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General discussion

Explorer error message

by johnkos Jun 13, 2005 3:00AM PDT

when restarting my computer (win 98 se) a message window pops up with the message 'explorer has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down'. at this point, the ONLY things i can do is click on 'details', which brings up some info., or 'close', which simply pops up the same message window over and over. i can't click on my 'start' button, i can't invoke CTRL ALT DEL. the only way out is to shutdown via the power strip. restarting brings up the same situation. the same problem occurs if i restart in safe mode.
at the same time that this problem began, some web site shortcut icons were added to my desktop (not by me). does this indicate malware? any suggestions on what to do? thanks!

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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Spyware does this.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 13, 2005 3:11AM PDT
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spyware
by johnkos Jun 13, 2005 3:25AM PDT

thanks. i know about spyware removal tools (i use Adaware). but, i can't run it, or anything. all i can do is click on 'close' or 'details' in the popup message window. unless i can run Adaware from a C prompt? (probably showing my ignorance here) thanks again.

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Which is what nasty spyware does.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 13, 2005 3:34AM PDT

To get rid of such, you use the other tools noted and even move it up to Hijackthis logs and HJT forums as noted in that link.

A common misconception is that one tool such as Adaware or Spybot is all one needs. Read the Virus forum to learn otherwise.

Bob

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Here's a trick I use to boot up and run tools ...
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 13, 2005 3:37AM PDT

I edit the WIN.INI SHELL= entry such as you read at http://www.zisman.ca/Articles/1991-92/OCP_Custom2.html

I can then get other scanners running at boot time when explorer or other items fail.

You can use MSCONFIG in safe mode to disable unknown items to see if that's it.

Bob

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If Windows can't be run even in Safe Mode ...
by Kees Bakker Jun 13, 2005 3:37AM PDT

because of an explorer.exe problem you've got severe problems, almost certainly caused by malware.

Before giving up and doing a clean reinstall of Windows, try the following things:
a) Boot into MS-DOS, type scanreg /restore (+ enter) and a choose a date up to 5 days ago to restore the registry from. This might help, or it might not.
b) The progman or fileman trick (that are the old Windows 3.0 user interfaces) as described by Toni Hackler in http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6618-0.html?forumID=6&threadID=106332&messageID=1215892&tag= to get a GUI to run adaware (and other scanning programs like spybot and cwshredder and online scans from housecall, panda or www.bitdefender.com - post for details if you can't find them on these forums)
c) Run sfc from progman to restore damaged files (small chance of succces in my opinion).
d) Possibly (but only if explorer.exe is recently changed) extract the original explorer.exe from your cd or cab-files as described in some of the posts in http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6121-0.html?forumID=45&threadID=108246&messageID=1233610

Hope this helps,


Kees

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