home premium- no windows explorer

[DiDi]

I have a HP laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium. Windows Explorer has
disappeared and is nowhere to be found. I have not been able to get this
system set up correctly since I got it. They do not send a restore disc. I
am not sure if the internal restore is corrupt, or the discs I made. I keep
getting WIN32Rootkit-gen[rtk] (trojan) - from Avast. The only way to get rid
of it is to delete Avast. But although CA doesn't show that trojan - I had
so many compatibility problems and programs not working that I had to remove
it. I had to have Computer Associates use a special tool to get rid of it
and I suspect it also took my Windows Explorer. How can I get it back. My
system says I have no backups. Help Please.

 

[DiDi]

Thank you I found it. It does not have an .exe at the end of it. And many
don't have .exe's that should. .dlls are there but not the .exe's. Is there
a setting that I accidently have on that would hide the .exe extensions so
that I can't launch them?

I have a HP laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium. Windows Explorer has
disappeared and is nowhere to be found. I have not been able to get this
system set up correctly since I got it. They do not send a restore disc. I
am not sure if the internal restore is corrupt, or the discs I made. I
keep getting WIN32Rootkit-gen[rtk] (trojan) - from Avast. The only way to
get rid of it is to delete Avast. But although CA doesn't show that
trojan - I had so many compatibility problems and programs not working
that I had to remove it. I had to have Computer Associates use a special
tool to get rid of it and I suspect it also took my Windows Explorer. How
can I get it back. My system says I have no backups. Help Please.

Hold down the windows key and then press the E key. If Windows
Explorer is still on your system, that will launch it.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi DiDi,

If the system is that hosed by the rootkit, and many are, then a full
recovery is often the best recourse. Hopefully you already have backups of
important data as HP's recovery process will wipe the disk clean. If you
cannot access the recovery volume and your self-made disks will not work,
then you will need to contact HP support for a recovery set (they will
provide this for a nominal fee).

Avast is telling you that the rootkit, or at least parts of it, is still
there. Removing Avast is not the solution, but some of the problems are
likely stemming from the trojan's attempts to block or evade the antivirus
software. Likely too that the program issues you are seeing are also related
to this base problem. The best solution to removing these sorts of bugs,
other than doing a wipe and reload, is to work outside of the operating
system from a bootable media disk containing detection and removal tools.
These generally require skills that are somewhat advanced beyond the typical
home user, so you may want to employ the assistance of a knowledgable
friend.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[John]

I have a HP laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium. Windows Explorer has
disappeared and is nowhere to be found. I have not been able to get this
system set up correctly since I got it. They do not send a restore disc. I
am not sure if the internal restore is corrupt, or the discs I made. I keep
getting WIN32Rootkit-gen[rtk] (trojan) - from Avast. The only way to get
rid of it is to delete Avast. But although CA doesn't show that trojan - I
had so many compatibility problems and programs not working that I had to
remove it. I had to have Computer Associates use a special tool to get rid
of it and I suspect it also took my Windows Explorer. How can I get it
back. My system says I have no backups. Help Please.

Hold down the windows key and then press the E key. If Windows
Explorer is still on your system, that will launch it.

 

[John]

Thank you I found it. It does not have an .exe at the end of it. And many
don't have .exe's that should. .dlls are there but not the .exe's. Is
there a setting that I accidently have on that would hide the .exe
extensions so that I can't launch them?

The default settings in Vista will hide the .exe.
There is an option in Windows Explorer that will
allow it to be displayed.