Explorer did a critical error bla bla and must be closed

[Nitro]

This is related to my other post here but this is happening alot lately....
Explorer crashes when I am using Internet Explorer, I was just on google looking at a site, hit back and that crashed it, a few times- but not every time I did back there it crashed.

[Hazel-rah]

Give us your system details. Hardware, OS, etc.

[Nitro]

Internet explorer 6.0, no firewall, my ISP is an Israeli one, ADSL 1.5mb, 160 RAM, Pentium 2 - 466mhz, windows 98 SE. Oh and my hardisk is running a bit low but I am taking care of that.

[¿Ðàrkér¿ TRC]

No firewall? Try to reinstall your browser, or get Mozilla Firefox, then get a firewall and do a ad-ware and virus scan. :P

[NinJazz]

that happens me also :(you'd better get a virus scan, F-SEcure is really good, and if your net will not open somewhy sometimes, scan virusses and then re-open your comp (restart)

[Nitro]

How do I reinstall my browser?

[Hazel-rah]

Windows 98 is crap. But I understand why you're running it: you only have a Pentium 2.

Trying going to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, click (Microsoft) Internet Explorer, and you will be able to Repair it from there. If it still crashes after repair then I don't know what to tell you.

Run an Ad-Aware scan.

http://www.lavasoft.de

or a Spybot Search & Destroy scan.

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10289035.html?tag=lst-0-2

[Torkell]

...my hardisk is running a bit low...
Define "a bit low". Windows does some very werid stuff if it runs out of disk space.

[Nitro]

Like less than 500 mega left.

[Tubz]

If.all.else.fails!

Format the comp!

[Nitro]

No can do. 11gb of music and 6gb of movies. I will need a new hardisk and then I'd like transfer it or something.

[Tubz]

Well, you can always just format the C drive. The worst thing that's going to happen if you don't backup is that you'll lose everything on the desktop and start menu, meaning all the shortcuts are gone. And everything in Documents and Settings will revert back to normal. You can easily format and reinstall windows, by booting from the WinXP cd. Although the dude at Tech Support, keeps telling me that you need an old full version of windows, to do this. You can set boot from CD in BIOS.

[Torkell]

500 meg is a bit light. I'd delete some stuff to free up space (e.g. zap the contents of C:\Windows\Temp and don't forget to empty the recycle bin). Defragmenting the thing might be worthwhile, it probably won't solve the problem but if you're down to 500MB then it will speed up disk access.

Another thing to try: boot the computer in safe mode (pound F8 from the post until you get a boot menu, may have to hold it down from the post but some bioses give a stuck key error if you do that). Then run *full* anti-virus and anti-spyware checks. Oh, and use a decent anti-spyware program. There are a *lot* that pretend to be anti-spyware but do more harm than good. I personally use SpyBot Search & Destroy, but Ad-aware is just as good. Beware of others (especially other free ones), they often contain spyware themselves. Especially if they have a name like "ada-ware" (note placing of hyphen).

Derivative, he said he's running Win98. 98 != XP. In particular, no Documents and Settings folder, and the CD I don't think is bootable (tried it recently and it didn't).

[Tubz]

Well, I dunno, the tech support guy at Microsoft, told me CD booting started with Windows 95 or 98. In that case he would have to use Fdisk to make partitions, and delete, and well that's another lesson.

AVG (www.grisoft.com) is a great Anti-virus software.

[Torkell]

Well, I dunno, the tech support guy at Microsoft, told me CD booting started with Windows 95 or 98.
My laptop refuses to boot from a 98SE disk, even tho it can boot from CD. YMMV, of course.

[Tubz]

YMMV?

[Torkell]

Your Mileage May Vary - basically, what works for me may work differently for you.