Problems downloading any files while using Windows Vista & IE7

By unclerob Posted September 27, 2007 09:46:18

Hopefully I've posted this in the right section.

I have a friend (seriously I do, actually a few more than that too) who has problems with her pc.
She picked up a new hp pc from best buy several months ago. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium.
The pc runs fine as far as I can tell, but she has one problem that I can't seem to help her with. Just recently past month or so, she isn't able to download any files while browsing the internet using IE7. It also interferes with her downloading files that people email her to her gmail/yahoo email accounts, etc. Plus she also mentioned that it was causing problems with msn messenger or whatever client she uses for IM. She brought it to Best Buy to have Geek Squad look at it but they said that they couldn't look at it locally and that they would ship it to another location for them to look at it and it could take several weeks to fix which obviously she doesn't want because she likes using her pc daily.

She dropped it off for me to look at before she resorts to giving in to Geek Squad's request.

Vista runs, pretty quick too (2gb ram, decent sized sata hd, fast cpu, vid card, etc.).

- I've applied any & all remaining windows updates available for her pc.
- I've installed a few different spyware apps along with using windows defender and ran scans but the pc is pretty clean.
- Turned off the Windows Firewall, I like to run with it turned on but I wanted to rule it out as a problem so it's off for now.
- She also Norton Antivirus which is a part of a norton security suite installed on this machine, I went in and disabled as many of it's functions (real time protections, firewall, etc.) as I could to see if it the cause of her problems.
- reset ie7 to it's default settings (there's a button for that in internet options) just to see if she somehow selected a setting that would prevent her from downloading files

- I've pretty much run out of ideas at this point.

I have attempting downloading files from various different locations on the net and I can't save a file that I've downloaded, I can't run a file from the download location - nothing.
I can click on a link to download a file (ex. downloading grisoft's free antispyware software), the progress bar appears, the amount being downloaded and download speed appears, it gets to 99%, after which I see a quick message about it verifying the file and then nothing. The file is not in the location where I specified for the download (ex. the windows desktop, or specific folder that I selected).

If I click on a file and select Run instead of Save, it goes through the same process, the progress bar appears, the amount being downloaded and download speed appears, it gets to 99%, after which I see a quick message about it verifying the file and then nothing.

I've never seen this with Windows XP before and searching google hasn't turned up any decent leads into what's causing this problem. The machine is clean, no spyware, no viruses and appears to function properly in every other respect.

I'm thinking that there is some hidden setting in ie7 that is turned on and is causing this problem but for the life of me I can't find it. All firewalls on this pc have been turned off so I'm sure this isn't a firewall issue. She's running as the local admin on her machine, UAC is turned on and will be left on unless I'm told otherwise.

Any suggestions/ideas as to what may be causing this problem? Has anyone seen this before?
It's definitely weird, my main experience is with Windows XP and I've never seen this behavior on that platform so I'm a little lost here.

OK, I've ranted enough and you're all tired from reading this post. I'd appreciate any help if you know what may be causing this. Thanks in Advance!

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- I didn't mention it but browsing the internet works great on this machine,
she also doesn't want to use any other type of browser other than ie7 - it's all she's comfortable with.

maybe something:

here?

Zubaz waits for yrag

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Did the computer ever work properly?

If it did, then there are only two things that could of happen. She has either went to a site that has downloaded something to cause this problem or she let someone else use her computer who thought they knew more then they did.

Did she add any new software, or is it still set up as she brought it?

I know you said there are problems downloading, can you get another Browser loaded? If you can from either on line or disk then you could pin point whether IE7 is the problem. Then uninstall IE7, and do a clean install. Has she install any IE7 browser extensions or addons?

I know you are trying to be a friend, but with such a new computer, it must still be under some kind of warranty. I would let her take it back to Best Buy and let them do whatever they can. Seems strange that they can not do anything at the store she brought it at. Kind of what a Geek Squad was suppoed to do.

Other than that you could always wipe the HDD and reinstall everything. How much of a friend are you?

EDIT: Damn, I type slow.

I'm not sure why I reply to posts for computer help, all you folks are much smarter then me. Hope your are able to help your friend.

I'm definitely not going to reinstall vista for her, just to fix a problem with ie7 - one that could potentially reoccur quite easily. Checking out the microsoft tech net forums, alot of people have run into this problem - it's sad because I haven't seen anyone from Microsoft respond to anyone on those discussion forums to lend a hand in helping with this. She has Java installed on her machine, v6 I believe which should be ok.

I will try another browser, if I can get avant or firefox to work properly, then I can safely say that the problem lies with ie7.

