I am ready to remove XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim S.
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim S.

My pc locks up all the time because a process known as
explored.exe keeps loading and utilizing 80 to 90% of the
cpu. If I remove the process, it comes right back. I am
ready to move to a different operating system if
necessary. Thanks for any help.
Jim
 
Jim,
Could AOL be the culpirt?
We had our share of AOL problems, not saying that's your
problem. I also have a XP related problem, which I posted
about tonight. It is really irritating. I thought I
bought a rather "state of the art" machine, thinking no
more problems. Ya right. I am afraid it is just a part of
dealing with computers. My problem, I am not really that
knowledgable, my "expert" who takes care of our office
seems to be able to work around anything. Oh well, I
build houses, ya can't do everything I guess.
Good Luck with your problem!
 
I think you will screw up any OS you use.

Testy

Jim S. said:
My pc locks up all the time because a process known as
explored.exe keeps loading and utilizing 80 to 90% of the
cpu. If I remove the process, it comes right back. I am
ready to move to a different operating system if
necessary. Thanks for any help.
Jim
Click to expand...
 
Jim said:
My pc locks up all the time because a process known as
explored.exe keeps loading and utilizing 80 to 90% of the
cpu. If I remove the process, it comes right back. I am
ready to move to a different operating system if
necessary. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

You may have spyware/adware infesting your machine, follow the
appropriate section for that, making sure you use at least
THREE of the tools I list to scan and clean your machine AFTER
updating them. Cleaning up spyware/adware/malware usually
solves home page hijackers as well.


Make sure you have all the updates (critical) installed from:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
(Scan for updates, Review and Install)


Get rid of the spy/ad/mal-ware..
(Yes - using MORE than one of these..
I recommend at least the first three. Also..
UPDATE the definitions for them before using.)

Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.net/

Lavasoft AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.de

CWSShredder
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Hijack This!
http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

I also like "The Cleaner" and "SpywareBlaster" and "SpywareGuard".
- http://www.moosoft.com/
- http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/

The first is a PAY product, but useable for 30 days - it has found and
eliminated problems in the past the others did not. The latter two are
prevention mechanisms. I like SpywareGuard for those with enough processor
to have something running like antivirus software - and it prevents browser
hijacking quite well. SpywareBlaster is a FANTASTIC free product, I suggest
getting this after you cleanup and keeping it updated as well....

And Assortment of Others:
http://spywareinfo.com/



Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to about
80 to 120MB (seems to be an optimal size for the normal user)

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section,
do the following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the
"Amount of disk space to use:" to something between 80MB
and 120MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to
"Delete all offline contents" (the checkbox) and click
OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10 minutes or
more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer
- Re-open Internet Explorer.


Uninstall any software you do not use often/ever. (If you have something
installed but never use it, uninstall it.) If you go through Control
Panel -> Add/Remove Programs and see things you seldom if ever use, it is to
your advantage to remove it.


Also, if you are tired of Web Page Pop-Ups/Unders.. You could try the
Google Toolbar.
http://toolbar.google.com/


Stop loading applications at logon.. run MSCONFIG and look under the startup
tab for things you DON'T want to startup! Search the Internet with Google
to discover what things are safe to remove and what things may even be
malware infecting your computer.


Better control your email and lessen the amount of time you spend dealing
with SPAM:
SpamBayes
http://sourceforge.net/projects/spambayes/
or
Spamihilator.
http://www.spamihilator.com


Hope that helps...
 
You can fix this problem by going to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
and delete the "Default" value "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"
This should stop explorer chasing its tail....it worked for me !!! if you
use alot of AVI files remove key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesCLSID{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}
InProcServer32, this will stop Explorer from loading shmedia.dll. you will
find Explorer CPU time drop down to about 0 !

Good luck
 
Jim S. said:
My pc locks up all the time because a process known as
explored.exe keeps loading and utilizing 80 to 90% of the
cpu. If I remove the process, it comes right back. I am
ready to move to a different operating system if
necessary. Thanks for any help.
Jim
Click to expand...

Is the troublesome process named "explored.exe" or "explorer.exe"?

If it is explored.exe then you have a virus/spyware of some sort and
need to get that removed.

If it is explorer.exe then that is a core component of Windows but
something is causing it to misbehave. It will probably be necessary
to do some more checking to see what is actually behind this.

But in any event you should always ensure that your antivirus software
is completely up to date, with the virus definitions never more than a
week old, and that you do periodic full virus scans of your hard
drive.

You also need to use spyware removal software, as this stuff is
insidious and will get onto your computer without warning. Shenan
Stanley has given you some good advice in this regard.

And finally you need to have a firewall in place. There are several
choices for this, depending on your specific configuration and what
you want to do.

1. A hardware firewall, such as is provided by the NAT protection
built into home routers for cable and dsl Internet connections.

2. The built-in firewall in Windows XP which is good at preventing
outside intruders but does not do anything about unwanted outgoing
traffic.

3. A third-party firewall product such as Zone Alarm or Outpost.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
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