Windows 7: Weird IE 8 thing

Okay, so any time I open a new tab to browse, then close it. That tab freezes and it pops up with the whole "this program has stopped working, do you want to find a solution or close the program?"

When I hit "close program" JUST that tab closes.



I think it started happening around the time I had to do a system restore - so around last month-ish.


Any suggestions? Or should I just uninstall/reinstall and see if that fixes it?

use firefox?

Dont like firefox.

Lots of 'troubleshooting' and possible help here 30 New Internet Explorer 8 Help & How To Articles - Tweaking with Vishal

Nope, no help.

Hello !!

Well i would suggest to Reset the IE to Defaults.

Tools | Internet Options | Advance | Reset

Then try to open IE and Test it.

Hope this helps,
Captain

*groans* I know this is going to sound bad, but I REALLY dont wanna do that.... I hate having to try and remember how to set everything back the way it was. Theres a lot I've forgotten how to get it where it is now.


I'll hold onto it as a last resort... is there anything else you can think of to try before that?

Have you tried clearing your cache?

If that doesn’t work, run IE in No Add-ons Mode. Go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Internet Explorer (No Add-ons) - If this fixes the issue, then go to Tools -> Manage Add-ons and enable the add-ons one by one to find which one was causing the problem.

Does that solve your problem?

Cheers,
Bryn
IE Outreach Team

Not very recently, bryn. But I think I did it not too long ago, probably only a few weeks ago while trying to fix an HTTP 400 Bad Request error I keep getting. I think this started around that time.


The strange thing is, I'm running IE with the add ons disabled, but when I went into Manage Add-ons right now, there were a bunch that were still enabled... I mean a BUNCH.


Any way, its not happening right now and I disabled some, so I'll let you know if anything changes.


EDIT: Okay... so, its weird. Its still not happening yet, entirely. I was poking around and on dA (which is where I normally do a lot of tabs), I opened a picture that was a broken image thing - y'know, gray box... white square, red X? Well, when I tab that and click on the image to view it at full size, then close it... the error pops up.

But its not doing it on any other tab - yet.


Okay, so.. cleared my TIFs (temporary internet files) and cookies. We shall see if that does anything. It fixed the broken image on dA.

Strike that. Pointless move. Actually seemed to cause it. Went to dA, opened a few tabs. Closed one. It froze a second, then closed on its own. Closed another, it froze and the "Do you want to fix or close" options. Closed a third, and it closed fine.

Could it just be happening because I'm opening too many tabs? I dont open any more than 4 or 5 at one time...


EDIT 2: Okay, its happening again. Now its happening with every tab. Hit "Find solution and close" with all of them, didnt change anything.

Went back and used IE with out the add-ons. It stopped, the problem is is that when I look at the addons, nothing has changed. The addons that were enabled before are still enabled. The ones that were disabled before are still disabled. I just went through and disabled everything, so we'll see...

Okay, I think I figured out what it was. I hope. I have Norton on my computer and their 2010 version has a toolbar feature. Its pretty cool in that it remembers passwords and the like (kinda like Google does), but the problem with it is is that if you have more than 6 passwords and add a 7th, it drops one of the previous ones. I dont know if its mine or what... but I had just had a Norton tech reinstall it after the system restores I had to do (thanks to HP *eye roll), so it was a fresh install.

Any way, I had part of the toolbar still enabled. Its the only one I havent re-enabled and the problem hasnt come back, even after multiple tabs and multiple long browsing sessions and then multiple tabs. *knocks on wood* I think it was bogging IE down with multiple tabs open, causing it to freeze.


If it comes back, I'll post.