IE will not download *anything*; Can not change search provider

[DonS]

Hey all

Finishing out a computer that had a pretty heavy virus/malware infection. It is all clean at this point and everything reset. However, IE refuses to download anything. It will also not show downloads. Nothing comes up in either case.. No errors.. It just seems to refuse to do anything.

Also, it will not let me add search provider. When I try to do so, the following pop up appears:

But when I click on the button labeled "Add to Internet Explorer" a dialog box pops up which says:
The search provider could not be installed.
This might have happened because:
- A required file could not be downloaded
- The website is unavailable
- You are not connected to the Internet
You might want to try again later.

I rolled back to IE8, then up to IE10 (IE11 was originally installed) and still no change. Firefox and Chrome are both installed and download items fine.

Any suggestions on this one?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Have you ran the Roguekiller, ADW & JRT trio?

 

[mason]

Have you checked the shortcuts? Make sure they have not set the home page in the shortcut.

Have you ran combo fix? Also may not be the issues but is date and time set ok?

Another thing is check the a.v they are running is not out of date or blocking I.e

Thanks

 

[tlaybourn]

I seem to remember having one like this before, it was caused by a corrupt login profile.

 

[DonS]

Yes I have run jrt, adw, rogue killer, and combo fix.

AV is Kaspersky Pure. I have disabled it and tried in safe mode. Short cuts are valid. Also tried running as admin. No change in behavior.

@tlayborn: Did you have a solution to the corrupt profile or just have to create a new one?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Have you run tweaking.com AIO tool? You may have a permissions issues.

Also what does the event logs say?

 

[AndyM]

Internet Options > Advanced > Reset?

Other than that, Windows AIO?

Andy

 

[DonS]

Yes, sorry, left that out of procedures. I did use Windows AIO. No change. Event logs show nothing of note. Frustrating little problem.

I am out on calls all day, but let me hit you all back later today. I think I will create a new user account and see if the problem persists.

 

[Krynn72]

I've fixed a couple stubborn IE issues by turning IE off completely with "Turn Windows Features On/Off" in control panel. Just restart, then re-enable it, and restart again.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I would uninstall Kaspersky Pure, saving license details for re-install later, then run Tweaking AIO. If problem is fixed, re-install Pure.

 

[citizensmith]

Internet Options > Advanced > Reset?

Other than that, Windows AIO?

Andy

Yeah that ^^^ and try starting IE with no addons and go from there. Alteritively you could reg edit\delete teh SearchScopes under HKEY_USERS\ ... .... \Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes. Compare with a working version may be ?

 

[DonS]

Great suggestions all.

Again I have tried so much I am leaving some items out: I did try the following ""Turn Windows Features On/Off"" and turned IE off, rebooted, turned it on, then rebooted. No change.

I will try citizensmiths & Larry's suggestions next. Thank you all again for your efforts. Let you know how it goes later this evening.

 

[Martyn]

I think a quick fix would be to create a new profile as suggested and transfer your data. I'm sure that will work.

 

[freedomit]

I had a similar issue where downloads would get stuck on 99%, the only thing I found to fix it was a new user profile

 

[E Bell]

I came across a computer that had similar symptoms, turned out they were pretty slick and had setup some local policies to prohibit changing the default search and other behaviors. Even after running all the usual tools listed above the settings were still there. I created a script that will allow you automatically remove the settings, but the contents are below. You can download the script if you would like.

Also, have you checked the hosts file?

**Note that if this is for an enterprise machine group policies will be removed; however, once the cycle hits everything will get set backup appropriately. We used this in the enterprise as well to fix some *strange* behavior with profiles...

BTW, the repair/remove group policies in D7 didn't fix the issue...wiping everything below did. Not sure what the difference in their "script" and mine is...but you can give it a try.

@echo off

::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: Group Policy Removal Scrip
:: Created by: Ethan Bell
:: Date: March 15, 2014
:: Description: This script will back up and remove the appropriate registry
::              entries then it will delete the GroupPolice folder/files
::              !!REQUIRES A REBOOT!!
::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: Backup registry entries
::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@echo Backuping up registry entries to %TEMP%
reg export HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies %TEMP%\HKLM_Policies.txt
reg export HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies %TEMP%\HKCU_Policies.txt

::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: Remove registry entries
::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@echo Removing registry entries
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies /f
reg delete HKCU\Software\Policies /f

::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: Delete Group Policy folder
::-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@echo Deleting Group Policy folder
RD /S /Q %windir%\System32\GroupPolicy
RD /S /Q %windir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers


@echo Operation has completed. Please reboot the computer...
pause

BTW, I've also seen FireFox and Chrome have policies setup through their enterprise settings...so be mindful of that as well if this fixes IE, but not FireFox or Chrome.

 

[DonS]

Thank you for the file, E Bell. Sadly, it did not do the trick.

So it finally came down to creating a new user profile and IE was working normally under that profile. So I copied everything over to the new profile. (pretty new installation luckily).

Again thank you all for troubleshooting with me. All of your suggestions are much appreciated!

 

[E Bell]

It was worth a try...when all else fails, rebuild the profile and if that doesn't work...wipenload.