"Explorer is having a problem"

My friend uses ME and is getting this error message. It does not say
Internet Explorer.
It is either when it starts up, or when she tries to start Windows
Explorer.

Any idea what it could mean?

Thanks

Hmmm - chances are it could be caused by the same thing - malware.
You may already have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://vil.mcafeesecurity.com/vil/averttools.asp

- update your virus scanner and run a full system scan of all files.

Reboot to Safe Mode and run CWShredder - to remove variants of the
CoolWebSearch hijacker.
http://www.merijn.org/cwschronicles.html

Use CWShredder, the removal tool:
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/

download AdAware SE Personal Edition from www.lavasoftusa.com, install,
update, and run it to remove spyware, adware, and other such nasties from
your system.


OTOH, it may simply be that Internet Explorer is a little out of whack (this
can also affect Windows Explorer!)

Reboot to Safe Mode
Go to Add/Remove Programs and try a repair of Internet Explorer from there.
Go to the entry for 'Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 SP1 and Internet Tools'
in Add/Remove Programs
Click on Remove - and click on Repair on the window that pops up
Reboot on request to Normal Mode

If the above entry isn't there, you first need to uninstall all the patches
applied, then do the repair, then reapply the patches
The patches are listed in Add/Remove under the names 'Internet Explorer
Qxxxxxx'
highlight, click Remove - reboot if requested.
Repeat until the MSIE6SP1 entry appears - then repair as above.

HTH


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

wrote in message
oups.com...
My friend uses ME and is getting this error message. It does not say
Internet Explorer.
It is either when it starts up, or when she tries to start Windows
Explorer.

Any idea what it could mean?

Thanks

Hey, not to undermine the knowledge or comprehension of the MVP above,
but I understood this to be an "explorer" issue and not an "Internet
Explorer" problem per se. While the suggestions you offered are great
initial steps, I am thinking that maybe the windows shell itself is
crashing. Maybe if we knew exactly which dll or app was being
referenced when it crashed, that might be helpful.

Thoughts?

If IE sneezes Windows Explorer goes into convulsions! Since IE 5 the
two are so closely intertwined that now a days a good majority of
Windows Explorer errors are caused by Internet Explorer problems. The
Windows Explorer shell can be detached from IE but that's another long
story... that I don't really want to tackle.

John

wrote:

Hey, not to undermine the knowledge or comprehension of the MVP above,
but I understood this to be an "explorer" issue and not an "Internet
Explorer" problem per se. While the suggestions you offered are great
initial steps, I am thinking that maybe the windows shell itself is
crashing. Maybe if we knew exactly which dll or app was being
referenced when it crashed, that might be helpful.

Thoughts?

My friend removed IE using Add/Remove Programs. I admit that was a
silly thing to do. Would that cause the error message to come up?

wrote:
Hey, not to undermine the knowledge or comprehension of the MVP above,
but I understood this to be an "explorer" issue and not an "Internet
Explorer" problem per se. While the suggestions you offered are great
initial steps, I am thinking that maybe the windows shell itself is
crashing. Maybe if we knew exactly which dll or app was being
referenced when it crashed, that might be helpful.

It's not possible to 'remove IE' using Add/Remove programs - what your
friend did was to revert back to the original installed version of IE
(v5.5) - under certain circumstances, this is exactly the right thing to
do - under the current circumstances as described, yes, it was the wrong
thing to do.

The system needs to be clean before upgrading IE to the latest version -
so.....
You may already have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://vil.mcafeesecurity.com/vil/averttools.asp

- update your virus scanner and run a full system scan of all files.

Reboot to Safe Mode and run CWShredder - to remove variants of the
CoolWebSearch hijacker.
http://www.merijn.org/cwschronicles.html

Use CWShredder, the removal tool:
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/

download AdAware SE Personal Edition from www.lavasoftusa.com, install,
update, and run it to remove spyware, adware, and other such nasties from
your system.


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

wrote in message
oups.com...
My friend removed IE using Add/Remove Programs. I admit that was a
silly thing to do. Would that cause the error message to come up?

wrote:
Hey, not to undermine the knowledge or comprehension of the MVP above,
but I understood this to be an "explorer" issue and not an "Internet
Explorer" problem per se. While the suggestions you offered are great
initial steps, I am thinking that maybe the windows shell itself is
crashing. Maybe if we knew exactly which dll or app was being
referenced when it crashed, that might be helpful.