aspx

 

Thank you for doing so, and I hope you included my email address, any time
line on when we may hear from them?

Thank you,
--
Chris Cost
Rous and Associates, L.L.C.
Computer Consultants for Arizona
http://www.rousllc.com

 

It was decided to temporarily remove the uninstallation files, pending a
communication from Microsoft.

Thank you,
--
Chris Cost
Rous and Associates, L.L.C.
Computer Consultants for Arizona
http://www.rousllc.com

 

Thank you for this information.
--
~PA Bear

 

You might not thank me later.

Have a good day,
--
Chris Cost
Rous and Associates, L.L.C.
Computer Consultants for Arizona
http://www.rousllc.com

 

Hi! I have the exact same problem. I need help fixing it. Don't want to
have to reinstall Win.

 

For now, we took down ours. You can thank PA Bear for that, if you have a
second computer, install IE7 and copy the uninstallation directory.

 

Give us about a week or two, then wewill probably have a solution. We are
aware of what happened, a file was not properly overwritten. If you wish to
help us find the problem, please email me at [email protected][removeme]rousllc.com.

Thanks,