How to fix Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close

Posted on November 10, 2007 at 12:34 pm

Make sure to read other posts from the Fix Windows Errors series!

How to fix Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close
How to fix runonce.msn.com runonce2.aspx error in IE7
How to fix Microsoft Windows Search Indexer stopped working and was closed
How to fix access is denied, file may be in use, or sharing violation errors in Windows
How to fix "there no active mixer devices available" error message in Windows
How to fix svchost.exe errors and problems with high CPU usage

Have you ever been browsing the Internet using IE happily until all of a sudden you get this horrid “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close” error message, after which IE completely shuts down and you lose all of your tabs along with any forms you might have been filling out? Now that I use Firefox religiously, this has not happened to be even once, but it happened all the time with Internet Explorer.

So for those poor souls still using IE 6 or 7, here’s a quick list of steps you can take to try and fix the underlying problem. The cause of this error can be any number of things, so you may have to try a few things before it actually fixes the problem. Your error may look something like this:

Error sign
AppName: iexplore.exe AppVer. 7.0.5730.11 ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 61eb77e0

So what the heck to do if you get this error? Try each one of these steps and see if the problem goes away:

Open IE, go to Tools, Internet Options, and clear out the temporary Internet files. Click Delete All and choose the option to delete all offline content also. In case you downloaded some executable file that is causing the problem, this will remove it.
Run anti-spyware and anti-virus software on the computer. Download Adware and Spybot and run each to remove any malware. Also, download CCleaner and HiJackThis and run both applications. Remove unwanted entries that you see when you run HiJackThis (you’ll have to read the docs to know what to remove).
Go to Start, Run and then type in MSCONFIG. Click on the Startup tab and uncheck all items and then re-start the computer. This disables all startup programs from running. If you still get the error, go ahead and turn them back on the same way.
Disable Smarts Tags in Internet Explorer by going to Tools, Internet Options, Advanced tab, and then clearing the Enable Smart Tags check box.
Install the latest updates from Microsoft Update web site. If you started receiving this error AFTER installing the latest updates, you will have to perform a System Restore to the point before you installed the updates. You can access the System Restore feature by going to Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then System Tools.
Use System File Checker to scan for changes or modifications to Windows protected files. If any files were overwritten or deleted, etc, SFC will automatically retrieve the correct version of the file and replace it. You can run SFC by going to Start, and then Run, typing in CMD and then typing sfc /scannow in the command window.
Re-register Internet Explorer DLL files. Click on Start, then Run, type in CMD and then type the following lines and press Enter after each one:

regsvr32 softpub.dll
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
regsvr32 initpki.dll
regsvr32 dssenh.dll
regsvr32 rsaenh.dll
regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll
regsvr32 sccbase.dll
regsvr32 slbcsp.dll
regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll

Disable all third party addons to Internet Explorer by going to Start, Control Panel, Internet Options, Advanced tab and then un-checking the “Enable third party browser extensions” check box. You will have to scroll down a couple of lines.

Hopefully if you’ve been getting this error, one of these methods mentioned above will fix the problem. If you have questions about how to perform a step, please post a comment and I will try to help you out! Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: internet explorer, internet explorer needs to close, internet explorer encountered a problem, internet explorer error, IE shuts down, IE closes unexpectedly

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» Filed Under Internet Explorer Tips

21 Responses to “How to fix Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close”

Madhur Kapoor said on : November 11th, 2007 at 6:45 am

Nice article buddy. I use IE7 frequently and sometimes encounter this error. So this will help me a lot.

Abdul Hameed said on : December 22nd, 2007 at 12:27 pm

Thanks.

Fred said on : December 24th, 2007 at 6:29 am

Nice! The only thing I’d add is: Control Panel –> Internet Options –> Advanced –> Disable Script Debugging. That’s also a common cause of that error message.

