Explorer Not Running

Icemopper

Hey folks,

Like it says, when I run the task manager, explorer.exe shows up in the processes as using memory and some CPU power, but it isn't there anymore. I have to use the New Task thing to run any programs.

Any ideas why? Since I'm not familiar with running programs outside the start bar, I'm a little handicapped now.

Six

This is happening every time you start the computer? If not, reboot.

jeepinryan

If you need to get explorer running again to fix stuff, you should be able to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and bring up the Task Manager. From there, click on the Applications tab, then click the New Task button. Type in explorer.exe and click OK.

That should get it running...if not, you may have worse problems going on.

Icemopper

Ah, yeah, I meant to say those things.

It happened each time I rebooted, but I had been able to get it running before, now it isn't running at all.

And I've tried running it using the new task thing, but that doesn't work either... what sort of worse problems are you talking about

jeepinryan

It's possible that something on your hard drive was corrupted, like the filesystem itself, or just some of the necessary files that Windows needs to run.

To check to see if that has occured, you can run a chkdsk and let it try to fix it automagically. The easiest way to start it is to open up My Computer, then right click on your main system partition (usually C:\) and go to Properties. Click the Tools tab, then click the Check Now button at the top. Check both boxes and hit OK.

It'll probably complain and tell you that you must schedule the disk check for the next reboot, so allow that and then reboot. You'll see a bunch of wonky text scroll by on the screen and it'll probably take a while to complete. Unfortunately it doesn't pause at the end for you to view the results, but if you're paying attention you can see it flash by for a few seconds. It'll usually say if corruption was found and what was fixed.

Since you don't have explorer running, it might be hard to get it running by clicking through My Computer. Are you able to get booted up in Safe Mode? If not, you might need a Windows install disk to use the recovery console feature..which is a pain in the bum.

Icemopper

Ok, I tried that, and it did the check, but I wasn't around to see what it said the problem was, or what was fixed, but the problem persists. I ran msconfig and started in diagnose mode and explorer started up, but nothing else would run, and it wouldn't even get internet even though I'm going through ethernet. I think I'll have to find the windows install disk somewhere (which is going to be a challenge since I just moved into my new apartment) but thanks for the help...

any other ideas?

eternalbl

Run malwarebytes anti malware.

There's gotta be something messing with you system. If that won't run, try renaming the file and running again. Same thing once its installed, if it won't run, browse to the folder you installed in and rename the program.

Icemopper

Sounds good, I'll try that. For whatever reason, when I loaded it up, it is working again, with a few minor problems.

Thanks again for the help, I'll try the anti-malware soon.