Weird Explorer behaviour - any suggestions please?

[Kayf]

I have reinstalled my PC with XP-SP2 and completed getting the updates from
Microsoft. When I open Explorer everything seems OK for a while, then the
desktop appears to 'refresh' and the left pane of Explorer suddenly produces
several Desktop icons at the top of the tree - some have the normal desktop
icon some have a folder icon - all are called 'Desktop'.

Once this has happened, the folder tree stops working properly. I can no
longer use the '+' on the tree to expand a folder, although double clicking
in the right hand pane will still do the trick. Weird.

If I close and reopen Explorer, everything is back to normal until the next
random 'refresh'.

I have tried formatting the system partition and going through the whole
reinstall process again but I get the same result. This problem has stumped
me! Has anyone come across it before please and if so, what is the
solution?

--
Regards,

Kayf


Please reply to group

 

[Mary Sauer]

See if emptying your Internet cache helps, in Internet Explorer, tools, Internet
Options, delete files.

 

[PopS]

I have reinstalled my PC with XP-SP2 and completed
getting the updates from Microsoft. When I open
Explorer everything seems OK for a while, then the
desktop appears to 'refresh' and the left pane of
Explorer suddenly produces several Desktop icons at
the top of the tree - some have the normal desktop
icon some have a folder icon - all are called
'Desktop'.

Once this has happened, the folder tree stops working
properly. I can no longer use the '+' on the tree to
expand a folder, although double clicking in the
right hand pane will still do the trick. Weird.

If I close and reopen Explorer, everything is back to
normal until the next random 'refresh'.

I have tried formatting the system partition and
going through the whole reinstall process again but I
get the same result. This problem has stumped me!
Has anyone come across it before please and if so,
what is the solution?

--
Regards,

Kayf


Please reply to group

I don't have the functional problems you do, but I do
get the same display aberration you talked about.
Gateway 1.6 GHz, 512, dual 80's, XP Pro SP2+ & pretty
confident no virus/adware etc. present.

In my case simply closing and re-opening Explorer takes
care of it and straightens out the display. It's
intermittant and only seems to happen when I've used
the Microsoft toolbar to open Explorer - I have all my
drives in it for quick access. Nothing else seems to
go wrong, but ... I -think- on occasion it makes
another program (NVU-open source editor) go funny; or
vice-versa, never can be sure.

I've considered a repair install, but based on your
posting, that won't help much.

I tagged your post and if I find anything useful, I'll
post back.

Can you reproduce it at will?

Cheers,

Pop

 

[Kayf]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried clearing the Internet Explorer
cache but unfortunately it did not solve the problem.

I can't make this happen at will - it is fairly random but is always
accompanied by a refresh (flicker) of all of the desktop icons.

My system is home built, so I don't think this is hardware dependant. I
have Norton Antivirus and Firewall and run Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware, so I am
pretty sure the system is clean of adware and virus infection.

If I happen to come across a solution, I will post it here.

Kayf.

 

[Malke]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried clearing the Internet
Explorer cache but unfortunately it did not solve the problem.

I can't make this happen at will - it is fairly random but is always
accompanied by a refresh (flicker) of all of the desktop icons.

My system is home built, so I don't think this is hardware dependant.
I have Norton Antivirus and Firewall and run Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware,
so I am pretty sure the system is clean of adware and virus infection.

If I happen to come across a solution, I will post it here.

In the meantime, you might try this fix from MVP Kelly Theriot:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm - Prevent automatic icon
and folder refresh, Line 157

Malke

 

[Kayf]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a go and let you all know the
result.

Cheers,

Kayf

 

[Kayf]

Well, that didn't take long.

The automatic icon refresh fix did not work. Within ten minutes, the same
Explorer problem occurred. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

Kayf

 

[R. McCarty]

A couple of things to add/suggest. First, you might want to rebuild
your Icon Cache. Second, modify the Folder Options, View (TAB)
and tic/check "Launch Folder Windows in a separate process".
You can use Tweak-UI for Windows XP, Repair category to do
the Icon Cache rebuild or simply search your drive for the filename
IconCache.db in your local profile and remove.Usually, the database
will be around 7-8 Megabytes in size.
If these don't help resolve your issue you might also want to use a
tool called ShellExView. This displays all the Shell extensions on your
system.