[Phantom010]

We seem to be getting a new "viral" outbreak where members cannot open any of their browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome...) anymore.

http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-...t-working.html

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp...countered.html

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-7/...ndows-7-a.html

http://forums.techguy.org/web-email/...n-opening.html

http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-...-explorer.html

[bp936]

yeap, something is going on, all your links won't open on my computer today. and sites look weird.
I have to keep an eye out for strange happenings.
Thanks for the posting of the warning. At least TSG is still working somewhat.

[Phantom010]

It's not a problem with the links nor TSG. I'm talking about browsers.

They should open fine in Internet Explorer.

[bp936]

yes, I was talking about browsers too. You are correct, after I reset some settings, IE does show your links, but not FF.
It is always interesting to see your finds, thanks

[Snagglegaster]

I can't say that I'm seeing this issue locally. It looks like, with the exception of your initial link, the one thing all the other threads have in common is the use of Registry cleaners/optimizers. But I'd still have to think this looks like a malware related issue more than a problem with Registry tools. One thing that the OP's seem to have consistently failed to do is run the browsers in their safe mode (i.e. without add-ons as opposed to running Windows in Safe Mode), and it would be interesting to see how that works. If I were just going to make a W.A.G., it would be that there is some sort of rogue add-on or toolbar involved that's poorly written and crashes the browsers in which it is installed. So, starting the browsers in their safe mode might be a good first step in troubleshooting.

Lots of other problems with these posts, too. Besides the fact that the OPs all apparently have problems following instructions, it would be good if they had provided more info about the versions of their browsers, and recent downloads of plug-ins, etc. That might at least provide a clue. I don't see what can really be done with these issues other than to assume the worst and bring out the big guns. If I run into a similar issue, I'll post an update.

[Phantom010]

Looks like it was only a coincidence we had those threads at the same time. We're not getting them anymore.

[Snagglegaster]

Originally Posted by Phantom010

Looks like it was only a coincidence we had those threads at the same time. We're not getting them anymore.

Well, I'm not a big believer in coincidence. I'd expect that what has actually happened is that the broken malware may have been fixed and is now running within design specs. To really make a determination, it would be necessary to resolve each and every one of the original problem reports (which I don't think is likely) or wait for updates to the usual complement of antimalware tools that will find and fix the problem. I have to think that the very fact that posts related to the problem have suddenly fallen off is an indicator of malware at work, rather than an indicator of random chance.

[Snagglegaster]

I actually did run into a somewhat similar case today, and while it isn't really typical of the problems reported, it's still worth a mention. Customer was unable to open Internet Explorer 8 on a computer running XP SP3 and McAfee Total Protection 2012. The only recent changes to the computer were the Total Protection 2012 installation, and the Weather Channel's truly odious, misrepresented, POS Weatherbug.

When IE opened, it endlessly tried to connect, but simply displayed a white page with no error messages. It was unresponsive, and could only be closed with Task Manager. However, IE8 opened and ran just fine with extensions disabled, so clearly the problem with IE failing to connect was related to some extension. Anyway I uninstalled Weatherbug, then used MBAM to remove the 278 items related to MyWeb that Weatherbug had installed, plus Virtumundo and Trojan.Agent, so I expected all would be well after the reboot.

Nope, IE still wouldn't connect n regular mode. As it turned out, the McAfee SiteAdvisor extensions were causing the connection failure in IE. All through the troubleshooting, both Google Chrome and Firefox worked just fine.

So, I've been long winded but the point I really wanted to make is that it seems as though running browsers in their "safe mode" and then selectively disabling extensions, plug-ins, etc. is a troubleshooting technique that's ignored too much.

[Phantom010]

In most cases I've seen, all three browsers weren't opening. Members I have asked to try the browsers after rebooting their computer into Safe Mode had no success either. That led me to believe malware was possibly to blame.

[Snagglegaster]

I completely agree with that assessment, and I still suspect malware. I simply wanted to point out that running a browser without extensions while Windows runs in standard mode is handy for troubleshooting some problems, just as msconfig remains useful. Using the tool saved me some time looking for a malware problem when McAfee was actually at fault. Personally, I'm still sticking with my theory that most of the browser crashes were caused by buggy malware which has since been fixed and updated itself.