[Cavado]

so basicaly I was doing my everyday computer tasks like watching youtube you know nothing out of the ordinary. So anyway I logged off my profile when I returned about an hour later I logged on and the only thing that happened was my documents popped up and my Desktop had completly vanished. So I figured what ever I restarted my computer same thing happened. After a few restarts starting the computer is safe mode pushing windows keys I tried crtl alt delete and the task manager started up I was able to get some things going like my pictures I was able to access my computer even go online and search the web. By pure fluke I went into my computer I right clicked search on my C drive and everything came back my desktop my icons everything I was like yay problem fixed but no after a restart back to no desktop and my documents popping up however I can still right click search on my Cdrive and everything comes back but of course thats a real pain any help on this would be great.

[RoBe]

it sounds like explorer.exe is crashing, or one of its files. You can restart it in taskmanager but going new task then typing explorer.exe.
I'm not too surehow to fix it but i think using your os disc and doing a repair would be best
here's a link: http://ntcompatible.com/Explorer.exe...XP_t28867.html

then again, i could be wrong

[Elvandil]

Try my little tool for that problem:

Shell Specification

[Cavado]

very tough to understand the forum post you sent me there seems to be a solution but the way the guy exsplained it was a little messed do you understand what he is saying I got the program he was talking about tried to do what he says but thats where I get confused thanks alot for your help

[Cavado]

elvandil could you tell me what exactly that compresed file does or what I should do with it?

[Elvandil]

Unzip it and click the reg file inside. It tells the registry to use "explorer.exe" as the shell, in case it forgot. If you can't open it on the sick machine, you can open it somewhere else and just transfer the reg file, or run it from a thumb drive or floppy.

[Cavado]

Elvandil thanks so much dude it worked man you have no idea how happy I am just got this computer a week ago and was stressing out harsh thanks again and thanks robi for helping me too

[Elvandil]

Good news. Now, why did it happen? Quantum uncertainty? Cosmic rays? Act of God? Malware? I'd do a good scan for malware for starters.

Free anti-malware scanners:

A-Squared
Spybot S&D
Ad-Aware 2007
SuperAntiSpyware
Spyware Eliminator
Emco Malware Destroyer
Spyware Doctor
Arovax Anti-spyware
Trend-Micro Rootkit Buster
F-Secure Blacklight

List of freeware security software

You can mark your own threads "solved" using the Thread Tools above.

[Cavado]

yeah I did a scan with nortons and it found one item a cookie so I deleted it other than that im hoping it was just a vista mal function but I dunno know anything else I should do?

[Elvandil]

Spybot is a good one to have. And maybe another. None of the anti-malware apps can keep track of them all, so keep your antivirus updated and use at least 2 antimalware apps. If they offer protection in real-time, only enable one of them, of course. But an occasional scan with another is a good idea, too. If you are using Defender, keep it updated.


Something to consider-->
And back up. A drive image that can restore your entire system is worth its weight in gold. Most here like Acronis True Image Home (which has a virtualization option that lets you try software without making any system changes). But there are others.

Free Drive Cloners/Imagers:

SystemRescueCD
EaseUs Disk Copy (Copies disks or partitions)
XXClone
CloneZilla GParted LiveCD (Complete partitioning and drive imaging/restoration tools)
CloneZilla
Partition Saving
PCI CloneMaxx
Drive Image XML
HDClone
DriveClonerXP
Self-Image
copyr.dma (Copies disk with bad sectors for recovery)

Commercial Apps:

O&O DiskImage
Acronis True Image Home
EAZ-FIX Professional and Easy Image
Drive Snapshot
Keriver Image
Avanquest Copy Commander
Paragon Drive Backup
NovaBackup
R-Drive Image
Norton Ghost
HDClone Pro or Enterprise
Terabyte Image for Windows
Terabyte Image for DOS (can directly access FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions)
Spotmau Disk Clone & Backup

[Cavado]

ok man thanks for all your help

[Elvandil]

No problem.

You can mark your own threads "solved" using the Thread Tools above.