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!

[tags]internet explorer, internet explorer needs to close, internet explorer encountered a problem, internet explorer error, IE shuts down, IE closes unexpectedly[/tags]

» Filed Under Internet Explorer Tips

Comments

76 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.

Nasir said on : May 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 am

I suggest you to use firefox. It is more stable.

Shawna said on : June 3rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm

I am having the error message only after i try to log onto a website. i have gone threw all the steps above and had no luck. any advice…Please!

Sancred Welfare Foundation said on : June 26th, 2008 at 3:59 am

When I browse gmail and scan by McAfee the message ” internet exploxer has been encoutered by a problem. Sorry for the inconvenience” comes up. Then I need to close.

J Yu said on : June 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

Thank you so much for the help. That message came instantly whenever I tried to get on the internet. Since that was my main computer use, I was ready to toss my computer but tried the first few options you listed anyways. I ended up skipping to your option eight, since another guy commented about how helpful and easy it was–just un-checking the “Enable third party browser extentions.” Worked like a charm for me too. Thank you–you’ve saved me the cost of a new laptop!

darc darc said on : July 28th, 2008 at 2:18 am

Every time i sign into myspace, internet explorer encounters a problem and quits. Can you help me?

tg said on : August 9th, 2008 at 8:44 am

All excellent advice. Thanks. I would also add what I had to do. My problem started suddenly. Additionally, at the same time, seemingly unrelated (but not) my pc started rebooting at random times. I replaced the power supply, because I started watching to see that when I got the IE error message the link lights on the NIC had gone out. I guess the power was dropping just enough to loose power to the NIC, but not reboot the pc.

Tony said on : August 27th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

Hi all,

I have a problem with IE7, when I open it I only see the tab with “connecting” for about two seconds and just closed. Thanks.

sharad said on : August 29th, 2008 at 7:16 am

very good commands for internet explorer DLL repairing
i solved my problems

thank you

Castro A Moshi said on : September 1st, 2008 at 8:46 am

Hi Thanks for the advice it works i just go to tools internet option dissable debugging and the error disappear

Bryan said on : September 8th, 2008 at 11:49 am

Thanks for this!

My firefox showed firefox.exe encountered an error and needs to close in youtube.

Uninstalled it and tried going to youtube using IE7. But similar problem occured. IE has encountered a problem…..

Help

cupcake said on : September 10th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

I re-registered the IE DLL file. WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!!!! THANKS SO MUCH!!!! I WAS GOING NUTS!!!

Sonia said on : September 11th, 2008 at 7:41 am

Great advice, my problem came on all of a sudden, but point 8 sorted it all out..Excellent!!!

Bonita said on : September 13th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

Thank you for the fix for the internet explorer. I just did the reset on the advanced tab… so far so good. I have tried everything. This was so helpful

Nawaz said on : September 17th, 2008 at 1:12 am

Im getting an error message frequently on my computer when i try to open any windows.

Unknown software exception (0xc06d007f) occured in the application at location 0×7c812a5b.

jean hardcastle said on : September 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 am

I have been trying for months to get rid of “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem” having tried various remedies,tried DISABLE ALL THIRD PARTY ADDONS -amazing- so far it has worked. -touch wood fingers crossed!!!!!

jean hardcastle said on : September 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am

I’m afraid its come back -oh dear.

Bryan said on : September 24th, 2008 at 2:11 am

I used the web after re-installing my OS. And it happened again.

I gave up finally and brought my computer to the shop. The verdict: There’s something wrong with the memory and needed replacement.

gux said on : September 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am

I kept getting this dreaded message. Always at the worst time. In the error message, however, there was indication of a conflict with the msn toolbar. Once I removed that, I have had no further problems. So, IE7 and MSN toolbar have a compatibility problem. Isn’t that rich?

Windows kept telling me the problem was with HP Web printing which wasn’t even installed. Was a useless mess.

BTW, Yahoo toolbar works fine.

owen said on : October 11th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

I have this problem but only from Friday thru Sunday. It is my opinion that IE explorer is being maintained over the weekend, and to manage traffic, I periodically get bounced. Does anyone else have this “WEEKEND PROBLEM” with IE Explorer?

