Two iexplorers listed in processes in Task Manager

[Guest]

I usually am able to work with two IE windows with no problems. But lately
when I have two open one will freeze for a few minutes. I collapse and
maximize the window to get it active again.

If I watch task manager during the freeze ups, a third iexploer.exe will pop
up automatically and run for however long the freeze is, then close itself.
And if I watch the process list, they’ll be two iexplorers.exe listed.

Oh and this ‘extra’ iexplorer has a different icon then the first iexplorer
opened.

(note: I just noticed that this happens with one IE window open as well)

 

[Jon Kennedy]

This may be caused by spyware/malware that's gotten installed on
your system. Use Ad-Aware, Windows Defender and/or Spybot Search & Destroy
to remove it.

Windows Defender
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Good sites on how to install and use Spybot -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/tutorial/index.html
http://tomcoyote.com/SPYBOT/index1.php

Also download a winsock repair tool, to have just in case cleaning up
anything found breaks it -

Winsock repair tools:
LSPFix- all versions of Windows http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.zip
Winsock2 Fix- Win98, ME
http://www.bu.edu/pcsc/internetaccess/winsock2fix.html
LavaSoft- all versions of Windows-
http://digital-solutions.co.uk/lavasoft/whndnfix.zip

More information here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/tshoot.html
http://spywarewarrior.com/sww-help.htm

If no joy, in IE go to Tools...Internet Options...Advanced tab, Browsing
section, uncheck "Enable third-party browser extensions", click Apply, click
Okay, reboot. If that solves your problem, then more troubleshooting is
needed to find out exactly which program, or Browser Helper Object (BHO) is
causing this problem. You don't want to leave it at that, as some BHOs are
useful or necessary - like Adobe Acrobat for reading .pdf files or an
essential component of Norton AV. Get BHODemon -
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm - read all about BHOs.
Disable all items, and then gradually replace one or two at a time to narrow
down the culprit.

Or if you have IE 6 SP-2 you can do this within the browser:
How to manage Internet Explorer add-ons in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;883256

If all the above fails, then the problem could be something new that the
spyware cleaners above don't have in their databases yet. In that case....
HijackThis direct download:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip
Tutorial on how to use HijackThis:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html
Then post it's output log to the forum here for analysis and feedback by the
parasite experts:
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30
Or one of the other HijackThis Logs forums listed here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/forums.html

Or try this program to get some of the most nasty malware:
CWShredder direct download:
http://aumha.org/downloads/cwshredder.zip

An alternate resource for all of this and more:
http://www.aumha.org/secure.htm

 

[Guest]

thanks Jon. though i regularly run spyDoctor and McAfee i'll try these too.

 

[Guest]

I ran Windows Defender twice, quick scan and full scan. Nothing was found.

 

[Guest]

http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
isn't online anymore.

if i enable that option will adobe still work?

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

http://www.definitivesolutions.com/bhodemon.htm
isn't online anymore.

if i enable that option will adobe still work?

run HijackThis; http://aumha.org/downloads/hijackthis.zip
HijackThis - Tutorial & FAQ;
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?showtutorial=42

Register here: http://aumha.net/profile.php?mode=register
Once you have received your registration confirmation, post your HJT
log here: *(for expert analysis)*
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30
****NOT in this newsgroup!*****

Please see http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=4075 and
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm before posting to the forum.

HijackThis tutorial:
http://aumha.org/a/hjttutor.htm

 

[Guest]

thank you. i'm doing it now. it may take awhile for them to look at my log.
but i'll tell you what i find.