Ie8 Internet Options Won't Stay Open

Well sir ... I had to reinstall windows xp for a neighbor and when I go to IE and click on tools and internet options the box flashes for a brief second and disappears. I have tried several things. Like running a xp fix internet option vbs ... or editing the registry under restrictions and deleting the outbrowser line ...something to that effect. I tried installing IE again but that didn't work. It's not the anti-virus because it wasn't installed when the problem started. I have Firefox installed, but he rather use IE. Any ideas what is blocking the option box in IE8? Thanks for reading my post.

 

Hilly ho!!! Well sir ... I got it together ... I had to go to start ... run ... type in iexpore -extoff with IE in the safe mode with no addons I was able to get to the internet options. Ta da!!!!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!