Root / Install directory -- crashes

[Brent Johnson]

I had a virus about a week ago and went through a
nightmare getting rid of it. In doing so, I took some
drastic steps like deleting restore points.

I also went through a fury of downloading and installing
every XP Home update, a 2nd antivirus program (not
running, just for manual scans), spyware and adware
blockers, you name it.

I'm very happy to report that my computer is virus free
and very fortified, but in doing so, I've obviously
caused an unexpected problem.

Every time I try to access the root directory of my C:\
drive, the i386 directory I have on a 2nd hard drive, and
most any directory or cd that has setup.exe in it,
Windows (explorer.exe) crashes and restores itself.

I think I have set some security policy or something that
won't allow any of this. Windows itself can access these
directories just fine during the normal course of
installations or if it's an autorun situation, but trying
to access it with Windows Explorer, no way. I can access
these directories and do my business from the command
prompt, but I would like to get this fixed if I can.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

-- Brent

 

[Brent Johnson]

I should add that my C:\ drive is NTFS, but this is
happening with dirs on NTFS & FAT32, plus CDs.

I have run (all with latest updates):
Housecall
AVG
Spybot
Spyware Blaster

AVG run constantly.
ZoneAlarm Pro runs constantly.

I also have installed, but guarantee it is not running
automatically, only manually and when AVG is not running:

Computer Associates: eTrust EZ Antivirus

I have checked the processes running, nothing looks out
of the ordinary.

I have also checked MSConfig all the startups, nothing
looks odd there either.

I'm lost.

Thanks.

-- Brent