Assuming that something is loading on IE and then closing it down, and that all versions of IE are affected, some of the IE user settings may have been altered, so try this:
starred * items are the most important
In Control Panel, Internet Options, General tab, note the home page address down, and then set the home page to "Use blank"*. This should prevent some bad home page fouling up the browser.
(That may be enough, but I would recommend that you do a thorough clean-up as follows
The following steps are slightly different for IE versions 6,7,and 8:
I'll go through 6, and just follow the same sort of routine for 7 and 8, which each have slightly more options and different dialogs.
6:
Temporary Internet files
Assuming you can reset/recreate all site passwords/cookies etc., the next time you go to any site that needs them,
click Delete cookies... and get rid of them *
click Delete files... and get rid of them *
History
click clear History
In the Security Tab
set to Default level
In Connections (assuming you have broadband through a cable/ASDL modem/wireless router etc.) [LAN] settings, make sure that no proxy is set* (unless you are required to do so, in which case make sure that everything is correct.)
After that I would restart windows and see if Internet Explorer starts properly.
Since you have another browser installed and working, I would assume that your internet connection is OK, and that the TCP/IP setup is ok.
There is one other file I can think of that may be giving problems, the Hosts (no file extension) file in the /Windows/System32/Drivers/Etc/ folder. Generally it is not used by Windows, but bad entries can cause problems.
It can be an empty text file, or contain the following lines by default:
Code:
# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
If Hosts has a lot of entries different to this, rename it as hosts.old, and using notepad, copy the above code to a new file and save it in the /etc/folder as hosts.
Let us know how you get on.
