Explorer caused an error in unknown - A fix!

As with many others, I have been hit by this problem over the past weekend. I think/hope I've found a fix that works for me. Despite nearly 30 years in the IT industry, I'm a bit inexperienced with the techie stuff on PC's so perhaps the following will also help others.

First, the circumstances:
When I tried to use Windows Explorer, My Computer, Control Panel, Printers, Find in Files and Folders, etc. I got an error message: "Explorer has caused an error in unknown. Explorer will now close down". (Later on it switched to a 'blue screen' error that I had to re-boot from).
I'm using Windows ME and hadn't installed anything new for some time. These features had worked the previous week.
They also still worked in Safe Mode.

I took a look around the newsgroups, and noticed that I was far from alone. The consensus seemd to be that we had acquired an unwelcome visitor. Various ideas were suggested, which included downloading & running various utilities - I tried Ad-aware and Spybot S&D. Although they found and cleaned up various suspects, the problem persisted. Probably well worth doing anyway.

A couple of other suggestions. One entry (from DJ Pete under Windows 98 General group) suggested something called Safeguard. The registry entries and dll file he'd suggested didn't exist on my PC, but the search he suggested did find another entry for Safeguard. He also pointed out that just deleting this entry wouldn't do on its own without deleting a dll file. Besides, I didn't feel confident about going at the registry with a chainsaw like this.

Another suggestion elswhere was for something called BHODemon, and it seemed to have worked for some people. I tried this and it found the same registry entry - this time indicated that it had been set up on May 28. This fit in with the time I suspect that the problem started. BHODemon allows you to disable the entries, but this didn't work - I still had the problem.

Then I remembered DJ Pete's comments about having to remove the dll. BHODemon highlighted the dll name so I searched for that file (pdf53c.dll) and found it plus a pdf.lib file in c:\Windows\System - also with a date of May 28. I renamed these files, re-booted and hey presto - Explorer now runs!

I've only just fixed this, but assuming it stays fixed. Here's a summary of what worked for me.

Do all this in Safe Mode
Make a Restore Point - just in case it gets worse.
Using Regedit, search for 'Safeguard'. Make a note of the dll name.
Run BHODemon. Look for the same dll name The 'Details' key should give you more information about when the entries were loaded. Disable the registry entry.
Search your hard drive for the dll file (should be in Windows\System). Rename it and a similar named lib file - change the extensions.
Reboot, cross your fingers and try 'My Computer'