I did get my money back in the end, after a number of google searches and actually copying statements from their CEO to them. It was slipped in to another download site and I accidentally clicked on it and paid for it thinking I was getting something else. I have had problems with the reimage site in the past and don't feel inclined to use it. I see from hovering my cursor over the link that it is actually the 'reimage' software download site. Microsoft just say 'reload the original s/w: but this would involve losing all the 3rd party s/w I have installed and I really don't want to do that. I have another PC where Chrome is my preferred browser, but I can invoke IE11 on that one when I need to.

As far as I am aware there are no adverse effects except that I cannot use Internet Explorer. I have checked on the Microsoft support site and switched off IE11 and restarted the PC, then gone back and reslected IE and restarted but this has not made any difference. If I go to programfiles/internet explorer or X86 (the same) and directly double click on them then I have the same no progress. The cursor goes circular for say 5 secs and then stops. My pc is a toshiba sat 850 running windows 8.1 I normally use the Chrome browser but have had a need to run Internet Explorer recently.

Microsoft fixit for ie 11