Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista Freezes up

Sometime last month I reinstalled Windows Vista. I put Vista on my machine (after removing it for XP in early spring) because I wanted to be able to edit HD video in Windows Movie Maker.

Shortly after I reinstalled Vista IE7 began to hang whenever it would load. MSN Messenger would also hang up. I think, but am not positive, this was all related to installed Real Player. I hate Real Player, with a passion, but I had a special requirement that I needed to install it for.

Because IE7 quit working I started using FireFox, which worked alright, but I'm a Microsoft kinda guy, so I had to figure out how to get my IE7 and Messenger working again.

After a few minutes of digging around a found a page for Troubleshooting IE7 on Windows Vista, from there I found a blurb/link about resetting IE7. I clicked on the link, and low and behold, I tried what it instructed, and boom IE7 works again! Now, time to reinstall Live Messenger and see if that works again too!

I also think it'll fix my Zune Marketplace issues I've been having ever since IE7 died.

Here's a link to the KB article I used to fix IE7 on Windows Vista

9 Comments

  • Thanks for that link. I too have been having this problem and now that you remind me it started happening within a week or so of installing RealPlayer.

  • Yeah, this is a huge problem, I guess I didn't notice it started happening until I downloaded the Real Player Beta (which I personally love for the fact that I can download flash animations for free now)... But with IE7 and then this one Nikon software I use, things have been all wonky. Great Fix!!!

  • yea, downloaded real player last week and it messed up my internet explorer as well

  • I'm having the same problem after installing Real Player. I'll try the reset.

  • wow this just suck's; second time i was waiting to register for a game on-line it hang's! sad to say that the kb article doesn't help; it took long enough to load up web sites in favorites to erase them; I miss XP fav's, so sad that microsoft couln't keep or have vista business ie7 import!

  • This didnt work for me...
    I reset everything to factory default, restarted IE7, then Vista. IE7 Still hangs when starting up...

    Does uninstalling Realplayer fix this ?

  • Thanks, I was going crazy, it worked for me!

  • I.ve tried these fixes too none worked for me. Just install mozilla firefox

  • I had read about Zone Alarm freezing IE7 and ie8 so I uninstalled it an dnow use the free PC Tools Firewall.
    I have not had a single freeze since doing it!

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