Windows Explorer loads, system tray apps load then Explorer crashes again, repeatedly

[pgudge]

Hi All,

I've alway enjoyed fixing/cleaning up virus' and malware for friends and family, but I'm beat

I have a Windows 7 laptop, Windows boots, system try loads, Norton icon loads, Power icon loads, volume icon loads then Explorer crashes and says "Windows Explorer is restarting" it repeats indefinitely.

• Opening Task Manager is fine, kill the explorer.exe and the process stops.

• In Task Manager, File, New Task (Run) and start typing in the box crashes Task Manager, clicking browse brings up the Open Dialog and lets me search and navigate the whole of the HDD fine, select app, click ok, app runs fine.

• I've checked and emptied all the Run keys in registry, and there is nothing in the Startup folders

• There isn't anything dodgy looking at all running in Task Manager

What next? I've tried searching for a way to stop the system tray apps from running, but I think its probably the next step in Explorer loading after the system tray icons thats causing the crash.

Any ideas from anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Paul.

[Agent]

Without wanting to state the obvious - safe mode?

[pgudge]

I knew I'd miss something Safemode yields similar results, Explorer starts, after about 10 seconds Explorer crashes, but doesn't restart. Running explorer.exe from Task Manager starts up and crashes again.

[Agent]

Have you tried SFC?

Command prompt (as admin) and "sfc /scannow"

Do you have any reason to suspect a virus? If so, I'd just pull the drive and scan it on another system.

When it crashes, do you get any debug info? Normally you should get some hex outputs to go off.

[pgudge]

Thanks, not tried SFC, will do that now.

When I got the laptop it had ScanFix, SmartPC Fixer and some other stuff like that, probably not virus, but he said he did not install them.

No other info from the crash. Explorer dies and restarts. Strange things like Event Viewer will not load, and the typing in the New Task box in Task Manager crashing seems weird.

[Agent]

ScanFix / SmartPC Fixer is almost certainly some form of spy/malware. Fake reviews for it all over the web, with fake blogs set-up to make it look legit.

Goodness knows what software like that is doing to Explorer if it's loading any sort of plugins for the system.

The usual suspects should be run: Super anti-spyware, malware bytes, ad-aware, Kaspersky if you want a full system scan.

Failing that, it could be a case of a reinstall I'm afraid.

[pgudge]

Thanks Agent,

I tried to do a System Restore this afternoon and even that won't work. "System Restore failed to extract the file D:\Program Files (x86)\SmartPCFix) from the restore point, this was a restore point from 3 months back, and was the oldest selectable.

I tried the Kaspersky bootable ISO thing, but just gets to loading page and kernal panics, every time, and trying to run Super Antispyware returns "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005)."

[jcgriff2]

Hi -

Check shells out - one may be causing Explorer to crash.

From NirSoft -
- ShellMenuView - (sorry - can't post URLs until I have 5 posts!)
- ShellExView - (sorry - can't post URLs until I have 5 posts!)

Try System Restore from Recovery - it runs under the supreme user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM

Boot into Recovery via Recovery Partition or W7 DVD and select "Windows System Restore" -- not "System Recovery" (or similar) as it will reinstall Windows.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2
MS MVP

[pgudge]

Thanks, tired ShellExView, and disabled all none Microsoft ones, tried system recovery from Safemode, Windows 7 DVD repair menu, both fail saying cannot find the SmartPCFix folder. Ran another sfc /scannow, reported it had fixed corrupt files, but after a reboot Explorer still crashes. Tried a new user profile, still same. Going to have to admit defeat and backup/restore/re-install

[jcgriff2]

Sorry to hear about reinstall; however, I know what you're going through as I too am about to reinstall W7 on my own system (last done 6/2010).

You will be amazed at the speed of the system after reinstall!

Be sure to allow ALL Windows Updates in once you reach Desktop -

http://www.update.microsoft.com

Also, validate the new install -

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/validate

Good luck to you.

Regards,

jcgriff2
MS MVP