I am taking an online course at a nearby community college and they have a list of things to tune up your browser. They say their online program doesn't accept IE 5.5 Service Pack 1 and IE 6.0 is not fully supported.

When I click on my About button this is what it shows me:

5.50.4134.0100IC

I had tried in the past unsuccessfully to download IE 6.0. The download never completed. Because of what they said, I would like to stick with IE 5.5 Service Pack 2.

Is there a way to download that version even though 6.0 is the latest?

IE 5.50.4134.0100 is the version installed with Windows ME. The "IC" indicates that it has been supplied by an Internet Content Provider (which means some party other than Microsoft), and may have been customized or otherwise altered. It may, in fact, have been hacked to prevent you from installing any other version of the browser. This is probably the case if you cannot install IE 5.5 SP2 over the existing version.

This is a real problem, because it likely means that some type of spyware or other trojan has been integrated into IE, to monitor your websurfing habits, report the sites visited, or even extract personal information from the computer.

Download the IE 5.5 SP2 installer. If you can download the installer, and the upgrade to IE 5.5 SP2 fails, please post again. There is a method by which you can reinstall Windows, and force the default browser to be installed.

On the other hand, you may well have no problems upgrading to IE 5.5 SP2. In a successful installation, the version should be 5.50.4807.2300 (as reported by IE Help) and 5.51.4807.2300 (in the IExplorer.exe file properties)

[This message was edited by TomGL2 on 08-20-02 at 03:36 AM.]

Boy, would I be lost without you guys!

After I posted the question, I thought I had figured it out myself without checking back here. That was dumb. I found on Microsoft's site where to download IE 5.5 SP2, and it appeared to download.

The thing is the IE Help reports 5.50.4807.2300 (as you said). However, the file properties in the IE.exe icon on the desktop don't match what you said. The "General" tab says "IE 5.5SP2 Setup.exe" in the "Name" blank. The "File Version" says "6.0.2600.0." The "Product Name" says "IE 6". The "Version" says "6.00.2600.0000."

I didn't write it down, but I believe the "Original File Name" was called "WEXTRACT."

I have the icon on the desktop that appeared after the download, but when I searched for files or folders called IExplorer.exe, I received no search results.

Sometimes when I dial up the Internet connection, there are two boxes down at the bottom of the screen saying, "http://www.yahoo.com." I used to have two boxes at the bottom all the time before I did a scan disk, a disk cleanup, deleted cookies, and deleted contents of Windows/Temp folder. Now I just get it part of the time.

What do you think is going on?

Thanks so much for your help.

Start Internet Explorer, then click Help and "About Internet Explorer". If the reported version is 5.50.4807.2300, then IE 5.5 SP2 should be installed.

Search the C:\Program Files folder for IEXPLORE.EXE (not IEXPLORER).exe). Right-click the file, then click Properties and Version. If the version reads 5.51.4807.2300, then IE 5.5 SP2 is definitely installed.

The file on the Desktop whose "Original Filename" is WEXTRACT, with a version of 6.00.2600.0000, is the installer for Internet Explorer 6 (its file size should be 496KB). Disregard the filename "IE 5.5SP2 Setup.exe" -- it's not only wrong, but Microsoft has never used that name for any Internet Explorer installer. The correct filename is ie6setup.exe, and you should rename it accordingly.

The "the icon on the desktop that appeared after the download" should be named ie5setup.exe. This is the correct filename for any Internet Explorer 5 installer, whether 5.0, 5.01 SP2, or other.

I followed the steps in your post.

Aboutsays 5.50.487.2300IC- Down at the bottom of description, it says it is a customized version. You had suggested this as a possibility. Do I need to have a default version for safety?

IEXPLORER.EXEdoes say 5.51.4807.2300.

I renamed WEXTRACT(version 6.00.2600.000 -- it is 496KB -- to ie6setup.exe. However, this is the only icon on the desktop relating to IE. There is no ie5setup.exe icon on desktop .

Search for ie*setup.exe revealed the following files:

ie6setup.exe C:\Windows\Desktop
ie6setup.exe C:\Windows\Windows Update Setup Files\
ie6setup.exe C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer
ie6setup.exe C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer
IE5SETUP.exe C:\My Documents\MHP\REDIST\IE5
ie6setup.exe C:\ie6setup
ie5setup.exe C:\Windows\Windows Update Setup Files

What do you suggest next?

It takes 5 posts to solve an annoying IE bug! I can't wait till the day we all use Opera or Netscape. Our online transactions would be more secure and we would need less bug patches.

Someday...