I know what your saying about a format alconovica, sometimes I think its the easiest way to solve a problem that you cant be arsed to fix!!

I would try a re-install first though - you dont have to format to do a re-install!

You havent said what O/S you are using?

You could try putting your windows disc in and doing a search on it to find iexplore and just copy this across to your windows installation??