Steph said on : January 4th, 2008 at 2:39 am

Hi there

I try to go to tools/internet options, but a pop-up message comes up: “this operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. please contact your system administrator.”

how do i fix this?

many thanks
steph

akishore said on : January 4th, 2008 at 9:27 am

Hi Steph,

The message you are getting means that there are restrictions placed it on because of the network you are on. This is common for domain environments at corporate offices. Is this an office computer?

Tripleeagle said on : January 12th, 2008 at 6:53 am

I quit IE7 for FireFox because of this problem - When I reboot my computers, I’ll install Explorer again! Thanks!

mars said on : February 13th, 2008 at 11:33 pm

unchecking the “Enable third party browser extensions” truly works…it really solved my problems…

i’ve also been stucked with that same problem…
thanks for the help bro… kudos to you…

joan said on : February 17th, 2008 at 6:37 am

i am not computer literate and need to speak with a live person can someone help me

Tofu said on : February 24th, 2008 at 7:26 am

Hi Mars,

your tip is so goodddddd,it truly works

Greg said on : February 28th, 2008 at 11:57 pm

#7 post (mars), I can’t thank you enough for posting that!! My computer was having major problems everytime I tried to close about half my pages I had opened,it would close out everything I had opened!! I was very disgusted with it but now it finally works perfectly!! Thanks, man!!

carl from philippines! said on : March 13th, 2008 at 9:16 am

thank you very much! this helps me alot!

carl from philippines! said on : March 15th, 2008 at 6:11 am

ei my problem is not solved yet! it says “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. blah blah blah! how do i fix this? i click the don’t send button and it appears again and i click again don’t send then it appears again… my computer desktop is slowing… 1 sec interval… sorry for my bad english! ^^

James said on : April 12th, 2008 at 8:37 am

This only seems to happen to me when I have more than one YouTube page open. It’s been very annoying. I’ve followed mars’ tip, but I think I’m also going to follow the article’s suggestion and switch to Firefox whenever I use YouTube from now on. Thanks a lot for the advice, everyone.

rami said on : April 13th, 2008 at 11:55 pm

actually i did everyting you said but with no luck, but i opend the report and found a note file hidden in temp. folder causing the problem, i deleted it and the problem was solved, full thanks

ying said on : April 19th, 2008 at 11:41 pm

Thank you very much for your attention. I can fix my long time problem. thank thank

Owen said on : April 20th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

Thanks for the help. That message has been bugging me for months and was a constant irritant. I tried your option eight down the line, since it seemed the simpliest, by un-checking the “Enable third party browser extentions.” It worked like a charm. Almost couldn’t believe it.

Joni said on : April 25th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

So, I don’t normally have a problem, howEVER mine seems to only toss out the error and close on me when I highlight and right click, I never get the option to look at the properties or anything, it just shuts down. This is even off my own website when I want to copy something I already have up there and want to email to my family.

Get THIS, I went to ie home page and signed up to post on the website of help. When the pop up warning came on to have me allow the pop up to post the error, I got that dreaded issue from this main post, very rare. UHG! I use both ie and firefox because my email program has to have i.e. to get mail from all five emails address. oh help. please?

Josefin said on : April 30th, 2008 at 11:09 pm

This site is another great resource…

http://www.pctuneuptools.com

Yvonne Young said on : May 2nd, 2008 at 3:41 pm

I have been using Mozilla Firefox for a long time, but recently the same thing is happening as with Internet Explorer. ‘Firefox is encountering a problem and needs to close’ I Cannot log on to My Space, it just will not let me.It only does this on My Space. I can get days when it is fine, and days like today where I just cannot log on. I have tried all the different options; clearing cookies, putting Firefox in safe mode, installing and reinstalling Firefox, and still Firefox still encounters problems and needs to close. Opera does exactly the same thing, in fact they all do it. I still haven’t found a way to fix the problem.

Susie Johnston said on : May 12th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

For the past six months now, I have been experiencing the “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close” message. I have tried many many different methods to correct the problem but none worked until I tried came across yours. It worked like a charm…no more problems! Your instructions were easy to understand and complete. you are a miracle worker, my computer works properly again! Many many thanks for your expertise.