IE11 and flashing Windows Installer box

[Tenchy]

Please be gentle - this is my first post.
My problem is since updating to 8.1, whenever I fire up IE11 on desktop mode a Windows Installer box shows in the middle of the screen saying "preparing to install" and the box continually flashes and the webpage will not load. I have no idea why this happens! IE works fine in metro mode and I cannot find any logs in Event Viewer with regards to this problem.
Can anybody help please?
PC is a Dell XPS8500, seven months old.
Many thanks

 

[my2cents]

Hi Techny,

Welcome to the forum. Can you give us any additional information about the box that pops up? Maybe a screenshot of it so we can get a better handle on your issue? Does it give you the option to click a button to continue or does the box just sit there and flash forever?

Also, just as a precaution. Now might be a really good time to do a complete malware scan of your Dell XPS.

my2cents

 

[Tenchy]

Hi my2cents,
Thanks for the quick response.
I am not at home for a couple of days but I will definitely return to you with a screenshot. Keep an eye on this post.
With regards to the flashing box it as a button I can press to cancel any install but does not shut the box down. The only way to stop it is to press the "X" box in the top right hand corner of IE. With regards to a malware scan my PC is quite strong on all security issues. I do regular full system scans with no viruses. PC seems very clean. Just to be sure though can you recommend a decent malware scanner just in case.
Any thoughts?

 

[my2cents]

Hi again Tenchy,

OK, if you feel you are secure then just hold off on the malware scan for now and just give us that screenshot and let's see where we can go from there. Make no mistake... we can get to the bottom of this issue. BTW, other than the BIOS update, was there anything else that might have triggered this condition? For example, did you download a batch of Windows Updates right before this started? Anyway, we'll continue this when you get home.

my2cents

 

[Tenchy]

my2cents,

Having problems doing a screenshot - not done it before. If I right click on the said screen it does not allow me to save a screen shot.
This problem arose simply by going into the Windows store and upgrading to 8.1 - no problem with IE on desktop before this.
I downloaded any important Windows updates before installing as advised by Microsoft. Download and installation of 8.1 went fine. I have not done any BIOS update or any driver updates from the Dell Support website as of yet. Maybe I should try this.

However, I did notice another of your threads where you recommended to someone to reset IE settings in Internet options to solve a problem (although not relating to this problem). Maybe I should try this?


Tenchy

 

[Montebank]

Having the same issue, upgraded to Windows 8.1

Had no problems before, then right after the upgrade if I start up IE 11 on the desktop, it flashes constantly several times a second with an installer window flashing with it, I have attached a screenshot. If I right click on the app and right click again to run it as administrator, it works fine, but when I go back to it and run it in 32 or 64 bit mode without running as administrator, it just flashes away and is unusable.

 

[Montebank]

One other note...

Went to programs and features in the control panel and removed IE 11 in the add/remove feaures area and then reinstalled it. Same problem...

 

[Tenchy]

Hi Montebank,

We have exactly the same problem.
I'll keep trying for a solution and report back.
Maybe my2cents can come to the rescue!


Tenchy

 

[Tenchy]

Any Luck

Hi Montebank

Have you had any luck sorting this problem?
I'm getting nowhere with it at the moment.
Driving me mad!

Tenchy

 

[Montebank]

No luck for me, I just use Chrome now...

Sorry Tenchy, leave it to Microsoft to disable their own browser when you run their own Windows Upgrade. I just don't use it anymore. I am kind of surprised not to see any others having this problem on the web, given that I am running a fairly vanilla machine. Oh well, hopefully someone will figure it out...

 

[Tenchy]

Possible solution

Hi Montebank,

I have found a way to stop it happening but it is not ideal.
If you disable Protected Mode on IE it seems to work. However, this could create a browser security issue!

Go into Internet Options via Control Panel, then to the tab security and then untick the box for "enable Protected Mode"

Tenchy

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Hello Tenchy and Montebank. Welcome to Windows EightForums.

FYI > It seems mytwocents has left us. Momentarily I hope. He was good help around here!

Sorry that I don't have a solution to your problem. Surprisingly my upgrade to 8.1 went well, but both 8.1 and IE11 are as buggy is a flea bitten dog! So in the end that's such a good upgrade. I'm thinking of buying install media for fresh install. Seems that people are having less problems that way.

So therefore, yes > "Leave it to Microsoft"! Never any good at upgrades. Give me a fresh install any day.

Good luck to you two. Again, welcome.

 

[Tenchy]

Sorted!!!!!!

Hello HippsieGypsie,

Thanks for your moral support - agree, my2cents is a worthy forum member.

Seems my problem has been sorted thanks to Dell Support. They were extremely helpful and took remote access to my PC to resolve the issue. Cannot thank them enough (they do not always deserve the criticism they get).


The problem was I had MS Office Professional XP program on my PC and Dell advised this old version of Office was not compatible with 8.1. He uninstalled the program and all seems to be running well.

I hope this may help others - check any old versions of software on your PC.

Thank you all.

Tenchy

 

[HippsieGypsie]

You're welcome. I'm glad to see you got your problem fixed. Never had one, but I've heard that Dell has a good service department.

Thanks for the follow up on the old software. Who'd of thought? I have just one older partition program I used once a few weeks back. I'll get rid of it. After reading your update post one never knows.

Recently I'm thinking I'm having a hardware problem not an OS problem. It didn't post BIOS or boot about a week and a half ago. Got that straightened out, although I really didn't come to a conclusion what it was.

It was running good until I woke up from sleep yesterday. It had a constant beep as if a key was sticking, but not from the system board speaker, but from the OS system sound speaker. What?!! I couldn't get to the system graghic power button for I didn't have a mouse pointer nor did the physical button work to power it down. I had to hard reset it. It booted up and ran ok until I eventually went to open my Office Pro 2013 that said it needed to be repaired. I proceeded to do the online repair option which is new to me. It was as if it reinstalled the whole program including me having to enter the keys again.

Lol! All's fine today, but this old Acer is getting older! I'll start with a HDD test and take it from there. I've been thinking of getting a hybrid anyway.

Happy computing!

 

[Montebank]

Thanks Tenchy! You are a star, I had an old version of Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 on my system. I figured that would be the likeliest culprit, uninstalled it and presto change-o it worked! I still have Visio 2003 and Project 2003 on the system though, but it seems to be working fine. The rest of my Office stuff is 365 so I should be good. Thanks for tracking that down!

All the best...