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My wife has a Toshiba laptop that's running windows 7. Recently a lot of error began happening. Foremost of those were little popups saying that certain files were corrupt and that there were viruses. After runnin my anti-virus in safe mode Avast found 4 or 5 malware and worm viruses that were causing that. When I rebooted normally the internet still wouldn't come up it came with a page that said this website is unsafe etc etc. So I ran another thorough scan with the computer not in safe mode. It found 3 more of these viruses and since then I have not had any problems when opening programs, the menu or anything, however I.E. is still having a problem. Any webpage I go to it says "This webpage cannot be found. Whether it's google, yahoo, or even facebook. I'm getting desperate at how to fix it. My desktop also runs windows 7 and is just fine. I have the 2 computers networked together, but don't know how to fix the problem. Any help?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by CassandraIETeam

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Short summary: — the behavior you describe (Avast removed malware but IE still reports “This webpage cannot be found” while the desktop on the same LAN works) usually means the infection left behind a network-level change on the laptop (hosts entries, a proxy/WinHTTP setting, or a corrupted Winsock / TCP‑IP stack) rather than an IE-only UI problem. ’s suggestion to start with IE repair is a good first step, but if that didn’t fix it the items below are the usual culprits. (support.microsoft.com)

Quick checks (do these first from an elevated Command Prompt — right‑click cmd.exe → Run as administrator):

ping 8.8.8.8
ping www.google.com

Interpretation: if ping 8.8.8.8 works but ping by name fails, it’s a name/DNS or hosts-file problem; if both fail, it’s a lower-level network/TCP stack problem. Use ipconfig /flushdns to clear DNS cache while testing. (nv5geospatialsoftware.com)

Common fixes to try (run as Administrator, then reboot):

ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
netsh winhttp show proxy
netsh winhttp reset proxy

Also open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and restore the default hosts file if there are suspicious entries (back it up first). After these commands reboot and retest. The Microsoft docs for resetting TCP/IP/Winsock and restoring the hosts file outline these steps and warnings. (support.microsoft.com)

If those steps don’t help: temporarily disable any third‑party firewall/antivirus (they can block browsers), try another browser (Chrome/Firefox) to confirm it’s not IE‑specific, reinstall or update the laptop’s network adapter driver, or use System Restore to a pre‑infection point. If unsure, capture the output of the ping/ipconfig commands and post it — that will narrow whether the problem is DNS, proxy, Winsock, or hardware. (learn.microsoft.com)

Member Avatar for CassandraIETeam

Hello Tatt2112,

This is common after a virus (even after the virus is removed). You can try to repair IE by resetting IE settings back to default. To do this close out if IE and then reopen it > got to Tools (upper right-hand corner) > Internet Options > click on the Advanced Tab > and then you will see the option to Reset.

If this does not fix the problem, you may need to reinstall IE8 in order to repair it. This should help you do so -

Cheers,
Cassandra
IE Outreach Team

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