Every time I try to open “My Computer” I get a message saying something like “Explorer.exe. A problem has occured and this process needs to be shut down.” - or something like that - it’s in Chinese.
It then asks me whether I would like to report the problem to Bill and his mates at Idiotsoft. When I report the problem it tells me I need service pack 2. When I try to install this it tells me I already have it.
Does anyone know how I can get around this annoying problem? I would like to eradicate IE from my machine but i dont know whether I can delete files like “connexion wizard” and stuff like that as it sounds very important. If I get rid of these files will it stop me from accessing the net or is it just for IE only?
This seems to have started after tranferring to the far superior and much less problematic browser “FIREFOX.” I don’t use IE anymore.
I’m thinking about getting and Apple system. I hate microsoft. It’s products are shite and I don’t see why I should support such a callous and underhanded company in the first place.
If Explorer.exe has a problem this is Windows explorer not IE explorer. If Windows explorer is affected that’s why ‘My Computer’ crashes. What has caused the problem? I don’t know but viruses/spyware can mess with the operating system although that’s only one of many possibilities.
A first place to start would be to run the AdAware SE anti spyware program and remove anything nasty it finds (it’s free if you don’t have it). I have read of spyware crashing explorer with a very similar message to the one you gave. If you’ve tried this already and still have the problem it could possibly be a conflict between some video/music codecs and XP but this would usually be when you’re already in ‘My Computer’ and you right click on a drive or when you’re trying to open music or video files in a folder.
You can’t, it’s an integral part of XP (well you can with some fancy software but even that’s not perfect). I’m sure the problem is not a conflict between Firefox and XP, loads of people use them together.
Dangermouse, I have the exact same problem. And I always restart my computer because of it. I’ll keep my eyes on this thread as I’m really glad it’s not just a problem with 914’s otherwise new and kickass computer.
yeti is right about explorer.exe not being Internet Explorer. explorer.exe is the program used to browse folders and files on your system. Internet Explorer will show up as iexplore.exe if it is the one having problems. While you can’t remove Internet Explorer, if you have XP SP1a or better you can run “Set Program Access and Defaults” to hide Internet Explorer. It’ll still be around for things like Windows Update though.
If just opening My Computer is a problem, that’s pretty serious. Something on your computer is really not happy. Bringing up My Computer displays any drives on your system, so it has to go poking around your drives to gather some information, so it could be a driver problem or something not formatted right on one of the drives. It’s hard to know exactly what is wrong though, and since your computer is in Chinese it’ll be even tougher. But here is what I would suggest:
Run a thorough scan with at least two up to date spyware/adware programs. I would suggest the latest versions of Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Also run the Immunize function is Spybot Search & Destroy to prevent future infestations. You want to run at least two because there tends to be some differences is what different programs can detect.
Run a thorough scan with an up to date anti-virus product. AVG is getting rid of their free version, so you’re gonna have to pay for this. I use the commercial version of AVG and it is reasonably priced compared to others.
Run Windows Update and install any critical patches and any device driver updates.
If you remember when you started having problems and have System Restore enabled, run Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore and have it roll back the install the the checkpoint prior to problems occurring. In the future, if anything hinky happens with your comptuer, rolling back a day or too with System Restore can often fix the problem.
If you are still having problems, do a Windows XP Repair Install. This will replace system drivers and OS files but will not harm your programs, files or personal settings. You will need to read that link very carefully before you do it, because there’s a few other repair or install options that are incorrect. Follow the procedure exactly!
After a Repair Install you will need to run Windows Update again, as your system will have reverted back to the original versions from your CD. Also you may need to reinstall some third-party drivers if you have any devices that don’t have a driver included in XP.
Not trying to be funny, but I’ve been using Windows 2000 since it came out and had very few problems with it. The only time I’ve had to reinstall was my fault.
Well, he’s already running Windows XP, and XP is pretty much Windows 2000 with a frilly dress on. Stability wise, there’s not that much difference from what I’ve seen. Anyone still running 95/98/ME should have their head examined though.
Are you sure about this? I read they’re stopping support for AVG 6.0 only and nothing about an end to support for the new free version introduced at the end of last year. I hope not, I like getting something for nothing.
Assuming that DangerousMouse tried to remove a spyware from his system prior to this Windows Explorer problem. He’s screwed. I’ve had to redo 2 systems (of friends’) due to that problem. It was basically a gator-like program that installed a toolbar and always forced IE to an odd website.
Sadly, I’d recommend re-installing your machine and picking up a copy of Ghost to create an image of your drive.
I fixed this problem on a friends computer a few months ago.
Use System Restore. This is available on XP though I’ m not sure about any other OS.
To find it Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Restore.
Restore your computer to date before the problems arose.
You wont lose any documents you have saved after the restore point.
I ran the Spyware programs. Infact, I’d already run them before but they didn’t solve the problem.
The problem is very sporadic. Sometimes I will get the notice and other times I will be able to use the machine without hinderance. Sometimes the notice will appear after the computer has been left on for several hours.
If it happens I just access My Computer through another path and it seems to be OK but its still annoying.
I’ll get round to doing the system restore over the next couple of days when I finally muddle through the Chinese instructions.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I’ll let you know how it goes.
