I'm trying to clean up an old Windows XP machine that had malware on it. I ran a "quick scan" with Microsoft Security Essentials, which found and removed one "threat." [1] However, I still have a problem....
When using IE8 to navigate to the download page for Adobe Reader, the tab crashes and I'm told that "A malfunctioning or malicious add-on has caused Internet Explorer to close this webpage" [2] Consistent with this, if I start Internet Explorer without add-ons (-extoff command-line option), then I can load that page ok.
But if I use the "Manage Add-ons" window to disable every extension I can find [3], and then start IE normally (without -extoff) and navigate to that page, it crashes again!
I don't understand this. Could this crash be caused by some "hidden" extension that doesn't show up in the "Manage Add-ons" GUI, but is disabled by the extoff command-line switch? If so, how might I find it and remove it?
For the record, I've also tried "Reset Internet Explorer settings" (Internet Options > Advanced > Reset) but the tab still crashes.
[1] Before that, I ran TrendMicro's "HouseCall" tool but it found nothing. Am currently running a full system scan with MSE. Also have access to McAfee VirusScan, so I'll try that next.
[2] The full error message is long, but you can see it in IE at res://ieframe.dll/acr_depnx_error.htm DEP is turned on system-wide (Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Data Execution Prevention > "Turn on DEP for all programs...") If I turn off DEP, then instead of getting that message when loading the page, IE just freezes completely.
[3] To disable "all" extensions, I did this: IE > Tools menu > Internet Options > Programs tab > Manage Add-ons. There's a drop-down menu on the lower-left labeled "Show:". For each drop-down menu item there, I selected all the extensions listed in the right-panel, right-clicked and chose "Disable All."
