I use IE as my main browser but have been trying to wean myself away and onto Firefox. The last week or so I have mostly only been on Firefox but today I tried to use IE (some programs like my Outlook email use it because it is my default browser) and it will not stay open. It says this:


Internet Explorer has closed this webpage to help protect your computer
A malfunctioning or malicious add-on has caused Internet Explorer to close this webpage.
What you can do:
Go to your home page
Try to return to msn.com
More information More information
Windows Data Execution Prevention detected an add-on trying to use system memory incorrectly. This can be caused by a malfunction or a malicious add-on.
Other things you can do:
Go online to learn about the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) security feature

So, I did look up DEP and also found it in my computer and read what it says. My question is, is my IE infected with something? Or is something else infected with something? Neither Norton nor Malwarebytes has indicated any problem on my computer.

Also, I am having problems with my Excel spreadsheets today. When I used the side scroll bar, the rows of the spreadsheet get out of wack and the font does also. It goes back to normal when I stop using the scroll bar though but it never did that before. And, I cannot get the top part with the commands to stay at the top of the spreadsheet. (I've really only been using the one and haven't checked any others yet.)

Hm, the excel sheet was in compatibility mode and when I reverted it, it seems to be okay.

Maybe the IE crash is caused by something on your IE homepage.
If you have msn.com as your homepage, there's all sorts of scripted junk on that.

Can you change your IE homepage to a simple webpage like https://duckduckgo.com/
and try opening IE again?

Can't get that in there. Sometimes I can get a page to come up but then IE immediately goes down. Shows this in the address bar after IE closes (see below and substitute msn or whatever other site). I did Google this and saw some old articles but I'm not comfortable enough to try anything I saw. I have disabled some add ons that show as being enabled on 9/11 which I know I didn't do on 9/11. I wonder if it has to do with the recent Windows updates?

In fact, I just looked in my update history and see that the 3 updates failed on 9/11 but I did not know that before. I saw them downloading yesterday and installed them yesterday. Should I remove those failed updates somehow? And how?

Actually I did have a problem yesterday and today with the computer suddenly slowing down. I did a restart both days and it was okay after that but yesterday during the restart the computer got hung up "configuring" and it took a whole hour to do whatever it was doing.



res://ieframe.dll/acr_depnx_error.htm#gameboomers.com,http://www.gameboomers.com/

Are you able to get to "Internet Options" through Control Panel?
Alternatively you could try running inetcpl.cpl from the Start menu (which I think runs Internet Options).

Jenny - see my edits while I check on your question. Yes I can.

If it wasn't doing a Windows Update, I don't know what it was doing when it was "configuring."

Unless Windows Update is set to never automatically update, it may do so, even if you tell it to download updates but don't install them. And yes it can slow everything down, even though Microsoft claims it updates "in the background."

Well, I think I probably messed it up because I think the updates were downloading but seemed to be stuck at 28% and that is when my computer got very slow and weird and I did the restart, so maybe I should not have restarted while it was doing that? They were downloading though when I hit restart, not installing.

Have you tried disabling ALL your addons? And then running your antivirus and antimalware software? It really sounds like malware somewhere. IE is very insecure as a web browser, so I wouldn't be surprised if something malicious sneaked it's way in. I had a tablet running the old Windows 8 RT which forced me to use IE. I finally had to quit using the tablet because IE gave me so much trouble I could no longer use the internet without terrible slowdowns.

And I agree with Jenny... get rid of the MSN homepage ASAP. I use the Bing.com homepage and it has nice screens to look at and no scrpts running in the background.

No, I did not try disabling all add-ons, only the ones that showed enabled the other day. Don't know why they were just enabled the other day. I will try that.

Do you think it has anything to do with me restarting while the updates were downloading? I'm quite sure that in the past, they just resumed the next day if I did a shut down while they were downloading.

Do you think uninstalling and reinstalling the updates may help anything?

MSN homepage may not be good but this does not seem to be that (to me)since any page I open causes IE to close.

If I had been using it everyday I could at least pin point the day but of course, it happens when I haven't been using it.

As far as the computer slowing down during the time the updates are downloading, I do know that but what happened yesterday was more than that. Unfortunately, I cannot remember exactly what made it seem "wrong". Today though I do remember that my computer got not just slow, but very sticky like the whole thing might just stop. I used task manager to close everything that was open and had a VERY hard time getting THAT to want to move and do anything. That seemed to start while I was reading something in Firefox, possibly on the MSN page. (No, I do not have MSN as the homepage in Firefox.) There wasn't anything downloading.

If IE doesn't get fixed, is it a threat to my computer or can I just go along my merry way with Firefox and not worry about it?

Edit: Well, I'm in IE right now after disabling ALL add-ons, so maybe I just need to add back in what I want and see what happens?

2nd Edit: It seems to be my WOT. When I enable it, IE stops working. ???

That's very odd about WOT. I have mine enabled with no problems. But then I don't use IE, I use Firefox. Does any of this happen when you use Firefox?

Shutting down in the middle of a download may or may not cause problems with the updates. I know I've done it in the past accidentally and when I rebooted, they just picked up again.

IE will not get fixed. MS stopped supporting all versions earlier than IE 11. And support for that will go away with Windows 7 support the last I heard. They are concentrating on their Edge browser. But you can switch to Firefox and simply not worry about IE at all.

I don't have WOT on Firefox as I haven't fully switched to Firefox. Apparently I have to download it in each browser for it to work in each browser? Is mywot.com the official site? Part of why I kept using IE is because I had the WOT on there. I feel much more secure with it in case I accidently end up on a site that might not be good.

Maybe I will uninstall WOT and reinstall it to see what happens.

Mostly my shutting down in the middle of downloading was also accidently but I do know it happened in the past and picked up where it left off when I rebooted. I guess that's why I wasn't afraid to do it.

I have IE 11 and when it is no longer available and my Windows 7 is offline, I won't worry about it, however, I still am more comfortable in it than I am in Firefox. Maybe I'm just used to it but that's me.

Thanks Draclvr and Jenny100 for your help!

Yes you do need to download for each browser. Yup, that's the official site... https://www.mywot.com/

I'm the same with Firefox! I've used it for so many years, I just can't get comfortable with any other browser! I know Edge is great and really secure, but I just can't warm up to it and keep going back to my good old familiar Firefox!

Thanks Drac!

I uninstalled WOT for Internet Explorer and went to download it and try it again but I don't see any option to download it for IE. If I'm in Firefox, it pops right up "add to Firefox" but in IE it pops up "add to Android". At the bottom of the screen it shows "supported websites" and there is a IE icon but when I click that there are only 4 options to add WOT to and none of them is IE. Maybe this is why it quit working, it's not available for IE anymore?

I did add it to my Firefox though.