IEXPLORE.EXE (IE8) Crashes when attempting to visit Microsoft Upda

OS: Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 3 (32-bit, of course)

Browser: Internet Explorer 8 (8.0.6001.18702)

PC: Dell Dimension 8400, Pentium 4 @ 3GHz, 512MB RAM, 160GB HDD with 120GB
Free. Memory passes Memtest86+, HDD passes all Western Digital DLGDIAG tests.

Problem: Went to Windows Update site which, as expected, asked me to upgrade
to Microsoft Update. Attempted to do so, IEXPLORE.EXE crashed as soon as it
attempted to install the ActiveX control. Restarted IE, tried again - same
result every single time. Wash, rinse, repeat - ugh.

Solution: Tools / Internet Options / Advanced / Security - UNCHECK "Enable
memory protection to help mitigate online attacks" option.

Why: Who knows?

Hope: This helps someone and/or someone at MS notices this problem and does
something about it. Soon.

 

Brilliant,

I was getting ready to pull the rest of my hair our over this!
Worked lika a charm on XP pro

What made you think of that!?

Thanx,

BT

 

It was a combination of guesswork and leg work. IE was helpful enough to
display a message (I forget the particulars) indicating that Data Execution
Prevention (DEP) was somehow related to the issue, and Google led me to this
blog entry:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/04/08/ie8-security-part-I_3A00_-dep-nx-memory-protection.aspx

My best guess as to the cause of the problem - and I could be way off base -
is that it's a conflict between the way the Windows OS handles DEP and the
way IE 7/8 handles DEP on top of that. But only MS knows the truth of the
matter. Or at least I hope they do.

BTW - This problem doesn't just affect the Microsoft Update ActiveX control
- it seems to affect pretty much *every* ActiveX control, including Flash.
So while I didn't have any problems loading the home page on this system
(google.com), any attempts to go to a Flash-laden site like yahoo.com would
crash the browser. That took a while to figure out, too. Blech.


- NL

 

Wow,

Three days of installing/reinstalling IE8, removing updates,
disabling plug-ins, etc with no success.

Wish I had seen this post early on. Even the event logs and
online search for event log errors couldn't identify this.

A single mouse click in IE8 and my issue is resolved. You think
Microsoft would have identified their own site being "blocked." I even
added MS Updates to my trusted sites and still IE8 constantly crashed.

Good call.

Berny