Windows Explorer

[Mooney]

This just recently started happening: I'm on my computer, doing nothing at all, when an error message pops up. It says something like: "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to shut down." no matter what I do after that, my Start bar disappears and my desktop icons go away. My applications will still run, but if I minimise them I can't get them back up. Neither Spybot S&D nor Ad-Aware could find anything that would cause this. Please help!

Edited March 2, 2006 by Mooney

[Lucandrake]

Use Alt+Tab to switch through programs after minimizing them. Try ALT+CTRL+DELETE, File, Open, and then type in explorer.exe. If it shuts down again then scan with avg anti-virus. Also, what programs are you running when it happens?

[i l l m a t i c]

dl hijackthis and post the log..

[Mooney]

It doesn't just happen when I'm running a specific application. It has happened while I was typing on Microsoft Word, once while I was logging on to Xfire, and once while I was AFK. Here is what the logfile of Hijack This showed:

 

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1

Scan saved at 4:14:14 PM, on 3/2/2006

Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600)

MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)

 

Running processes:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\winlogon.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\Ati2evxx.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTsvcCDA.EXE

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Ati2evxx.exe

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE

C:\WINDOWS\System32\ctfmon.exe

C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\cli.exe

C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.4\TeaTimer.exe

C:\Program Files\SuperLogix\Super Utilities\SuperUtil.exe

C:\Program Files\SuperLogix\Super Utilities\SuperUtil.exe

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Works Shared\wkcalrem.exe

C:\Program Files\WiFiConnector\NintendoWFCReg.exe

C:\Program Files\WinZip\WZQKPICK.EXE

C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\cli.exe

C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\cli.exe

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe

C:\Documents and Settings\Gus T\My Documents\Unzipped\Other\hijackthis\HijackThis.exe

 

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://yahoo.sbc.com/dsl

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://red.clientapps.yahoo.com/customize/...//www.yahoo.com

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = http://red.clientapps.yahoo.com/customize/.../search/ie.html

R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://red.clientapps.yahoo.com/customize/...//www.yahoo.com

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://yahoo.sbc.com/dsl

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =

R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page =

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Window Title = Microsoft Internet Explorer

R3 - URLSearchHook: (no name) - <default> - (no file)

O2 - BHO: Yahoo! Companion BHO - {02478D38-C3F9-4efb-9B51-7695ECA05670} - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Companion\Installs\cpn\ycomp5_3_12_0.dll

O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {1D1B2879-99FF-11E3-8D96-D7ACAC95952A} - (no file)

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\PROGRA~1\SPYBOT~1\SPYBOT~1.4\SDHelper.dll

O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\bin\ssv.dll

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {8B6DA27E-7F64-4694-8F8F-DC87AB8C6B22} - (no file)

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {944864A5-3916-46E2-96A9-A2E84F3F1208} - (no file)

O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {4E7BD74F-2B8D-469E-89B3-BE29F5D3E32D} - (no file)

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ATIPTA] C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\atiptaxx.exe

Edited November 29, 2006 by Mooney

[ken_cinder]

Did you or anyone ever stop to consider the possibility that it's just Windows iteslf? Explorer isn't the greatest program around you know? It doubles as your shell AND file explorer.

It DOES just up and crash on it's own too.

[Mooney]

If it just happened every once in a while, I wouldn't mind. But this is the first time it has ever happened to me, and it happened 3 times in less than 2 hours. I don't think that's just an everyday error.

[Weirdy]

I used to encounter this a lot a few years back when I was a big time noob. From my experience, it often is, as Cinder said, a random problem. Yes, I still get them every now and then, but not all of the time. For some reason. Nothing to worry about here.