I have people ask me “how do you know how to fix this problem, are you a member of some secret society?”

After many years of learning experiences, you accumulate knowledge. Just like your garage accumulates junk. If it weren’t for problems how would we ever learn anything new?

So here is admission to the “secret society” for this month

Internet explorer 7 (IE7) is giving you fits. It either locks up and freezes or that wonderful popup box appears that says “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvience.”

In IE’s defense, the problem could be caused by an ADD-ON. Add-ONs that are from 3rd party (not from Microsoft) software vendors. They can be helpful and beneficial when “everyone gets along”. To test this assumption, start IE in safe mode.

Click on START, ALL PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, then click on “Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)”

If you can’t recreate the problem, then it probably is one of those pesky add-ons. So now the fun begins. You can disable all of the add-ons and enable one by one, testing each time to recreate the problem. Or disable the add-ons one at a time and test each time to recreate the problem.

The secret place to do this is in Internet Explorer. Click on TOOLS, MANAGE ADD-ONS, click on “Enable or Disable Add-Ons”. Now you should have a screen listing all your Add-Ons.

Disable them all or disable one at a time, it is your choice. If you don’t want to bother with all these steps, you can always install Firefox. Firefox is another web browser, just isn’t owned or controlled by Microsoft.

Have fun

Julie