Recently I faced a computer with Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Internet Explorer 8 Beta. Internet Explorer 8 Beta didn't work properly with computer's owner favorite social portal site, so we decided to downgrade IE.
After uninstall of IE 8 we had some minor problems with IE 6, so I decided to install Internet Explorer 7. Real problems started with IE 7. I wasn't able to launch it normally - double clicking desktop icon created a shortcut to Internet Explorer on desktop. Somehow default action (Open Home Page) and also Start Without Add-ons were missing from IE desktop icon and the first action has become Create Shortcut. After typing HTTP URL in Windows Explorer address bar it showed error The specified procedure could not be found. and applications trying to initialize IE components displayed error message with Entry Point Not Found in title and text The procedure entry point GetProcessImageFileNameW could not be located in the dynamic link library PSAPI.DLL.
Cause and resolution of this problem were quite simple - there was an older version of PSAPI.DLL in %SystemRoot%\system32 folder. Copying this file from another Windows XP SP3 machine resolved the problem (this file also could be extracted from Service Pack 3 installation or Windows XP SP3 install CD). The file PSAPI.DLL is opened by different Windows components and some other software, so the old file can't just be deleted or overwritten - it has to be renamed. If PSAPI.DLL is extracted from Windows installation CD or Service Pack setup, it must be extracted from psapi.dl_ by invoking expand psapi.dl_ %SystemRoot%\system32\psapi.dll in Command Prompt.
Posted on 2009.10.24. 19:42

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