explorer.exe

[tnwo]

I have three explorer.exe processes running at the same
time in task manager, 2 of which are spelled with in caps.
When I try to stop one of them I get an access denied. I
traced down the location of the program it is found in the
system32\dllcache hidden folder. I deleted that
explorer.exe and so far I have not noticed another
instance of 2 explorer's running at the same time. Does
anyone know why this happened?
Thanks
TNWO

 

[Greg]

is one of them spelled EXPLORER .EXE? (note the space before the dot)
That is a virus or worm, do an online scan here ->
http://housecall.antivirus.com/ or
http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/mfs/default.asp and then take the appropriate
steps.

Also get autoruns from sysinternals.com and see what all is firing off at
boot. You need at least one instance of explorer.exe, that is what paints
the desktop, and should load from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell=explorer.exe

Greg