It’s a friend’s conputer.. I’m going over to try and figure out how to solve the problem and thought some of the best minds are here at FP
Which version of IE is this? 6? 7?
As a general rule of thumb, if you're having any problems with IE, then it really helps to clear out the cache.
The easiest way to do this is via "Tools | Internet Options... | Temporary Internet Files | Delete Files".
Be patient, though - if you've got several hundred megabytes of cached files on the hard drive, then it could take upwards of 5 minutes for IE to clear them all out of its database and delete them.
By the way, programs refusing to start can often be a sign of a system which has run out of memory.
If the system has run out of either memory in RAM, or "memory" [i.e. disk space] on the hard drive, then programs will refuse to run.
As far as the hard drive is concerned, go into explorer and look at the drive he is booting off of [almost certainly this will be the "C:\" drive, although, in a few exotic circumstances, it could be a different drive], and, if he's getting under 100 MB of free space on that drive [and ESPECIALLY if he's getting under 10 MB of free space!!!], then you need to start moving things around and deleting things so as to free up some more hard drive territory.
Along those lines, be sure that the "Recycle Bin" has been emptied - the space on the hard drive that should have been freed up won't really have been relinquished by the system unless & until you take that last step of completely emptying the Recycle Bin.
But if he is getting to the point where he is consistently running out of either memory in RAM or "memory" [disk space] on the hard drive, and if he's not an expert user who knows how to "penny-pinch" his way out of a crisis like that, then, long term, the best solution is to upgrade [either more RAM, or a larger hard drive, or both].
Good luck and let us know if you have success or not. Worst case, I can always come to work to FReep.