The process iexplore.exe is the executable application file that runs Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is used by approximately 85% of all web surfers. It is a part of the operating system and deleting or disabling the process may cause unexpected things to stop working. Many applications that connect to the internet will create an instance if iexplore.exe when they load so they can contact the internet. For example, I just used TaxAct to do my income taxes. When I click on the efile button, the application uses the instance it loaded of iexplore.exe when I opened the program to send my return to the server that processes income tax returns.

However, in this day and age of viruses and Trojans, a process called iexplore.exe could also be a Trojan that is disguising itself as the legitimate web browser file. One way to determine whether an instance of iexplore.exe that is running on your computer is legitimate or bogus is to check what folder it is in. The legitimate internet explorer application is located in the C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer folder. If the file is located in the C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder, there is a relatively high probability that it may be a virus, Trojan or worm. In any other folder, the iexplore.exe file may or may not be being used to create instances of internet explorer for the application whose folder it resides in.

Iexplore.exe Errors

This is a very common runtime error. Unfortunately not all of the reported errors are actually caused by the iexplore.exe process which can be extremely frustrating to the person trying to fix the problem.

“What?” You ask. “How can an error message about iexplore.exe be caused by some other process?”

Internet explorer has an extensibility model that allows programmers to write add-ons to the browser such as the yahoo or google toolbar. These programs add an additional toolbar to the internet explorer’s standard set by integrating its code very tightly with the iexplore.exe code so that for all practical purposes it becomes a part of the code. As a result if the add-on crashes, the operating system will report it as a problem with iexplore.exe and since not all add-ons are obvious and many could be spyware, figuring out the problem can be frustrating.

The second way that an error can be caused by another process involves the use of ActiveX components. ActiveX allows code to be downloaded from websites within the browser to provide all kinds of enhancements and interactive features on web pages. So if the problem is within an ActiveX component, the operating system will report it as a problem with iexplore.exe. Again, some ActiveX components could also be spyware.

Fixing iexplore.exe Errors

Follow the following steps to fix an iexplore.exe error”:

• Scan your computer for spyware. This is one of the most common causes of the iexplore.exe error message. Fortunately most of the spyware found is the benign adware variety but still a royal pain in the butt if it is causes your browser to crash.
• Next scan for viruses even though they are less likely to be causing the problem without you having a lot of other problems as well. Make sure you check just to be sure.
• On windows 2000, XP and Vista run the system file checker (SFC.exe) to detect and repair any system files that are missing or corrupt.
• Run the windows update program. Frequently the updates are patches to fix know bugs that cause crashes.
• If you are running any other operating system, uninstall internet explorer, reboot the system and reinstall the application.

Preventing iexplore.exe Errors

Debugging these problems is tricky as I have already explained. One way to determine if an instance of iexplore.exe is legitimate is to check out what processes are running on your computer and when they were loaded into memory.

If you are running windows XP or Vista, there is a program called msconfig that shows what is being loaded into memory. Select Start -> Run then type msconfig into the dialogue box.

The System Configuration Utility window will open. Select the Startup tab. It should look something like the picture below.

 

You can expand the Command column to see the full path of whatever is loading into memory. To disable an item and prevent it from loading at startup, just remove the check mark and click on OK.

Under the Services tab, you can check to see if any suspicious services are loading. You can disable the service to prevent it from starting by removing the check mark. Be aware that disabling services may cause applications to stop working so I recommend you google the service or the executable to see what it does before disabling it.

If you are using an earlier version of windows, there is a free download from sysinternals.com that will show you all of the processes running on your machine.