GIF images may not appear when you refresh a Web page in Internet Explorer 6

When you view a Web page by using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, a GIF image that is located on the Web page appears as expected. However, if you press F5 to update the display, or if you click Refresh to update the display, the GIF image no longer appears. Instead, a red "X" appears as an image placeholder.

You experience this problem if the following conditions are all true:

• You visit the Web site over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection.
• You use a proxy server to connect to the Web site.
• The Web site uses NTLM authentication to access the Web page.

A hotfix is available for computers that are running Internet Explorer 6. To resolve this problem, install the hotfix that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Note To obtain the correct binary, you have to install the hotfix version of this security update.

For more information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix installation information

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

After you install this hotfix, you must set the following registry entry to enable the functionality that this hotfix provides:To set this registry entry, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. To do this, click the plus sign (+) that appears next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
3. Expand SOFTWARE, expand Microsoft, expand Internet Explorer, expand Main, and then click FeatureControl.
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
5. In the New Key #1 box that appears under FeatureControl, type FEATURE_SOCKET_REAPPLY_SECURITY_INFO_KB936994, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click FEATURE_SOCKET_REAPPLY_SECURITY_INFO_KB936994, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
7. In the New Value #1 box that appears in the details pane, type IEXPLORE.EXE, and then press ENTER.
8. Right-click IEXPLORE.EXE, and then click Modify.
9. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
10. Exit Registry Editor.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

To obtain the lastest security updates for Internet Explorer, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about software update terminology, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: