How to repair Internet Explorer from fatal Spyware damage

This is a brief guide about how to repair Internet Explorer after a crippling Spyware/Adware/Malware attack.

You get called out to a computer repair job with the description that the client cannot view webpage’s. Once you get there you the first thing you do is check the connections such as the phone line to the wall which is fine, you then check the networking settings and your DNS works fine and you can also ping servers and websites.

After some testing you see that their Internet Explorer has been damaged by some Spyware and wont render any webpage’s at all.

Here are some ways to repair IE that need to be performed in the following order, be sure to restart IE after attempting each step:

1. Goto Start > Run and type “sfc /scannow” (without the quotes), once it goes through its workings, reboot the computer. If this does not fix IE then goto step 2.

2. Goto the registry by going to Start > Run and typing “regedit”. Once in the registry navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}

And either add or modify the existing key IsInstalled to the value of “0”. Then reinstall IE6 and reboot the system. If this does not fix it goto step 3.

3. Goto: Start > Run and type “%SystemRoot%\INF” then click Ok. Locate the file called “IE.inf” (note: NOT IE.pnf). Once found, right click on it and click Install.

4. Download the utility LSP Fix (http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm) which will reset your WinSock settings. Once reset, restart the system.

5. On some occasions the HOSTS file of the system can be tainted by Spyware/Aware or Viruses. Check this by going to Start > Run and typing in:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and open it with a text editor like notepad. The only entry that should be there is 127.0.0.1 localhost unless the client is on a large or business network in which case you better consult with them and ask them if they know any of the addresses.

If none of these steps work try either a repair install of Windows XP , a complete reinstall of XP or even recommend another browser such as Mozilla Firefox.