Problem with url address Windows XP

[Hobo]

Windows XP. If I click on one of my "favorites" the url appears in the address bar,the twin screeen icon goes blue and the page opens and I can go to any links on that page.

If I put a url in the address window which is not in my favorites then the new site does not load the twin screens icon does not go blue and nothing happens. However if I put the new site in Google and click on the link that comes up I can access the new site that way. Have I accidently disabled somthing here??

Any body help??

[Saab Dastard]

If I put a url in the address window which is not in my favorites

Are you entering www.xxxxxxxxxx.com? Does the URL in the address window automatically change to http://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com?

What happens if you enter http://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com in the address window?

Are you sure you are not looking at an offline copy of the favorite site?

Check that you can resolve the URL to an IP address:

Run, CMD, ping www.xxxxxxxx.com (I usually use www.bbc.co.uk or www.dell.com, as these both respond to ping requests).

Check that A) it resolves the web address to an IP address and B) that you get a response.

If A is fine then DNS is OK, if both are OK then it's definitely a browser problem, rather than a network problem.

[Irish Steve]

You've been Mickeysofted!!

Url failure is one of the many faults caused by Microsoft screwing up a recent update

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=222263

Has the details, including the link to the patch that you will have to apply manually.

[Hobo]

Thanks Saab and Irish. The link Irish gave is the problem. I tried to save a word document after I started this thread and the the computer froze. I've also noticed that my computer is very slow to wind up when I switched it on, anybody else noticed this? This slowness may have started when I recently installed a HP 8050 printer (to replace a HP940) I wonder if it is associated with the faulty update.

This forum is great, you computer geniuses have helped again!

[Hobo]

The HP printer software seems to be the problem. If I was to uninstall the printer and all its programmes could I then install it again without the share to web stuff- I just want a basic printer. What do you think guys...would this work?

I don't really understand what I'm doing here but I uninstalled only the HP Share to web stuff by right clicking on the "share to web" desktop icon and then clicking on the unistall programme link. This seems to have fixed all problems.