Explorer.exe won't run

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

OK, this one has be stumped. This is my neighbors pc, he has only one
account set up, the administrator account has been set to limited, he has not
installed SP2. I have run all the usual utilities, i.e. full virus scan with
both Norton and AVG (not simultaneously), adaware, spybot, online at Panda,
and Hijackthis, all are clean. Machine boots to login (XP Home SP1) and
accepts password but only goes as far as the background. There are no
desktop icons and the tray does not show. All I can do is use task manager
to launch items from the command prompt. I am not at the machine now and
won't be until later this evening. I have tried replacing the explorer.exe
file currently on the machine with one from the install cd and this has not
worked. Explorer.exe just will not run. Any ideas at all abot what I may be
missing?
 
OK, this one has be stumped. This is my neighbors pc, he has only one
account set up, the administrator account has been set to limited, he
has not
installed SP2. I have run all the usual utilities, i.e. full virus
scan with both Norton and AVG (not simultaneously), adaware, spybot,
online at Panda,
and Hijackthis, all are clean. Machine boots to login (XP Home SP1)
and
accepts password but only goes as far as the background. There are no
desktop icons and the tray does not show. All I can do is use task
manager
to launch items from the command prompt. I am not at the machine now
and
won't be until later this evening. I have tried replacing the
explorer.exe file currently on the machine with one from the install
cd and this has not
worked. Explorer.exe just will not run. Any ideas at all abot what I
may be missing?
Click to expand...

What do you mean "the administrator account has been set to limited"? Do
you mean the normally hidden fail-safe Administrator account? Or the
end user's account with administrative privileges?

If the latter, go into Safe Mode and log onto the fail-safe
Administrator account. In XP Home, the default password is blank. Then
go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and create a new user
account for your friend. Log into that account. If all is well, copy
over your friend's data to his new account and delete the old one which
has probably become corrupted.

Copy a User Account -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=811151

If the situation is otherwise, then post back with complete details for
more help.

Malke
 
Malke,
Thanks for the reply. I mean exactly what I posted, the administrator
account has been somehow set to a limited account. This is something I
believe he has done in error or it was done via some infection I am not
seeing. Safe mode yields the same result, no icons and the administrator
account is non-functional. The only useable account is the one he uses. I
have even attempted to create additional accounts and they too produce no
icons. I am suspecting the default user profile has become corrupt along
with the explorer.exe file. I am not ruling out a complete re-install, but
am just curious as to a possibility of getting the box back functioning
without one.

PS,
As you and I both know, the administrator account should not be blank.
During the install, the installer is prompted to set a password and more
often than not, the installer neglects to set a password.
 
Crash Override said:
OK, this one has be stumped. This is my neighbors pc, he has only one
account set up, the administrator account has been set to limited, he has
not
installed SP2. I have run all the usual utilities, i.e. full virus scan
with
both Norton and AVG (not simultaneously), adaware, spybot, online at
Panda,
and Hijackthis, all are clean. Machine boots to login (XP Home SP1) and
accepts password but only goes as far as the background. There are no
desktop icons and the tray does not show. All I can do is use task
manager
to launch items from the command prompt. I am not at the machine now and
won't be until later this evening. I have tried replacing the
explorer.exe
file currently on the machine with one from the install cd and this has
not
worked. Explorer.exe just will not run. Any ideas at all abot what I may
be
missing?
Click to expand...

I've seen this a number of times, and most often it's that some process or
program isn't launching properly and the computer just gets stuck at that
point.

What you need to do is figure out what's getting stuck. There are a number
of ways to do that. For instance, you could go to msconfig and start
disabling things. Some people prefer to disable everything in the startup,
then turn them on one-by-one. Other prefer to turn them off one-by-one. If
you really know what you're looking at, you may be able to narrow down the
culprits to the most likely, and just shut those down.

Happy hunting.
 
Back
Top