Wierd internet issue. Windows explorer works but NO webrowser will.

[Revv23]

This issue occured on a friends PC, i was getting rid of some spyware for him (using spybot) and running windows update on his XP Pro laptop. I then went out and disabled a bunch of third party services he had installed, cleared up his prefetch, and removed several startup items.

So then I restart and everything is working really well. As my final step I install IE7, restart again, internet is connected, IP address is right, but the browser will not load up any website. So i load up firefox, no go. Netscape browser, no go. I then uninstall IE7, no go. I enable all services and start up items, no go. I restore the old spybot file and then remove spybot, no go.

I opened up limewire (i was planning on removign this for him) and limewire connects fine. So I open up windows explorer and type in a web address and that leads me to you now. The internet works 100% normal in windows explorer. I've reset his router to stock settigns, flushed the DNS and refreshed the IPaddress. Firefox and IE still don't work.

I will probably try system restore next but I figured I would ask the experts first.

Thanks for reading guys!

[Revv23]

OK guys, windows restore worked, i then repeated all the changes i made, and it works fine. I just didnt install IE7.0 this time. Go figure.

[SoulsCollective]

It's called Internet Exploder for a very good reason

[Emerica]

It's called Internet Exploder for a very good reason

Haha!