As I said before, Vista itself appears to run quite well.
She has installed alot (read... "alot!") of games on this machine, I'm sure most of them are flash or java based, alot of them show from "Wild Tangent" but she has had them on her machine for a few months and this problem only started recently.

I wasn't aware that Vista would allow a user to uninstall ie7 off the machine. I will check that out. Once it's uninstalled, if you don't have another browser installed, how can you reinstall ie7 without being able to browse microsoft's website for the download?

I have turned protected mode off (which I shouldn't have to) and that didn't help.

I have created another admin account on this machine, one forum I checked out mentioned something about creating another admin account and running as this 2nd admin account apparently fixes the ie7 problem - I can't see why but I'm definitely game for anything at this point.

I'll try a few things out and let you guys know how it worked out.

Creating a 2nd admin account and logging in as that account fixes ie7's problem.
I can download files and save them without problems.
The problem is with the original admin account and how ie7 is setup with that account.

Is that the weirdest thing or what? Anyone have an idea as to why that would be? Very strange.
Both are admin account with admin level privileges on this machine, yet one account can't download files using ie7 and the other can.

Interesting fix. I now seem to remember something like this problem mentioned before in the forums dealing with XP. Do you even think about deleting the original admin account, or could you?

No I'll just leave the original owner admin account as is, she can still use it if necessary, she can login in as the 2nd account and begin customizing & using it (until she breaks it again).
That's the catch, how does a user break the ability to download files in ie7? Regardless if you're using an admin account in windows vista, you would consider that an integral operation of internet explorer, breaking that function pretty much hampers your ability to do anything but browse the internet, you can't download pics, files, programs,etc. I'm surprised that UAC didn't step in and prevent whatever broke ie7 downloading ability in the 1st place? Hmmm...

I have just finished downloading firefox and avant browsers on this machine. I will install them test them out under the new admin account and then test them out using her original admin account that had problems with ie7. More in a bit....

unclerob you just may have a new bug with Vista. Here's another though, with all the stories and articles going on with MS and Windows Updates even the ones about stealth updates, wonder if the problem was caused or created there.

Here's another thought, try another non-admin account on the system and see what happens, you could set up the guest account. If it works then like you say, what could have happened to change her original admin account. Someone has to have the answer.

I will do that right now and report back

Make sure to remove all IE7 browser add-ons that were downloaded as well. There's know issues that cause d/l problems.

unclerob - You could also post this problem to: Tech Support Guy
I've had a few problems with both 98SE and XP that I've posted questions on there and have always gotten good answers/fixes/whatever. Could be someone else has already had this problem and had it answered there too. Just a suggestion..

Hi Kilokrash, thanks for the heads up on that, I will check that out and remove/disable any add-on's that I don't recognize. So far working under the newly created admin account is going well, no restrictions and the machine works great.

Hi bobdown, thanks for the link to the techguy's website. I'll definitely post my problem there and see what kind of response I get.

I had this problem with IE7 in Vista a while back....seems the problem came with a MS update containing the 'Windows Live Toolbar'....once it was un-installed IE7 behaved perfectly.

I have had the exact same problems with my newer laptop that I have gotten from Dell with Vista installed and using IE7. Thanks for all the information and taking the time to try and figure out the problem. This problem has been driving me crazy for months and no one can help me without having to pay for it.

I will try the fixes that you have posted and get back with whether it worked for me or not.

Just now I had the same problem.

I've just installed again Windows Vista back on the computer after a long downgrade to XP (I just came back to Vista cause I thought I had some trouble with the video card, and to take it for warranty needs to be the initial OS).
Well, the thing is that my Live Messenger got a nasty virus, so I started to execute Kaspersky Online Scanner, in the middle of the "Instalation" Vista asked me if I wanted to install an Add-on, but it didn't appear the name of the addon anywhere, so i just took a leap of faith and accepted it.
Just after that i wasn't able to save files or even to save images from the internet.
So I came in here and remembered about the addon, I tried to check the installed addons but the window didn't open... So instead of making a new account, that would mix it all up with my Ubuntu files, I just went to Accessories>System Tools>IE (with no addons)
I tried to download anything and voila! everything working fine, then I went to my "normal and buggy" Explorer which I didn't close and it was also working.

The latter addon installed was the KasperskyLabs addon, so I assume that there was an internal crash inside the explorer engine that messed up with the file downloads, but after that new explorer opened everything was reset to the real defaults.

I hope this could help you, and excuse for such a long message, I'm new in posting about bugs, hehe.

Bye!

Hi

I had a similar problem what You have.Eventhough I created the new admin account,the problem is still.Can u please help me out....