"The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted." But then I lose tray icons - Help

[Nat]

Sometimes, for no repeatable reason, the system stops, all the screen icons
disappear to the desktop background, then exploer restarts and about half of
my tray icons disappear. I need to restart the computer to get them back.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Nathaniel

XP Pro w/sp2 / 1G ram / plenty of hd space

 

[Gunther]

I have a similar problem, but haven't resolved it completely. First of
all, is your computer infected with malware (spyware/adware)? Also
instead of restarting try pressing <ctrl> + <alt> + <del>, press <alt>
press <enter> press <enter> type explorer then press <enter>. That
should get your icons and everything back up without restarting.

 

[Nat]

Gunther, thank you so much for your kind reply.

1.) I'm almost paranoid about virii, sypware, etc. and I check it frequently
for spyway. (Adaware SE Plus, Spybot, I was using Webroot's program
Spysweeper until it kept bogging down things too often, and now I run
Counterspy and scan each day plus use the runtime protection, also)

2.) I will try your method the next time my system hiccups and steals away
my tray icons.

Again, thanks for your help,

Nathaniel