Feb 02, 2009
- In system restore if there is only one point showing, is there a box you can click to put a checkmark in that says "Show Restore Points Older than 5 days" below the box that shows dates and times? Hopefully there is and when you click in that box it will show more dates that you can restore from.
Unless System Restore is manually turned off or a virus attacks your System Restore and wipes out all the restore points, Windows automatically creates restore points whenever a new driver/program/updates etc is installed. It will be strange if there is no restore points, even later than 5 days ago.
Just to be sure it isn't a virus, run a full scan with an online scanner like
http://security.symantec.com from Norton, or Run the Trend Micro Housecall:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
I hope there isn't a virus or I hope you find restore points later than 5 days old.
There also may be a way to take an undamaged original explorer.exe from the Operating System Windows Vista disk and replace (re-write over) your failed one.
Click Start and in the Start Search box type in CMD, then right Click the CMD at the top of the Start menu and click Run as Administrator.
you will be at a commnad prompt like C:\Windows\System32>_
type in chkdsk /r
This will run a disk check and repair any problems it finds. It may say it will run the next time you boot your computer. Click "y" without the quotes to choose yes then just reboot and it will probably run on a blue screen before it gets to the WIndows Desktop. If this doesn't work try
typing in sfc /scannow from the CMD Window
This will run a system file check and if it sees a problem with explorer.exe it may ask you to put in your Operating System Disk and try to repair it.
The last thing I can think of and could find to do and this gets a bit dangerous, as it requires going into your Windows Registry. If you want to try this, please have any important files you need saved (backed up) to a CD/DVD or external Hard Drive) and regular backups of your stuff is always a good idea anyways just in case. If you are unsure maybe get someone who is more familiar with the Registry.
Click Start button then type in regedit in the Start Search box and click enter.
Click File at the top of the registry editor box that opens up and click Export. This will open a save box, and at the bottom make sure the dot beside All is selected. Choose to save it to C:\
and click save. It will take a short time but will save a backup of your registry. Here's the steps you need to take:
You don't need to replace explorer.exe. The fact that you can manually start it and everything is fine is an indicator that nothing is wrong with the file itself. Rather I suspect a problem with the initial logon.
Click the Box with the + sign beside: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and it will open up. Then click the + sign beside each of these (You may have to scroll down to find each one as these may open up a long list:
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Left click on the "Winlogon" key to highlight it, then look on the right hand side pane for the Shell string.It will look like this:
String REG_SZ
and it should have explorer.exe beside REG_SZ.
I created a screenshot of my registry so you can see what it looks like and where the Shell key is:
http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shellkeyus7.jpg
If something else is to the right of REG_SZ:
Double click the word Shell and erase whatever is in the white box and type in "explorer.exe" (without the quotes). Click ok, close the registry editor and reboot. And just report back what in that white box before you replaced its contents with explorer.exe. (I'd like to know out of curiousity if it was rewritten to somthing else)
Really hope this works for ya, and let me just re-interate that the registry can be delicate and the wrong key, or change can mess up the computer and only a format and reinstall can fix it.