Chris said on : October 17th, 2008 at 11:39 am

Thanks so much for the post. This error message has been bugging me for months. I was having to slide it away every time I got on and then close it when logged off. THANKS!

Mike said on : October 19th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

This error happens with me on FireFox and IE 7.0

kim said on : October 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 am

Everytime i got to my hotmail or facebook a message always pops up saying “Send or dnt send” then the site closes how do i get rid of this as i cant get into hotmail or facebook

Amit said on : November 7th, 2008 at 1:13 am

My internet explore shuts when I log in to gmail.com but all other sites opens please give me solution asap

Thanks

dkmishra said on : November 14th, 2008 at 10:07 am

I tried all the steps given above but could not get rid of the problem. Then I tried the suggestion given by mars i.e. unchecking “enable third party browser extensions” and it really worked. Unfortunately I deleted all my cookies and other temp. files in the process. Anyway thanks for the blog.

Michelle said on : November 19th, 2008 at 3:00 am

I encountered this problem recently and it was driving me crazy. I don’t believe I downloaded anything recently. My internet explorer kept closing down and I would get the error message. Unchecking “enable third party browser extensions” worked for me! Thanks so much

Ryan G said on : December 1st, 2008 at 7:41 pm

Thanks! Tried your tips and now all is grand.

yas said on : December 2nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm

This page worked for me: i did the unchecking the “Enable third party browser extensions” and it worked i dont have the problem anymore!

joross said on : December 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am

# 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

this one really work… try it…thanks…

John m said on : December 12th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

“Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close
This is the message I get. I Re-register Internet Explorer DLL files. All worked except regsvr32 initpki.dll
Said could not be found.

What next?

Salil Awasthi said on : December 21st, 2008 at 11:12 pm

I have tried almost every method u mentioned to fix Internet Explorer but none of them works. Now i have only one option left, format the system and install fresh windows or install third party software.

Ganesan said on : December 28th, 2008 at 11:44 am

You are great man.. No one can give such detailed help… Keep it up.. Thanks

Ronj said on : January 23rd, 2009 at 7:26 pm

I did the unchecking the “Enable third party browser extensions” and it worked i dont have the problem anymore!
I couldn’t keep the web opened long enough to click on tools.

Lemmy70 said on : January 30th, 2009 at 4:09 am

When I try and strat IE, the error report box “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close,” appears instantly, I have tried everything, I’ve upgraded XP to SP3, reinstalled IE7 followed all your advice plus the advice of others, and I still have the problem. The only thing I haven’t tried is running anti malware software as my PC is on a network and it wont let me. My IT “Guru” hasn’t been able to fix the problem either so I will not be going there. Wanted to fix it myself so I could rub it in his face…haha.

Does anyone have any answers?
Oh btw, if I choose to open IE with add ons disabled the error message does not appear until I type a URL in the address bar…

Ta Craig…

PAT said on : February 12th, 2009 at 2:30 am

I tried all the all options suggested. My IE continues to encounter problems. It encounters the problem when I access the website that runs a web based application that we use in our instition. Other web sites are just opening without problems. The application was created in Oracle and requires jinitiator to run. Please help.

curdiMAN said on : February 26th, 2009 at 5:43 am

my browser wasn’t working well for along time until i read this article tnx a lot.

msds03 said on : March 29th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

HELP! I am having this same issue as well. I tried downloading my virus/spyware protection and it won’t let me. I can’t get into cmd either. I’m at a loss

adrienne vaughn said on : April 20th, 2009 at 10:32 pm

Within the last month I installed IE8 on my dad’s WinXP Home Edition. Also, he has the free versions of Avast for viruses and Abexo (registry). Everything was working fine and then all of a sudden the computer goes on line @ start-up and within about an hr. a msg. shows up- “IE cannot disply this page”- and it tells me to ck. under “file” to be sure that “work offline” isn’t ck’d-it usually is. Can someon please tell me why this is happening and what to do to combat the problem? Oh yeah, I also rcv’d an error msg. today that said the error couldn’t be defined.

