Internet Explorer 7 add-ons are an easy way to extend it's functionality. But some times they don't work as expected and can cause problems. The only way to troubleshoot  add-on problems, is to disable either all add-ons or each one individually.

The fast way to see if it really is an add-on that is causing a problem, is to disable all add-ons.

To do this you'll need to start up IE with out any add-ons enabled, which can be accomplished using one of the  several methods shown below.

The easiest way on XP is to right click on the IE shortcut on your desktop, by selecting Properties then Start Without Add-ons.

But for Vista, by default, there is no IE icon on the desktop. So there are two options.

Using the Accessories Menu

The first option is to click on Start \ Accessories \ Internet Explorer (No Add-ons). IE will then open with all add-ons disabled.

You can also open IE from the Systems Tools menu on XP.

Modify Registry

The second option is to add the the IE icon to your desktop using a registry tweak.

Open regedit.exe by using the Start menu search or Run box, then browse to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel

NOTE: Follow the below steps exactly as specified and do not make any changes other than specified while in the Registry. Always create a System Restore point or backup of you Computer when making configuration changes.

• Look for the key named "{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}" on the right side.
• Then set the value to 0. If the key does not exist, you will need to create a new 32-bit DWORD value with the same name.
• Close regedit when finished.
• If needed, right click on the desktop and select Refresh to make the IE icon appear.
  

NOTE: If you are using the Classic Start menu, you should create this value under the ClassicStartMenu key instead of the NewStartPanel key.

You should now see the IE icon on your desktop and can select to start up IE with out add-ons enabled (as shown above).

If you decide later, and want to remove the icon, just set the registry key value to 1 and refresh the Desktop.

Then There Is Always The Command Prompt

If you don't want to mess around in the registry, or navigate through menus, you can easily start up IE from the command prompt using the following command as shown (make sure to include the quotes):

"%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore" -extoff

Internet Explorer will now open with all add-ons disabled. If the problem you were having does not occur, the next step is to disable each add-on one by one (Tools \ Manage Add-ons \ Enable or Disable Add-ons…) until you find the culprit.

Once you do, leave it disbaled and contact or go to the developer site and see if their are any problems reported.