While fixing some Windows 7 system issues (like running Internet Explore or Quicken would hang) , I ran a lot of “sfc /scannow” command. And each time, it would complain that there were corrupted files that could not be fixed. (“Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.”)

After looking into the log file residing in c:\windows\Log\CBS\CBS.log , I noticed that the majority of the corrupted files were related to Internet Explorer 11. Then I discovered this little “Search Protect” icon showing up in the task bar. Upon further search, I concluded that this was a malware from “Conduit”. I suspected this was the one that caused the Internet Explorer 11 to be corrupted.

First, I need to get rid of this malware. Based on the recommendation form my Google Search, I downloaded JRT (Junkware Removal Tool) and proceeded to remove the “Search Protect” from my system. Well, JRT didn’t quite remove it from the auto-start programs so I had to manually remove it using Microsoft’s autoruns. This was the only way to get rid of the annoying warning message that it couldn’t find the “backgroundcontainer.dll” software (already removed by JRT) upon logging into Windows 7 every time.

Since Internet Explorer 11 was the most up-to-date Internet Explorer, there was no new update to override it. I even tried downloading directly from Microsoft but the official download site was still down level. So I decided uninstall it, which was not a trivial task since Internet Explorer is an integrated software for Windows 7. Based on this recommendation, I would need to deselect Internet Explorer 11 in the Windows Features (Start -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Select “Turning Windows Features On/off” on the left panel -> Deselect “Internet Explorer 10” ). Then go into Windows Update and Uninstall Internet Explorer 11 (Start -> Control Panel -> Click on “Installed Updated” on the left panel on the bottom -> Enter “Internet Explorer” -> Right Click on Windows Internet Explorer 11 ). By doing the above steps, upon reboot, the previous Internet Explorer (in my case IE 9) became the Internet Explorer app.

After doing more “sfc /scannow” and a few more reboots, I was able to run Internet Explorer 9 without any problem and my Quickens App was finally able to run without crashing. Evidently, Quickens uses Microsoft Framework which is integrated tightly with Internet Explorer.

Lessons learned:
1. Watch out for any strange icons on your task bars. Research their purposes. When in doubt, get rid of them so they don’t cause conflicts with other software.

2. Every so often (2 weeks), run “sfc /scannow” to check for any corrupted system files.