[rygetz]

I leave my computer on 24/7 but lately every morning when i wake up i'd come downstairs to error messages related to virtual ram running low (but a meter would read my actualy ram used at 1-4%) Programs would crash due to not having enough memory and nothing would be running when i woke up. The weird thing was, there werent any new programs that were running, it was all the same things that worked fine before. It started suddenly, and after updating a program called Azureus it seemed to worsen, but it was always the first to close. I noticed that Norton 2003's autoprotect was disabled and it wouldnt enable so i upgraded to 2005 and updated it. It then found 30 some viruses, all being trojan related. I think all of the files were related to TASKMNGU.exe and a file called something like MSMSGI.exe. Norton couldnt clean them so i rebooted in safe mode and scanned, when it found all of them it quartined a few, deleted about 20 and 4 were left unable to do anything with. i then rebooted into normal windows, and was going to see what was left, and how to handle them, only when i clicked onmy user, entered my password, and waited for my desktop to load, it never did. It froze with my backround image there, all my processes seemed to start up except explorer (windows explorer, not IE, i use firefox anyway). I tried rebooting in safe mode and had the same problem. I tried going to new, and running explorer.exe from task manager but it says i cannot find the file. I hit browse, found it and selected it but again it said it couldnt find it. I then tried repairing the version of XP with the install disk from Dell but it just takes me a command prompt, which im not sure what to do with. does anyone have any ideas how to get explorer to load? i'd be ver very grateful for any help. thanks in advance.

Well I just now logged onto my computer. i can start programs with task manager, but not explorer. here is the explorer error: http://rygetz.pwnt.info/explorererror.JPG

here are the files norton antivirus 2005 tried to fix (which i believe may have caused this problem). The screen shot is here: http://rygetz.pwnt.info/crash.JPG

[Rollin' Rog]

You may need to think clean install on this one.

You haven't really provided enough information to offer much help, but it is possible you may be able to recover explorer.exe either by running:

sfc /scannow

or by extracting it from cabinet files. This is a little tricky as it depends on OS version, the location of your cabinet files, and an exact command line.

Another alternative may be to use System Restore.

You don't need to boot the Explorer shell to run it:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;304449

If you do this you may be restoring the quarantined files as well, so you should choose a date that goes back to when the system was fairly normal.

I'm not sure what you did with the Dell OEM CD, but if you actually ran a repair/upgrade, System Restore will not be available.

[rygetz]

sfc scan ran but didnt tell me any results, i tried running system restore but i got the error code, "The procedure entry point RemoteAssistancePepareSystemRestore could not be located in the dynamic link library WINSTA.dll". And yes RemoteAssistancePepareSystemRestore is all without spaces. Today i got into windows, i copied "explorer.exe" and renamed the .exe to another file extension, and when i ran it from the cmd prompt it actually popped up windows explorer (started me in my documents). I'm still without a desktop and taskbar though. anyone have any other ideas?

[Rollin' Rog]

Usually when SFC runs but produces no prompts, that's a good sign -- but evidently somethings are still missing.

For the System Restore problem, you can try reinstalling it. To do this (and you may need a Windows CD), Make sure "show hidden files" is enabled in Folder Options > View. The navigate to c:\Windows\INF and locate:

sr.inf

Right click on that and select "install".


http://support.microsoft.com/?id=832323

The other issue of the blank Desktop, if you cannot get System Restore working, is sometimes resolved by reinstalling Internet Explorer. Can you get online?

[rygetz]

i can get online, but i cant run IE. I re-installed it but i still get this error when i try to run it:

"Windows cannot find '(null)'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search."

I got system restore working, but as a feared, i dont have any restore points.

Im beginning to think my only option left is to reformat and start with a fresh clean install. I tried updating to sp2 (to see if that would help fix any problems) but i used the windows explorer window to navigate to websites, it works fine until i try windows update, then it freezes and stops responding everytime. Firefox isnt supported for windows update. Thanks a lot for the help Rolling' Rog. any last ideas before i wipe everything out?

[Rollin' Rog]

Does IExplore.exe exist in the Program Files\Internet Explorer folder? Is there an entry in Add/Remove programs -- which there should be if it was updated?

You could remove or update from there. If you remove, it returns you to the last installed version. You can also try the repair tool

I'll be danged, I never knew Windows explorer could navigate the web.

As for SP2, if you want to live with this a couple of weeks you could order the CD.

If you do choose to do a clean install, make sure you enable the XP firewall before reconnecting to the net to install required updates. You will never get to complete them before you get infected if you don't.

[Michelli]

If you can't use windows update, try to download "Avant Browser" from download.com, I'm currently suffering almost the same problem, but because avant is based around IE, you can use windows update, but, I have bad news, SP2 doesn't help, I already tried that, so I came here looking for answers, I'm about to try system restore, and I sure as hell hope that works, because all my stepdads tax invoices etc. from his small business are saved on this computer, some aren't printed out and we'd be ****ed if I had to format the computer and try a clean install.

EDIT:-Just tried system restore and it says I don't have enough Hard Disk space on drive C, error message:

System restore is suspended because there is not enough disk space on the system drive(C).To resart System Restore, ensure at least 200MB of free space is available on this drive.
Would you like to start disk cleanup?


Last I chedcked there was at least 50GB left, so I don't know what's going on, but it does take a while to boot up, so it may be full of ****.

[xplosive]

I just had the exact same problem. I ran Adaware SE and registry mechanic. I rebooted and explorer.exe started right up!

May want to give this a shot before you decide to reformat.

[robbieart]

If you or anyone has found a resolution to this problem please let me know because I am trying to repair someones computer right now that has this same exact problem. It all started with 5 different trojan viruses on her computer and then the computer would no longer bring up the desktop icons or taskbar...

Thanks in advance!!!!

[robbieart]

Just to let everyone know.... While surfing through the internet I found someone who solved this problem and has a way to fix it. There are 2 registry keys in the registry that are causing the problem. It affects the explorer.exe and iexplorer.exe files.

This is the key that needs to be deleted...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\iexplorer.exe

Once these keys are deleted the desktop and internet explorer should come back to life.

Thank you whoever found this information and I hope this will be a benefit to someone else out there.

Thanks.

[rada]

i've been tryin everything out just to get back on my desktop[from upgradin to system restore]...they just didnt work........................thanx for ur find ......i think it would just work for any problem like this[esp. if u ad a trojan problem prior to loosing ur explorer].....i just got access to my desktop today after tryin d tips u found...tanx..[pple wit this problem should check d tip above]

[FrancescaINI]

I just wanted to send a big Thank You, robbieart. I've been trying to figure out how to get the desktop and ie back on my computer at work for 2 weeks now.

I deleted both those keys you mentions, rebooted. And everything's back as it was.

[thatscool]

I have been trying for 3 days to fix this problem. As soon as the reg keys were removed the computer booted right up. Thank you for the post and thank you to whoever found the solution.