wew said on : May 3rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm

Thank you, I had about given up when I read your fixes. MY fix was to disable all third party addons, magic, now it works. Thanks

Bridget said on : May 22nd, 2009 at 5:41 am

I have tried everything suggested on this page and others I’ve found. I have emptied temp files, deleted cookies. I have run Norton 360 and even bought a different program called RegTool that was GUARANTEED to solve this problem. I ran it twice. I ran Norton twice. My modem is fine. My router is fine. I have rebooted my machine over 100 times just today. I have been trying to resolve this problem for two weeks, and it’s just gotten worse. I’ve been trying since 10 this morning, and it’s almost 5 the next morning. There is NOTHING I haven’t tried.

And. Every. Single. Time. I. Try. To. Open. A. Web. Page. I. Get:

“Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.”

Since I can’t use my computer, I can’t get any work done. Since I can’t get any work done, I can’t get paid, and I’m going to be fired from my job. That means the bank is going to foreclose on my house, and I’ll be out on the street.

I called Microsoft. They refuse to help. I called HP. They refuse to help.

Once you get this message, all you can do is junk the computer and spend a couple thou on a new one, right? Because there isn’t a solution to this problem.

Kittiy K. said on : May 31st, 2009 at 6:32 pm

“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. ”

It’s saying I need the Windows XP Disc, I no longer have it… What do I do? Thanks!

Bill Samuel said on : June 6th, 2009 at 6:41 am

Is this a joke? IE won’t run, and the first step in fixing it is to open IE? THE PROBLEM IS THAT IT CAN’T BE OPENED. At all. Even after reinstalling. That won’t work, bud.

vanda said on : August 12th, 2009 at 1:47 pm

Great! thank you!! Now I’m not getting the Internet Explorer error anymore!

siva said on : September 18th, 2009 at 12:20 am

Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. I get this error every time I try to use Orkut!?

shamil said on : September 20th, 2009 at 6:24 pm

thnx….i was facing the same problem…..i tried one of the above methods and it worked..my “IE encountered a problem” issue was solved! thnx very much

Gordon Soutar said on : October 19th, 2009 at 7:48 am

IE most often has this problem due to an incompatible add on.
Try clicking on Start\Control Panel\Internet Options\General Tab then under browsing history click delete Temporary files. After doing this click on the Advanced Tab then the Reset Button and click ‘Yes’ to confirm.
This certainly worked for me…hopefully it will for you also

Ghanshyam said on : October 26th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

Really Its Work Very nice.
# 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

this one really work… try it…thanks…

Ashish M said on : November 24th, 2009 at 8:11 am

This is very good article, I fixed my problem just by removing third party extensions!

Julia Martin said on : December 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm

Thank you so much for helping me solve the problem I was having with Internet Explorer 7. The error was “IE has encountered a problem and must close”. I did the re-register IE DLL files. So far I have not had any IE errors and today is the second day.

Thanks Again,

Julia Martin

laura said on : December 25th, 2009 at 2:17 pm

this one really works… thanks…no more IE has encountered a problem and needs to close error!

Kattie said on : January 13th, 2010 at 12:59 am

I recently installed a fresh copy of Windows XP Pro SP2 and then connected to the internet but unfortunately every time i connect to the internet the message appears that some error encountered and needs to be closed. Send or don’t send message appears. Internet stop downloading or uploading….not only in Internet Explorer but Firefox also. Could you please give me the Registry entries so i can repair this issue. Thanks.

steve said on : January 24th, 2010 at 1:43 am

anytime i try to download a file and run it a screen pops up and tells me a problem has occured and the program needs to close i can’t figure the problem out what can or should i do?

T. J. Steenland said on : January 26th, 2010 at 11:59 pm

Couldn’t log into JP Morgan Chase using MSIE7 because of the “IE encountered a problem” error. Changing to Firefox solved problem.

Aliza said on : February 5th, 2010 at 12:07 am

thanks for the tips….I have had this problem with Internet Explorer and was really searching for this solution. Thanks a million

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