IE 11 closes immediately

[George Neuner]

Hi all,

Have a problem with an update-to-date Win7 (64-bit) laptop.

It started when the user installed Dropbox. Afterward IE11 did not
work - when started the browser window closes immediately. This
happens regardless of starting the 64-bit or the 32-bit browser.

There are no error messages, and nothing relevant in the system event
logs.


First, I uninstalled Dropbox thinking it might be a plug-in problem -
but it had no effect.

I've been trying to fix this for several hours now. I have tried
every solution I could find:

- I reset IE to defaults from Internet Options in the control panel
- I reregistered the IE DLLs
- I ran the Microsoft FixIt for IE
- I turned IE off/on again though Windows Features (MSDN article)
- I uninstalled IE11 through Programs and Features, and let
Windows Update reinstall updates

Initially, uninstalling IE11 reverted the system to IE8. IE8 worked,
so using Windows Update I progressively updated to IE9 and then to
IE10 successfully ... but the update to IE11 failed with an "unknown"
error and the browser didn't work.

Uninstalling IE10 (after the failure to install IE11) reverted to IE9.
IE9 worked, so I tried skipping the IE10 update and going straight to
IE11. The update failed with an "unknown" error and the browser
didn't work.

I uninstalled IE9, reverting to IE8 again. IE8 worked, so I tried to
update directly to IE10 (IE11 not in the update list). The update
failed with an "unknown" error and the browser worked but appeared to
be only IE9 instead of IE10 as I expected ???

I tried installing IE11 directly over IE9 using the offline installer.
That failed with the infamous 9c59 error.

I tried Microsoft's solution for the 9c59 error: running the installer
again with /update-no. The install appeared to complete without
error, but the browser didn't work again.

I uninstalled what appeared to be IE9. That seemed to leave the
system with no browser at all (just a few data files in the IE
directories which I deleted). I then tried to install IE11 directly
using the offline installer. The install completed without error, but
still the browser did not work.

I uninstalled IE11, and then uninstalled IE9, again seeming to be left
with nothing, and installed IE8 fresh using the offline installer.
That worked. So I tried to install IE11 over it using the offline
installer. The install failed with an "unknown" error, and again the
browser didn't work.


At this point I don't know how to proceed. Reinstalling the OS and
applications, and retrieving the user's files from backups will waste
another whole day (at best). The user needs IE11 and apparently also
needs Dropbox for some reason. I am afraid that after I fix
everything, Dropbox might just break it again.

Did I miss something? Any suggestions before I blow the OS away and
start over?
Thanks,
George