Question : ie crashes after latest Tuesday patches

after letting Microsoft Windows install the latest patches (12/8/09) i am now unable to get IE8 to start on two different machines.   Both are Windows XP SP3.

The error signature states:
AppName: iexplore.exe       AppVer: 8.0.6001.18702       ModName: aclayers.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.5906       Offset: 0003d7fb

While I rely on Firefox for most browser I need IE for testing and also want to be able to run Windows Update (which frustratingly relies on IE).

how can I get IE working again?

Note: the file size and version of aclayers.dll in c:\windows\appPach is the same as that on a laptop which *did* successfully update and in which IE8 still runs.  So I'm not totally convinced the root issue is that DLL (not to mention the fact that this is occuring on two machines).

Note #2:  Both machines run BitDefender v10.   I've re-installed IE8 several times, making sure BitDefender wasn't getting in the way and still no luck.

Answer : ie crashes after latest Tuesday patches

I bet it is BitDefender. It probably has a Browser AddOn that is causing issues. A similar thing happened with Sophos. Read this note and follow a similar procedure:

http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/59284.html

Also I've seen flasj do this. Remove flash in add/remove programs and also in addons and when the browser is working reinstall the latest version.