Windows Explorer fails to open

June 12, 2008

I'm using a Dell OptiPlex 745, Windows XP Professional, SP2 with all

updates (probably except the last since this is a corporate machine

and IT takes care of the updates).

I usually have two Windows Explorer windows ope all the time. I run

into a problem that seems to be getting more frequent where, when

trying to open another window (right click start and select Explore) I

get a message that it encountered a problem and needs to close, ya-da,

ya-da, ya-da. From this point on I can't open another Explorere

window. Sometimes I can start "My Computer". If it does start, when I

go to close it I'll get the same error. Or, sometimes I get the error

message when trying to open (double clicking My Computer on the

Desktop). In either case from this point on I can't open either. When

I double click on My Computer the hourglass flashes quickly, then

nothing. Not even an error message. Another strange point is that when

I get the first error message and exit that window, the two open

Window Explorer windows stay, other times they go away too.

Last week I had this problem immediately after booting on Monday

morning. This week the problem didn't show up until Wednesday

afternoon. Last week I rebooted the PC and didn't have a problem for

the remainder of the week.

IT has scanned the PC and didn't find anything.

Any ideas?

Thank you.

June 12, 2008

Re: Windows Explorer fails to open

Clamorous wrote:

> I'm using a Dell OptiPlex 745, Windows XP Professional, SP2 with all

> updates (probably except the last since this is a corporate machine

> and IT takes care of the updates).

>

> I usually have two Windows Explorer windows ope all the time. I run

> into a problem that seems to be getting more frequent where, when

> trying to open another window (right click start and select Explore) I

> get a message that it encountered a problem and needs to close, ya-da,

> ya-da, ya-da. From this point on I can't open another Explorer

> window. Sometimes I can start "My Computer". If it does start, when I

> go to close it I'll get the same error. Or, sometimes I get the error

> message when trying to open (double clicking My Computer on the

> Desktop). In either case from this point on I can't open either. When

> I double click on My Computer the hourglass flashes quickly, then

> nothing. Not even an error message. Another strange point is that when

> I get the first error message and exit that window, the two open

> Window Explorer windows stay, other times they go away too.

>

> Last week I had this problem immediately after booting on Monday

> morning. This week the problem didn't show up until Wednesday

> afternoon. Last week I rebooted the PC and didn't have a problem for

> the remainder of the week.

>

> IT has scanned the PC and didn't find anything.

>

> Any ideas?

> Thank you.

Click Start, Run, type SFC /SCANNOW, click OK. If any files are damaged

or missing, they'll be replaced. You may need to reboot afterwards so

damaged files will be replaced.

--

Joe =o)

June 12, 2008

Re: Windows Explorer fails to open

I would suspect malware or another program running in the background is

causing the problem. Malware can be detected by any number of good programs

(SpyBot for one) and the other is detected using this method:

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316434

Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

Since the problem is not consistent, it might be a real bear to track down.

--

Regards

Ron Badour

MS MVP 1997 - 2008

"Clamorous" <Joseph.Sander@goodrich.com> wrote in message

news:218c7710-685e-4b54-86fd-e47a5ac273a8@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...