XP Pro - Unable to open folders

[Lily]

Recently I’ve started experiencing a very strange issue with my
laptop.

Initially, I could not use Windows Picture & Fax Viewer to preview
photos which were saved to my desktop. I could use IE to view them, or
save them to another folder and use WP&FV however. When I would try to
use the WP&FV to open something, my screen would flash as though it
were trying to open the file, but nothing would happen.

Now a week or so later, I can’t open ANY folders on my computer.

If I double click a folder on my desktop, the entire screen flashes
blank momentarily, before restoring to my desktop. Everything restores
perfectly, but the folder does not open.

The same happens if I try to open a folder from the Start menu
(including Control Panel, My Docs and even Search!.

I have run a full system scan and I’m clean of all virus and spyware
threats.

I have tried to restore to a point more than a couple of weeks ago
using both System Restore and Norton Goback - and had no luck with
either.

I’d be very grateful for any suggestions on how to fix this. Rebooting
does not help. Neither does closing explorer.exe and restarting it
using Alt, Ctrl, Delete.

I apologise in advance for not being terribly tech savvy ops:

 

[Roy]

I experienced this same problem on a Laptop PC belonging to a
granddaughter. I noticed that there were hundreds of Temporary Internet
files on the PC and the hard drive was below the recomended spare memory
space. The only way I could get anything to open and run was to boot in
the Safe Mode. This allowed me to open and run some items but not all.

I opened the Control Panel, Internet Options and clicked on the Delete
Files button to delete the Temporary Internet files. The deleting
action took a considerable time, making me think the PC had locked up.
However, I waited it out and it eventually finished the job. Lots of
Temporary Internet Files in that PC! This cleared the problem and
things were all OK then. Don't know if this will fix your problem or
not but worth trying.

Roy

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

Hello Lily,

Would you tell us if you are running XP Pro /with/ service pack 2 and with all the latest updates?

Did you use Windows Explorer to look at the specific folder at issue?

Bring up Windows Explorer / Tools / Folder Options/ select VIEW Tab and look at all of settings listed.
Under column, Hidden files and folders----choose ( *select* ) Show hidden files and folders.


Consider getting and running CCleaner (freeware) from http://www.ccleaner.com/ to cleanup (delete) temporary files.

Download it, save it, set it up and run it.

When started, select the Windows tab:

Select these options:

Under Internet Explorer: select Temporary Internet Files, Delete Index.dat files

Under System: select Empty Recycle Bin, temporary Files, memory dumps, Chkdsk file fragments