The IE6 SP1 Fix

If you were unfortunate enough to install Microsoft's Security Patch called Service Pack 1 SP1 for Internet Explorer, you probably cannot play games or see parts of web pages that are produced by Java Applets.

What you will see is a gray or black box with what is called a placeholder for the image that would have been generated by the Java Applet. To be sure, you can View Source and see that it is indeed an APPLET in the web page that no longer runs under IE6 SP1.

If you Uninstall IE6 SP1, the problem remains.

This service pack destroys the piece of Windows called the Microsoft Virtual Machine. You could install Netscape or Opera and continue without problems, but if you want to use Internet Explorer you will have to reinstall the Virtual Machine. Unfortunately, Microsoft has stopped making the software available. Fortunately, after a week of reinstalling Windows, Internet Explorer and debugging in the registry, I found a copy of the Virtual Machine at another website. I downloaded it and installed it and my APPLETS are working again.

It is available here. It is a 5.5mb download.