Microsoft Internet Explorer remains to be a popular browser in tough competition with Firefox and Opera. The gravest problem that is associated with browsing and surfing is the contamination of PC registry and other files with Malware. However there are other problems that the users encounter while using the Internet Explorer. Addressing these issues properly helps the user to minimize the occurrence of such problems.

Internet Explorer 5 when launched was reported to have severe DLL problems like kernel32.dll and wininet.dll crashes. New improved version of Internet Explorer 7 seemed to have taken care of such issues.

The most common problems still existing are like: WebPages that cannot be displayed, source not working and pictures not displayed. The Internet Explorer most of the times behaves weird because of its cache. It is always better to empty the cache regularly to obtain a better result while browsing. If the cache is full it eats up a lot of memory unnecessarily and it’s simply too large so other operations cannot be performed.

You should delete all offline contents to browse freely whenever you feel that you are done with the previous search options. Go to Tools, then Internet options and click delete to remove all offline content and press OK. You should set the cache size 50-100 MB if you are regularly downloading large files.

Sometimes, the index.dat file which is a hidden file in the cache folder is entirely corrupted. In such cases your problem persists. It is best to delete the entire cache folder under such a situation. However this file is a system file and windows will not allow any alteration to this file while you are in Windows OS. You need to reboot and perform this action from MS-DOS prompt. However, such operations are advised only for advanced users.

You can use deltree tempor~1 and deltree cookies to remove all the temporary internet files using the smartdry command. This command will speed up the disk operation in your DOS prompt. In Windows XP your IE path will be C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\…You can log in using an Administrator account and delete the folders you want to from within Windows Explorer. Only thing to remember here is that you cannot delete your own IE cache folder so you need to log in with a different administrator account.

Editing HOST file which is a hidden file and used by Internet related programs may also solve page display problems. This can be edited using Notepad easily. But first you need to check the ’show hidden files and folders’ options in your control panel to make these visible. In Windows XP the path to locate host files will be C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc

Sometimes you even face problem while sending emails. Messages pop up notifying some errors that you are unaware of. In such cases you need to reset your email client. Re-registering the email program might be an option to solve the non appearance of drop down menu problem in your emails.

Internet Explorer might also refuse to open properly when the software Layered Service Provider (LSP) is removed incorrectly or accidentally from your PC. Here you need to run LSPfix for all versions of Windows or Winsockxpfix for Windows XP.

Apart from the above issues there are very few problems that a user might face with the new improved IE 7 now. The only problem that remains to be solved is the attack of malware which is unforeseen and often impossible to trace as the source still remains a mystery.