Explorer won't load, iertutil.dll missing after an IE8 update.

[Japlabot]

I've seen a few cases in the last couple of days about this error on Windows XP causing the desktop not to load.

Simple enough to fix-

1. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL
   
2. Enter the Task Manager
   
3. File > New task > cmd > OK
   
4. type in the commands:
   cd dllcache
   copy iertutil.dll ..\
   explorer
   exit
   
5. When explorer loads, the IE8 installer sometimes comes up automatically and then installs IE8 successfully.
   
6. If the IE8 installer does not come up, then you should reinstall IE8 by downloading it manually (IE8-WIndowsXP-x86-ENU.exe), even if it looks like everything is working, the IE install can still be corrupt (eg: Websites not showing title in tab bar, Not being able to download any files)
   

Has anyone else seen an increased occurance in the last few days?

I suspect that IE8 is being pushed out as a Critical update, affecting anyone who has not already installed IE8.

I wonder if the automatic update is broken or if only some computers get it, because I can't find any recent Google search results, only ones from 2009.

[xdot.tk]

IE8 has always been pushed out as a high-priority(not critical) update. It's not something recent.

[xanonline]

Yep - same thing here. Had quite a number of these over the last few weeks.

We're not alone:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1858791

When I went looking for info I couldn't find anything that was "recent" either - but a few others pointed out a number of recent articles about it.

But maybe you've already found that by now :p