So one of your clients has managed to nuke Internet Explorer and they are unsure how they did it. The possibility of viruses and adware have been eliminated, so this just leaves you and a broken IE. Before you begin to even consider running a repair install of the OS, let’s try to do a repair on IE instead.

The Repair Process

1. With your Windows XP CD in the tray, you will want to run a repair by typing sfc /scannow so that the utility can scan for any changes and make needed repairs to Windows components such as IE. If this fails to work, then move on to step two.
2. Create a restore point with Windows System Restore. Then start the Registry Editor by typing regedit from the Run box. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Active Setup \ Installed Components \ {89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383} and then right-click the “IsInstalled value.” Click Modify. From there, you will change the value from 1 to 0. All right, go ahead and close the editor and reinstall IE from this location.

If Something Goes Wrong

If messing with the registry and something goes horribly wrong, you can use either System Restore or Last Known Good Configuration to get back to where you were before with your settings. Then you can try again, this time taking care to watch the portion of the registry you are changing. Most people who have troubles with this end up changing the wrong registry key. That is where the beauty of making sure that you have that restore point in place pays off! [Matt Hartley]