internet explorer won't launch

Try repairing first.
Go to add/remove programs. Choose IE. The option to repair should come up. Choose that. Repair and reboot.

This is partially right,but you can try using Add/Remove programs,select IE,click on the Remove button,you will get a pop up window with the option to repair,try this.
If that does not work then you will need to consider reinstalling IE by using the utility IE radicator,which can be downloaded from the internet.

I have to partially agree with both answers above, but there is another step that can be performed. Yes, after uninstalling it from add/remove programs, then go back to add/remove programs. Select add/remove windows components, and then uninstall IE. Reboot, have your Win disk ready and re-add the windows component. Afterwards you can update it through M$.

This seems to be the best way to "fix" IE as I have found. If the problem still continues it may be in Explorer.exe. I would suggest replacing it and reinstalling patches/Service packs. That should take care of it.

You may have to "repair" Internet Explorer. I found the following string on the MS Knowledge Base - as you may be aware, there is no item in "add remove programs" for Internet Explorer 6.

Here's the string to put in "start-run".

rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Setup\SETUP.EXE" /g "C:\WINDOWS\IE Uninstall Log.Txt"