Downloading problem (1 Viewer)

[Jon_Are]

I recently had to un-install, then re-install, Internet Explorer. Now I find that I am unable to download anything. When I try, I get no "open now or save to disc" message, just a screen showing a broken piece of film with no further explanation. This has happened at various download sites. Is there a setting within Internet Explorer I should be changing or adjusting?? Thanks!

Jon

 

[Salvador]

try the opera, pretty good substitute to internet explorer. you can get it at www.opera.com

 

[Jon_Are]

Thanks for replying, Salvador, but I'm not looking for something to replace Internet Explorer; I just want to be able to download stuff.
Besides...If I were able to download Opera...I wouldn't have a problem downloading, would I?
Jon

 

[Salvador]

hehehe, minor oversight there but anyway have you tried right clicking and choosing "save as"??? It might work but if it doesn't you should just reinstall windows or if you have an microsoft office CD hanging there you could update internet explorer and see what happens.

 

[Jon_R]

What OS are you running?

Internet Explorer makes mad monkey love to every part of a Windows system and thus removing it never really seems to fix things. Oh sure, I've had mixed luck with that, but on the whole a reinstall seems to fix things. If you have win9x you can reinstall overtop of what you currently have installed and nothing will be deleted. I've done this a few hundred times. Now, make sure you used the disc that you installed with, because if you don't you can get some crazy .dll errors. What I mean is, if you put win95 on, make sure you don't put win95b or win95c on there. My guess is you have Win98SE, and this doesn't apply.

If you have NT/Win2k/XP DO NOT just reinstall overtop. You WILL lose all your stuff if you do. Backup all pertinent things before you reinstall. I've done this 2 times, 1 time by accident, 1 time by lapse of memory, both times it removed my profile (user settings) cleared the registry (broke all MS installed programs) deleted anything in my directory (music, documents, "my documents") and made a new user. Not pretty.

In the future, unless you really have a reason to uninstall IE, I would not. MSHtml.dll errors, which often creep up doing that, cause a system to be unusable and can only be fixed by a reinstall. Mostly because you can't run anything long enough to actually do anything before an mshtml.dll error pops up and kills the process. Its nasty!

Good luck

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

So what Jon R is trying to say, stop using IE and use a browser that doesn't make mad monkey love to the entire OS.
(Ok, ok, that's me saying that, not Jon - but his post will stand as a nice illustration to my point.)
You most likely have a problem with the settings for the browser that tell it what to do with different files. How to fix it on IE I have no idea.
Try doing some searches over at Google Groups, that might help.
I tried searching on the phrase "ie can't download" and got pages full of hits, maybe some of that stuff can help you.

 

[Dave F]

Also, does it happen on all file types?

-Dave

 

[Jon_Are]

Here's an update...I used Salvador's brilliant suggestion to update IE from 5 to 6 (by right-clicking and choosing 'save as'). IE 6 Seems to be working OK as far as downloading, but one aggravating problem remains: I am unable to access Outlook Express - like I used to before all these problems - from within IE. I've gone to Tools/Internet Options/Programs and tried entering Outlook Express as my Email, but it won't let me enter anything (hotmail is the default and it is un-changable). Whenever I start Outlook Express (from outside of IE), it asks if I want it to be my default Email. "Of course I do!", I shout at it, and click the 'yes' box. Nothing changes.

Any ideas??

Thanks!

Jon