How to Fix: Internet Explorer has stopped working

“Internet Explorer has stopped working“. Look familiar? Another common one as of late is “[Object Error]” that just won’t go away. This bit of nastiness can be a real pain when someone is just trying to check their mail, Facebook, or read the news. The fix is pretty easy, most of the time.

First, you need to understand that Internet Explorer is a stable program. It does not just randomly stop working. Something has introduced instability in Internet Explorer. It doesn’t matter if its IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9 or IE10. And really, the same goes for Firefox and Chrome too. They are generally stable. If they are crashing, something is causing it.

The number one cause of “Internet Explorer has stopped working” is Add-Ons. Toolbars. Extensions. Junkware. Spyware. Viruses, even. Sure, you can often fix many problems by simply doing a reset on Internet Explorer. But that doesn’t get rid of the addons, it just disables them. And sometimes, that isn’t enough.


The first thing you need to do is to remove the programs that supply these addons. Refer to my post “Junkware and Adware: Identification and Cleaning” and remove everything that you find.

In any version of Windows (XP through 8)
1) Press the Windows Key and R
2) Type appwiz.cpl and click OK
3) Get busy uninstalling junk that matches my list above.

Next, download and run Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. Get the free version. There’s no compelling reason for the pro. It’ll get rid of anything else that you missed.

Last, press Windows +R and again and type in “inetcpl.cpl” and click OK or press Enter. Go to Advanced, then click on “Restore advanced settings” and then click on “Reset…” and then Reset again. Now click on Close, then restart Internet Explorer.

Another thing you’ll need to do while in  Internet Properties is go to the Programs tab and click on “Manage add-ons”. On the left side under “Add-on Types” look at “Show:” and make sure you disable all unneeded addons (see the junkware list for details) in each catagory: All Addons, Run without permissions, and Downloaded controls. If you don’t do all three, you might not be successful.

Close Internet Properties and restart Internet Explorer. Now, the error “Internet Explorer has stopped working” should be fixed. If it is not, then go through Add/Remove programs again. Remove anything that resembles anything else on my Junkware list. A good trick also is to sort by installation date (Vista/7/8 only) and remove the most recently installed programs and see if one of them is the culprit. Try them one by one.

Attention Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) users: Go to appwiz.cpl, click on Installed Updates and then in the top right where it says “Search Installed Updates” search for KB2670838 and remove it if you have it. If not, that’s fine. Clear the search bar and instead just uninstall Internet Exlorer 10.

If you have further trouble, leave a comment below and I’ll help as soon as I can.

Now you should have a nice new shiny Internet Explorer that doesn’t crash when you look at it. Enjoy!