Once in a while I get question like how to uninstall or remove Internet Explorer and I usually advice them not to do that because IE is part of Windows and by doing that, it might cause instability to the operating system and on some software. If they don’t like IE, they can ignore it and always use other alternatives such as Firefox or Opera. As for me, I am a Firefox user but I still use IE to browse a few websites, particularly online banking websites because Firefox is unable to display the site correctly and also I can clear the cache/ cookies after logging out. I don’t want to do that on my Firefox 3 because I have tons of websites that I am automatically logged on via cookies when I access the website.

Today I experienced weird problem on an online banking website when I was trying to transfer fund. To do that, I’ll have to request an “image code” to be sent to my mobile phone number and enter the code to verify that the fund is transferred by me. The problem is whenever I click on a link to request for the image code, a new window will popup and it is blank with nothing being loaded but the URL is displayed at the link bar.

When I manually hit Enter key at the URL to load the link, it gives me a “Unrecognized command” error. This happens because the browser is supposed to send hidden secure data to the server when a new popup window and manually visiting the link won’t work. I then tried opening links from Yahoo website using new tab or new window, both showed blank screen.

After struggling on this problem for a few days, I manage to get Internet Explorer new window and tab blank problem fixed.


Clearing the cache/cookies and starting Internet Explorer without Add-ons did not fix the problem. This first two steps that I did is the most basic method and first solution to fix any problem in Internet Explorer.

Next thing I did was resetting Internet Explorer settings. Go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab and click the Reset button. It is advised that this should only be used if Internet Explorer browser is in an unusable state. Even after resetting IE, the new window or tab blank problem is still there.

I would like to see if it was my user profile problem because I have tons of software installed and it might have corrupted the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry. Created a new user account, logged in and tried the Internet Explorer, problem is still there.

From Microsoft KB281679, I found that this problem might be caused by one or more of the following files is missing, damaged, or improperly registered. It suggest to run this command in Start > Run.

regsvr32 urlmon.dll
regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll
regsvr32 Browseui.dll
regsvr32 Shell32.dll

All DLL files were able to register correctly except mshtml.dll. I get the following error “Mshtml.dll was loaded, but the DllRegisterServer entry point was not found. This file cannot be registered“. I thought maybe that was the file that was causing the problem. I replaced the mshtml.dll file with an original one but still couldn’t get it registered. I then tried on another computer and I also got the same error except this computer don’t have the new window and tab blank problem. So this problem cannot be caused by mshtml.dll file.

Continue searching for the solution has lead me to finding IEFix, a general purpose fix for Internet Explorer. Downloaded and ran IEFix but it tells me that Internet Explorer 7 is currently not supported.

I’ve also tried scanning Windows with antispyware programs (SpyBot, Ad-Aware, SpySweeper, a-squared Anti-Malware, SUPERAntiSpyware), cleaned several threats found but still no luck.

I’ve gone through nearly everything possible solution to fix this IE problem but I forgotten the most basic one which is to reinstall Internet Explorer. I downloaded the latest Internet Explorer 7 from Microsoft’s website, ran the setup file and that fixed the problem! Now the online banking request image code popup window is able to load.

Thinking back, I was unable to solve this problem for a few days because I was so focused on searching and following solutions that has worked for other people but ignored the most basic solution which is “REINSTALL“.