Help! Windows xp challenge-internet explorer-a doozy!

[medinaangel48]

Hi!
I somehow in troubleshooting a problem with disc cleanup-ended up with no internet explorer in my start menu/programs. To begin: recently signed onto earthlink, and when doing so, uninstalled my Norton anti-virus/firewall, because i wanted to install a new antivirus program from a website. In the interlude, i got this "bug" that suddenly came up"Run a DLL as an APP", anyway, in trying to find the file/folder it may be in, i somehow got rid of my internet explorer on my start menu/programs, as well as my Eartlink upper toolbar won't come up when i sign on!Even though my lower right icon on the lower toolbar says i'm connected, the earthlink upper toolbar doesn't come up.!
The only way I AM ABLE to access my webpage is to click on windows update in my start menu, that seems to bring up the internet explorer bar with it, then i key in Earthlink.net in the address bar and that takes me to myEarthlink start page.
If that isn't bad enough, when i try to access my add/remove programs(directly or indirectly), the "Run a DLL as an App" bug prevents me from getting there; so i can't see if the internet explorer is still there, and i can't install or reinstall it.
Question: since i can bring up the internet explorer in windows update, does that mean i still have the internet explorer?
Any ideas for getting out of this mess?
Help/advice greatly appreciated! As i said, and you can tell-i'm a novice computer/internet user!
Thanks!
medinaangel

[neouser99]

Try this...

Start -> Run -> iexplore.exe

That will bring up internet explorer. If that doesn't work, your paths have probably been screwed up somewhere. That is a much more complicated problem to fix.

FYI - don't ever uninstall anti-virus/firewall unless you are behind a NAT firewall (router) or similar device, esp. if you are using Windows. You can't afford it this day in age, as it sounds that you might have contracted some kind of malware/virus, with the DLL stuff that you keep getting. Let me know if that helps.

-neo

BTW - it is impossible to delete internet explorer from you HD. it is integrated into the windows kernel. That doesn't mean it can't become corrupt, just can't be deleted. I would recommend that you d/l Mozilla Firefox and use that from now on.

[medinaangel48]

Thanks So Much For Your Advice-you Were Good At Getting To The Bottom Line On The Problem-in Simple Terms- And It Helped!
Medinaangel