message - Internet Explorer is currently running with add-ons disabled

[revpat55]

Can anyone help me with the problem I have on my comp saying Explorer is running with add ons disabled. I had Firefox installed a few weeks ago and this problem appeared then. I have tried to enable add ons in Tools- Manage Add Ons but this option is greyed out so I am unable to resolve it this way. My comp has Windows XP. Anyone got any ideas for me?

[Huderon]

hmmm ... I had this a while back. For some reason the entry for IE on my start menu had been changed to run IE without add ons (if memory serves placing the mouse cursor over the entry showed it as Internet Explorer (no add-ons) ).

I deleted the entry from the start menu, then ran it from either the program menu or from the folder it is installed in (sorry, can't recall which). That cured the problem and put the add-ons one back into the start menu.

[revpat55]

sounds good to me - I never even gave that a thought. Any idea if that might also stop unwanted windows opening as well?

[Huderon]

In a word, no :-)

If you are getting a lot of pop-up windows opening when you run IE, it is possible that a site you visited installed a nasty browser helper object (which might also be why IE suddenly decided not to allow add-ons to run).

Download and install Lavasoft AdAware and Malwarebytes Anti-malware (there are free versions of both). Run AdAware first, make sure you get the latest updates then run a scan and tell it to delete everything it finds. Reboot your PC. Run Malwarebytes, get the latest updates and then run a scan and get it to delete everything it finds (it may tell you your PC has to be restarted to complete the cleanup).

Between them they should get any nasties which have been installed, including anything which has been added on to your browser.

[revpat55]

thanks for that - i will do that this evening. I love answerbank, so much expertise that people are happy to share! Many thanks for your answers