Update 28-March: As I said in the original intro to this post, I was reluctant to publish this tweak, because I have absolutely no explanation for why it should work. If someone else had posted this, I would have assumed it was snake oil and would have been extremely skeptical. As skeptical as Rafael Rivera, even.
Actxprxy.dll is one of the core libraries for Internet Explorer (along with a few others such as Urlmon.dll and Mshtml.dll). If it’s not properly registered, IE won’t work at all. And re-registering it should never be necessary except in extreme circumstances.
Having said all that, I can only point to the experience I reported in the post linked below, which has since been confirmed by others in comments and e-mails. Are they all experiencing placebo effects? That’s possible, I guess. It’s also possible that some third-party software or add-on is somehow screwing up this DLL and its associated registry settings. I have contacted some engineers at Microsoft to see if they can shed light on the issue and will follow-up after I hear from them.
—–
Over at ZDNet I just published the results of some performance testing I did involving the current crop of browsers. During the course of my research, I stumbled across a tweak that I was at first hesitant to publish. After thinking carefully about it, I decided to do so. I’m glad I did. I have now heard from easily a dozen people via e-mail and in comments who say the improvement in performance for them is amazing.
Please read the original post (Is IE8 really fat and slow?) to get the full background. If you’re experiencing problems with IE8 being slow to load pages, especially when multiple tabs are involved, this might be worth a try. Because this tweak is simply registering a DLL that should have been registered as part of the IE8 installation, there is no harm that can come from trying this.
Here are the instructions.
FOR WINDOWS XP
1. Click Start, then click Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type cmd and press Enter.
3. In the Command Prompt window, enter this text and press Enter:
regsvr32 actxprxy.dll
4. Restart your computer.
FOR WINDOWS VISTA/WINDOWS 7
1. Type cmd in the Start menu Search box.
2. Right-click the Cmd shortcut that appears at the top of the search results list, Under Programs, as shown here.
3. Choose Run As Administrator.
4. In the Command Prompt window, enter this text and press Enter:
regsvr32 actxprxy.dll
5. Restart your computer.
If this works for you, let me know in the comments below…
This tweak made all the difference in the world to me.
Frankly, I can live just fine without using IE except for seeing how webpages I write look in it… but with my IE8 so horribly slow, I was unable to use a program that I need that relies on it.
regsvr32actxprxy.dll ….regsvr32 actxprxy.dll
which one correct..with space or with no space?
With space. regsvr32 is a Windows command, actxprxy.dll is the name of the file it registers.
if i am register regsvr32actxprxy.dll, is it will influence my vista os system or any other browser like firefox?
This DLL file is used by Internet Explorer. It doesn’t affect any other programs.
how can i delete regsvr32actxprxy.dll from my registry?
when i open new window google alway say not responding at the top of my ie8 browser? what is going on?
thanks
There is nothing to delete from your registry. Try using the No Addons mode of Internet Explorer (it’s in Start, All Programs, Accessories). You can reset IE to default settings by clicking Tools, Internet Options. Then click Reset on the Advanced tab.
in accesorries there is no addons mode of internet explorer…how can i get setting no addons internet explorer?
if i reset from advance tab it means that regsvr32actxprxy.dll will not function anymore?
thanks
I have been having an issue with the new ie8 ever since I installed it. I even was considering returning to ie7… this tweak is absolutly the best thing I have ever come across not only did it fix the nonresponsivness of my ie it also made it way faster. I recomend anyone having an issue with ie8 to give this a try.
Thanks Ed!
It’s like day & night. One minute your sitting all frustrated and the next minute your sitting with this big smile on your face. The difference is amazing.
Will I have to say this did work for me. I was reluctant to believe that this would work, but it did…what a difference!!
IE 8 stills run slow on my computer……………
try this:
To remove all the sites listed in the Restricted Zone
Download: DelDomains.inf – Right-click and select: Save Target As
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/restricted.htm
Immediate improvement and performance. Thanks Ed.
I did the tweak, with no improvement. I then deleted all the accelerators except for the one for email (still to be determined if I am going to use or not) and then shut down the suggested sites application. Now it seems to have sped up significantly, except when opening a new tab.
Hi Ed. I am absolutely thrilled , as I have just used your tip about hurrying up my sluggish IE8, and it has worked a treat. Thankyou so much, very much appreciated. Why couldn’t Windows have fixed it ????
Hi Ed,
I tried your tip and it looked like it was working. After some minutes indeed, the slowdown started again. So I did uninstall the most recent Google Toolbar and reestablished your tip again.
After a reboot I can say that tabs are opening measurable faster, even though it is still unacceptable to wait for some seconds.
Interesting is that, if you are opening a tab without an URI, it is opening way faster than with an URI.
Turning of all plug-ins makes this a bit faster at all, but from a developers standpoint, still there it is questionable why it takes that long at all. Additionally, it would be quite interesting how you figured out your ’solution’ at all as well as I wonder what the real issue is and why I personally experience a vast difference between IE8/Vista 64bit and IE8/Windows 7 – the latter saves at least min. a second – even though the issue is existing as well.
Greetings,
Ingo
Hi Ed,
Unfortunately, I am having to retract my previous comment (76), as the fix didn’t last, but after a lot of work I have managed to uninstall IE8 and to re-install IE7 successfully. I would have loved to have been able to keep IE8, but it was just too slow. I hope it can be fixed by Microsoft.
Keep up your good work, which is appreciated.
Kind regards.
Hi Everyone! Just wondering if someone can tell me if there is a space between the 2 and the a or is it all one, for Ex. (regsvr32actxprxy.ddl)
Thank you all,
Kiki
It’s two words the regsvr32 command followed by the filename/argument, actxprxy.dll. So there’s a space between the 2 and the a.