Ultra-geeky one but after spending way too long trying to fix this I thought I'd share the solution for someone else to Google-in on.
For whatever reason IE6 decided to stop populating popup browser windows. The windows appeared but their content never loaded. Windows Update also stopped working, hanging completely on the download dialog.
Much reinstalling and faffing around ensued. Turns out that the following commands fix IE6's corrupted state (Windows XP):
1. Click "Start," and then click "Run."
2. Type regsvr32 msscript.ocx in the "Open" box and click "OK."
3. Repeat for dispex.dll,vbscript.dll, and scrrun.dll.
There are further troubleshooting tips hidden away within Windows Update.
Unfortunatly i stumbled upon your site trying to fix that very issue........however in my case i get an error when running the "regsvr32 msscript.ocx" but everything else in the troubleshooter was fixed......any ideas?
I would appreciate an email if you do thanks alot, nice site. :)
Thanks