Explorer.exe won't start in Windows 98

[butterfm]

Hi,

I've been asked to look at a problem with a neighbours PC.

When windows 98 starts it comes back with an error saying that it can't start Explorer.exe. If you click OK the same message just appears again and therefore I can't get into the machine.

Is this likely to be somekind of Malware or a corrupt system file or registry. Is there anyway in 98 to recover teh OS system files without doing a full re-format and re-install. I can't get into the machine in safe mode either.

If it is Malware are there any DOS tools available to scan the machine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

[Crowley16]

this should really go into the windows95/98 forum

explorer.exe is the base exe for windows, which means if it's gone then something pretty serious has happened...

you can try to copy explorer.exe from the install cd into the windows folder, however if that doesn't work, then your best bet is to reinstall windows from scratch.

to get into the computer, you'll have to make a bootdisk or bootcd, preferably with cd rom drivers loaded. Google for how to do this...

--------------------
Procrastinate Now!

 

[mainegeek]

butterfm,
It is probably a virus. Maybe change the shell from Explorer to Program manager in the system.ini.

shell=Explorer.exe

(change it to)

shell=Progman.exe

This may allow you to boot and run the Antivirus if the PC has one or maybe instead slave the hard drive to another PC with a working and up-to-date Antivirus.

 

[butterfm]

Thanks guys - sorry for posting in the wrong forum.

Crowley16 - explorer.exe is still there (i've checked in DOS). The error message just says that it has problems staring it.

Maingeek - I thought it might be a virus. I'll try the system.ini change and if that doesn't work, i'll slave the HDD on my machine and run a virus check.

Thanks very much for your help both of you.

Matt.

 

[buletman]

Hello, I had the same problem and found a fix earlier today:

delete these from your registry (AS ALWAYS, MAKE A BACKUP FIRST IF YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\iexplorer.exe

Worked for me and a few other people...let me know...

Chad

 

[butterfm]

Thanks for the advice buletman. Sadly i've formatted and re-installed in the meantime as the person who's PC it was needed it back
I ran virus check etc on the drive as a slave in my machine but couldn't find anything.
Where are these registry entries from (i.e are they put there by some kind of malware ?)

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Krosus]

Basically some viruses and malware make copies of explorer.exe that are dodgy and make the system fall over all the time.
Latest one to do this is i have seen is called Smitfraud it basically hijacks and cocks up your machine but gives you a link to a program that can fix it for a price. basically they are blackmailing you to get your machine back and working again.

 

[BadBigBen]

Sorry if this comes a bit late...

but you could have run SFC.exe from DOS, this lets you check the integrity of the System Files...

or you could have installed W98 over itself (this only works for W95 and W98, I don't know about ME, but definately not for w2k, xp, 2k3...)...

What has happened most likely was, that the Registry has become corrupted, either through User interaction, or through Malware, or just some progy gone sour on it...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...

 

[butterfm]

Thanks for the replies - never too late as the info may come in useful in the future.

After the virus/spyware scans I did try extracting explorer.exe from the cab files on the win98 CDROM and replacing the existing one. I also did a full Win98 install over itself. Neither of these fixed the problem.

I didn't try SFC.exe so it could possibly have been a DLL or other file associated with explorer.exe that was causing the problem.

Ben - would doing an install over the top leave the registry intact. If so your idea of a corrupt registry is a good possablility. The person who owned the computer wouldn't know what a registry was so it's unlikely they have broken it through regedit but I suppose some form of malware or program could have.

Thanks for your replies.

Matt.

 

[BadBigBen]

Doing an inplace/over-the-top install only redoes the part of the Registry that deals with Hardware and the Microsoft OS, it pretty much leaves every Program (Software part) in place... so that could have been where the culprit got stuck...

in lieu of that, the other option would've been to download a Registry Fix progy like Registry Mechanic or RegHealer, to fix the Registry...

but usually the quickest and sometimes easiest way is to start from Scratch, like you have done...



Ben

If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer...