Internet Explorer 9 closes immediately on startup

I've just finished installing Internet Explorer 9 on my Windows 7 32-bit machine. It appeared to complete okay, with no errors or warnings in the event logs.

However when I try to run Internet Explorer 9, the window opens, the blue loading circle spins, "not responding" appears, then the window shuts without anything appearing in the browser window.

My machine is a decent spec, and I've had no problems with Internet Explorer 8, or any other browser before.

Here are the things I've tried which didn't help:

Installing Internet Explorer 9 via Windows Update, instead of manually
Running in "no add-ons" mode
Disabling all add-ons manually
Running the OS in safe mode
Temporarily disabling firewall/antivirus
Resetting Internet Explorer settings in "Internet Properties"
Ticking "Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering" in "Internet Properties"
Re-registering dlls
Running program as administrator
Installing Service Pack 1
Installing all critical/important Windows updates
Logging into Windows as different user
Downloading the installer using a different machine (in case installer was corrupt)

I am now officially out of ideas. Anyone have any more?

UPDATE Ok. It looks like we might be getting somewhere. I have run procmon, as suggested by ccpizza. Here's the result when I try running IE9. It's full of "Name not found" and "Path not found" errors. Why they're happening- I don't know.

Urbycoz

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 1 055

tough, hope you can find a better solution than reinstall the operating system... – Bolu – 2011-04-08T15:24:02.950

BTW: have you installed all the updates for your system? – Bolu – 2011-04-08T15:31:38.030

5Install Chrome ;-> – Moab – 2011-04-08T16:37:12.810

Have you tried using it from another user account, or the hidden Administrator account? – Moab – 2011-04-08T16:38:11.780

Run in safe mode. i'm going to blame 3rd party security (e.g. anti-virus) software. – Ian Boyd – 2011-04-08T19:14:05.640

@Bolu. I've installed all important and critical updates for the system. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-11T07:17:00.290

@Ian. Well I've disabled firewall and antivirus, but no difference. Also, several of my colleagues have now installed IE9 and it runs ok. They are using the same firewall and antivirus as me. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-11T07:19:39.837

@Moab. Just tried from another user account. No joy. Not sure how to access the hidden Administrator account. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-11T09:45:28.520

@ Urbycoz, try booting into safe mode and start IE as suggested by Ian Boyd....http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Start-your-computer-in-safe-mode

– Moab – 2011-04-11T14:44:01.150

@Moab. I've tried that too. It continues to fail as before. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-15T14:36:11.283

Use msconfig and set the PC for a clean boot, and reboot into a clean boot state, try IE9, does it work? if not uninstall it and reinstall it while in a clean boot state, see if it works now, revert the clean boot state settings, and reboot, test IE9 again...http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-7/

– Moab – 2011-04-15T16:21:11.177

@Moab: I'm afraid it's no different in a clean boot state. Even after uninstalling an reinstalling in that state, I'm still getting the same crash (even running in no-addons mode). – Urbycoz – 2011-04-18T07:47:13.860

I've seen in other places that people attach a debugger to diagnose what's causing the crash. Could this be done? I've never done it before. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-18T07:53:03.623

See this topic...http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1444760/where-does-internet-explorer-8-store-its-crash-dumps

– Moab – 2011-04-18T14:23:21.453

I think it's MS's way of telling you to move to Chrome or FF. – user541686 – 2011-04-19T06:16:00.360

I wish I could just use a different browser. But I need it for testing software- I'm a software developer. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-21T07:51:00.997

Answers

This not the first such question I am answering here. Internet Explorer 9 seems to be unable to install itself on some computers.

Seeing the number and variety of attempts that you have already done, there is not much left. "Use Software Rendering" is almost always cited as the reason for startup crashes, but you have tried it already, but better keep it checked for future tests, as well as using no add-ons.

EDIT: See this Microsoft article: How to solve Internet Explorer 9 installation problems.

Questions:

Did you look into the Windows 7 Event Viewer?
An error entry there from when it crashed might point us in the right direction.
Did you specify any non-standard paths when installing Internet Explorer 9?

If a cause cannot be found, then the only solution would be to uninstall Internet Explorer 9 and wait for the service pack.

harrymc

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 306 093

There were no errors in the event viewer during the install (but then that bit didn't actually fail). I can't find any mentions of a crash- where would they be? 2) No, I used the default paths throughout the install.

< – Urbycoz – 2011-04-18T09:23:36.520

Search for events from when you try to start IE9 and it closed/crashed. Logically they should be in the Event Viewer in "Applications and Services Logs -> Internet Explorer", but search in all the branches for errors or warnings from that time. – harrymc – 2011-04-18T09:34:31.880

1The "Internet Explorer" log was completely empty. Nothing of note in any of the other logs either, I'm afraid. Would you expect there to be some kind of "information" message somewhere if it succeeded? Couldn't see one of those either. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-18T09:49:09.750

No, only failures are logged. Questions: (1) Does IE9 stop/crash when you boot in Safe mode with network AND use iexplore.exe -extoff AND "Use Software Rendering" AND reset Internet Options all together ? (2) What is your antivirus product ? – harrymc – 2011-04-18T10:01:50.493

1(1) Yes, it still fails. (2) Eset NOD32 antivirus. I'd be surprised if that's to blame though, since several of my colleagues use it and IE9 is ok for them. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-18T11:17:41.363

1(It is good practice to disable the antivirus when installing a monster such as IE9 that affects all of Windows.) My private theory is that something went wrong in the past with Windows Update that causes the IE9 installation to fail. Unfortunately, the only way to test it is a clean install of 7. I have added a link to my answer which may be the last chance, apart from hoping that IE9 SP1 may solve the problem. – harrymc – 2011-04-18T11:52:34.747

this is the accepted answer but it doesn't look like the problem was ever solved... I'm definitely experiencing this exact same issue, I've tried all the things Urby lists - basically everything short of reinstalling windows. – matt lohkamp – 2014-02-21T02:52:10.710

I would also suggest doing a Windows Update, making sure that you have Service Pack 1, then seeing if Internet Explorer 9 will work following that.

w7pro

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 692

Good thought. After my first failed attempt I checked and found I didn't have SP1. So I uninstalled IE9,installed SP1 then reinstalled IE9, hoping this would fix it. Sadly it didn't. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-11T07:15:09.963

I would try starting it under Procmon (it combines several utilities that were previously called FileMon, Regmon, now owned by Microsoft). It helped me in many cases figure out the real cause of the problem.

ccpizza

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 5 372

Ok. Here's the result when I try running IE9: http://www.box.net/shared/xl83eoxd7y It's full of "Name not found" and "Path not found" errors. Why they're happening- I don't know.

– Urbycoz – 2011-04-21T07:35:50.050

You should post the entire log... having thousands of errors is normal, so people would need to be able to find the correct ones. – user541686 – 2011-04-21T09:45:53.687

I just solved the same problem. It turned out that I had a copy of IE8 left in c:\program files, while IE9 was installed to d:\program files, where my default program files folder is.

Once I replaced c:\program files\internet explorer with d:\program files\internet explorer, it started working.

Kaitnieks

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 133

Uninstall Internet Explorer 9, reboot, run CCleaner and remove any temporary files, reboot, download Internet Explorer and install by using "Run as Administrator".

Keith

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 417

I've done all of those except running ccleaner. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-18T15:06:27.587

Did you try starting Internet Explorer in safe mode?

Start > Run >iexplore -extoff

uSlackr

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 8 755

Yes, I did. No difference at all. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-19T10:44:24.870

Maybe try installing DirectX again?

Ry-

Posted 2011-04-08T14:59:12.457

Reputation: 2 116

Nice thought. Tried but no difference. – Urbycoz – 2011-04-21T07:19:04.507

@soandos: It's a download link. I can hardly summarize it. – Ry- – 2012-07-16T03:21:17.180

@minitech, apologies, was on autopilot – soandos – 2012-07-16T03:21:55.980