IE9 on Google.com stopped working. When I enter keywords and hit Enter,
nothing happens. But if I use Google Chrome, then Google searches work. I’ve
always thought IE9 was my default browser, but I keep getting messages at the
bottom of my screen asking if I want to make IE my default browser. I have this
problem on two computers. One has Windows XP, SP3 and the other Windows 7.
In this excerpt from
Answercast #54, I look at a machine that is not able to perform Google
searches using Internet Explorer.
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Google search failure
So, this kind of sounds like there’s a couple of different things that could
be going on. The first thing I’m going to do is have you clear your browser
cache.
It’s odd that it’s happening on both machines simultaneously. But clearing
the browser cache (I’ve got an article on how to do that) will clear some
things up that (to put it bluntly) can just cause weird stuff to happen.
Sometimes, the browser’s cache gets corrupt or full or just confused and
as a result, the browser doesn’t handle “random things” very well. So that’s
an easy place to start.
Malware
The other concern I have is that maybe you’re experiencing some form of
malware.
There are malware in the form of “drive-by toolbar downloads” (or other
kinds of things) that can interfere with the way your browser handles search
or the way your browser handles the Google.com page.
It’s possible that something is trying to do that. So, I strongly recommend
that you also run up-to-date anti-virus scan and an up-to-date anti-spyware
scan
While you’re at it, consider a run of the free tool from Malwarebytes.org. That
also happens to catch a lot of different things that cause these kinds of
problems.
Set IE as default browser
And finally, I’m going to assume (well, I shouldn’t assume so I’m just going
to say it) if you want IE to be your default browser and it’s asking you if you want it to be your default browser, it is not your default browser!
So tell it yes. Tell it yes that you would like it to become your default
browser. If that doesn’t stick, then I’d definitely start to be very concerned
about malware interfering with what’s going on on the machine.
So, clear the cache, scan for malware, and hopefully that will clear things
up.
Next from Answercast 54 – How do
I disable the touchpad if it’s not in my Control Panel?
I’ve had the problem before in chrome, and I think I contacted you about it. I found out what was causing it, the cookies and cache were full, I cleared the browsing data, and it started working. I also ran my antivirus software and it found no malware or spyware.