Have a desktop PC which has been working ok until today, every time I click on Internet Explorer the dreaded “Windows has encountered a problem and needs to close” pops up. Any clues what could have happened and how to solve same? Words of 1 syllable please.

To much porn.

Your Harddrive has gone soft, go to Viagra.com and download the latest drivers at once.

hit with rock

download firefox, and bin internet exploder.

Exactly the same for me, so I have just went to Firefox and it’s been smooth all day.

Any clues how I can download anything when the IE is the only way a I can get onto the web on that computer. Can you download it on another and transfer via memory stick or suchlike? Dont think porn is to blame unless other hands have been busy on the thing.

“Can you download it on another and transfer via memory stick or suchlike?” yes

or ftp, try: run command ‘cmd’

then in the pop up type:

ftp

ftp> open releases.mozilla.org
< blah blah>
Name> ftp
Password> ftp
ftp> bin
ftp> get “/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest-3.0/win32/en-GB/Firefox Setup 3.0.5.exe”

Then run the binary once its on your machine

Scardypants: Thanks but how? I’m using one ofthe kids’ laptops atm which has got Firefox on it but cannot see howto save to a disc drive, is it do-able?
Richc:Also thanks but your reply was not exactly what I meant by words of 1 syllable i.e making the assumption I am a 49 year old numptie who only recently worked out why there are 3 buttons on a mouse. Instructions starting with”turn the PC on” is about my level.

pb, those instructions should pretty much work exactly as they are written, click on the start button then in one of the panes on the start menu, you will see the option ‘run command’ then follow/cut and paste those instructions (missing off the ‘ftp>’ in the later bits

other than that, on the other PC, if you hold down the right mouse button you will get the ‘Save As’ option which lets you save it whereever you want.

Thanks very much Rich I followed the instructions to the letter, comma, hyphen etc but when I got to the last instruction which I typed in verbatim 3 times, I kept getting invalid command. Any clues? Obviously I didnt type ftp> after the prompt.

OK, at the ftp> prompt type ‘mget’ it then should prompt for remote files, and then put in “/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/latest-3.0/win32/en-GB/Firefox*”

without the quotes.

btw you can get around having to type everything by highlighting the text, (put the cursor at the start of the block, and hold down the left button and drag to the end of the text you want to select, then click the right button and select ‘copy’ from the menu. Then in your command menu popup, right click on the top bar and select edit->paste

nB: I am going home in a moment so If I go quiet thats why

pb – if FF is on that pc, the installer has prob been there too (“firefox setup” is filename)

if not, go to mozilla.org & download again
copy onto pendrive & move to other pc

Thanks to all, managed to get FF onto desktop now, working fine. Just shows the shallowness of my computing ability, bit like driving a car without knowing where the oil goes and what it is used for or even how to open the bonnet.