Problem displaying images in Outlook Express 6

[Moed]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to place this thread but I couldn't find a more pertinent one so....

I recently had some malware on my system (P4 2.2ghz WinXP SP2) and I got rid of it using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. It worked great but now, when ever I pull up an email on Outlook Express that has embedded images, they no longer show up??

I went to the tools/options/security tab within OE and made sure the "Block images and other external content in HTML email" was not checked so I'm thinking that the Anti-Malware software was too thorough and got rid of some system file that it thought was bad. I unfortunately deleted the quarantined files so I can't retrieve them to possibly fix the problem. I also did a system restore and nothing... I also ran system file checker and after it finished still nothing??

I notice also that I can't get on to the internet using IE. I mostly use Firefox which works great but I know that IE and OE are interlocked so there's for sure something(s) missing. I can still send/receive emails using OE but once again, no images on those emails that supposed to have them. If anyone out there has a solution, it would be greatly appreciated... short of reinstalling the OS, I don't believe that that would be the only solution.

Thanks in advance.

[glc]

What version of IE do you have?

[Moed]

I had IE 6 but I upgraded to IE 8 a couple of days ago in hopes that it would fix the problem... no joy, still have problem.

[glc]

Any reason you aren't using XP SP3?

[Moed]

That actually was to be my next move. But this is on an older laptop that only has a 20gb drive. Yes, I know that I could go out and get a bigger one for cheap but I haven't got around to it. SP3 takes up more space than SP2 and I don't have that much more room on this drive even though I keep it very clean of superfluous crap.

Bottom line, up until this anti-malware software most likely removed the files that gave my OE the ability to display images, SP2 worked just fine. As did IE6. So, the answer that I'm looking for is if someone out there has more specific (or maybe even first-hand) knowledge of this type of problem and was able to fix it by discovering what files were deleted and replaced them with fresh ones that solved the problem. Because I surely don't have a clue as to which/what files they could be... I'm assuming that they're dll's, but there are a boat load of dll's in windows...

[glc]

Do you have a generic XP install CD? If so, what service pack level is it?

[Moed]

I have the WinXP Pro CD, an original one with no SP's on it.

[glc]

I would "slipstream" SP2 into it, then use it to do a repair install.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...slipstream.asp

(Note - Support for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) will end on July 13, 2010. If you are running Windows XP SP2 after support ends, you will not receive security updates for Windows. To keep your Windows XP computer up-to-date download Service Pack 3 through Windows update now.)

Repair Reinstallation of Windows XP (using XP CD)

[Moed]

Ok, so I decided to go ahead and update to SP3.... no luck, still the same problem with not being able to view images from emails within OE.

Any other ideas?

[quartet-man]

I believe that was one of the things that happened the first time I upgraded the Secretary's computer from IE6 to IE8. In that case I ended up using system restore to undo that. Later, I was able to upgrade without that happening, but there is another problem (the mail button.) Not sure if uninstalling IE update and trying again would work or not.

[Moed]

Thanks for all the suggestions but I figured out how to fix the problem. Everything works great now.

[glc]

Would you be kind enough to share your solution with us?

[Moed]

Absolutely.

What I did is download IE6 (which has OE6 integrated to it) and reinstalled it over the existing install on my system.

When I launched the program. A error message came up saying that my version of IE6 was newer than the one I was trying to install and it wouldn't go past that screen. So, in frustration I proceeded to do some research on the Internet to see if I could find a work-around to this.

I was successful in that I found a switch that can be added to the IE6 setup program to bypass the error message. I entered the path to the IE6 setup in the run command and then added a /Q switch at the end of the line. That bypassed the error message and installed the program flawlessly. I then did a restart after all was finished, fired up IE and OE and... good as new!

Cheers