explorer.exe exits immediately

[Nick]

My friend has a problem with his Windows XP SP2 PC where explorer.exe exits
immediately leaving only wallpaper. No Start menu, no taskbar, no Desktop
icons.

After login, when the Desktop should appear, the taskbar appears for a
fraction of a second then goes. This also happens if you launch explorer.exe
from Task Manager (the only way left to run things). explorer.exe isn't in
the Task Manager process list after this.

We have tried scans for malware, starting in Safe Mode, creating a new user
profile but with no success.

There are no relevant errors in the Event Log, except maybe for a few DCOM
errors the day before this happened.

System Restore couldn't restore to a previous state.

Do you have any further suggestions please?

Thanks

Nick

 

[Guest]

Try:http://www.microsoft.com/technet Locate "security bullitens",scroll the
list/page(s),thier are at least 2 or 3 updates for windows explorer.....

 

[Guest]

What is left in the Task Manager list?

You may wan't to search the remaining programs at
http://www.processlibrary.com on another computer.

I will try to search DCOM errors on Google.


If there is nothing left:

** Reinstall Windows **
1. Try to backup your documents to a CD in DOS mode.
2. When all your personal files are backed up, insert the Windows CD in the
CD drive.
3. Restart the computer.
4. Boot to Windows from the CD. This will run the Windows Setup program.
5. Follow the steps to install Windows.

It should restart the computer. The estimated setup time after is 39 minutes.

Otherwise, use the repair command on the CD.
If you can't, install Windows. There would be no other option but to do this.

Here are some tips:
(1) Whatever you do, make sure you backup.
(2) Make sure you have separate CD's with device drivers on them. They might
be needed to reinstall some drivers.
(3) Download an anti-virus program when you reinstalled Windows and run a
full scan.

NOTE: You will need to reinstall programs after reinstalling Windows.
These program's will still exist in the Program Files folder, but would be
corrupted.
It may take a few hours to do all this, but well worth the effort to get
with of this problem.

Hope this helps!

John.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Your system has been compromised

I suggest that you run a few different on lie scans apart from your resident one for Malware and run Hijack This and post the log to the appropriate forums. You also might want to run a few different on line Anti Virus apps.