Explorer not auto-starting

[Burt_100]

I have a laptop and when a pizza tech was working on removing a root kill he has managed to stop windows explorer from auto starting, i have tried restoring the registry and moving the registry files from the repair folder but has worked so far, I dont want to have to reinstall the windows installation, is thrre anyway i can het around this?

 

[Xander]

So, this is on some version of Windows? You're not really telling us much here.

 

[Burt_100]

Sorry its on xp sp3, when i manually start explorer through the task manager at the login screen, it starts and works well, the only problem is that it has affected the network connection, the network is connecting but not internet access and i cannot ping an ip address, i first of all suspected spyware but ive been through the running processes and there is nothing evident, im totally out of ideas on this!

 

[Xander]

Rather than repairing/replacing the registry, why not just repair all the network related functions? Use D7 or that recently-mentioned "Windows Repair" utility.

What is the Shell set as?

 

[Burt_100]

Shell is set to explorer.exe, i intend to use d7 to correct the internet connection faults but unless i can get explorer to auto start im going to have to reinstall windows anyway which i really dont want to have to do as the customer will loose a lot of software.

 

[FoolishTech]

Certainly is odd.

There is also a USER shell value in HKCU that can override the HLKM shell. Be sure to check that. Since you've got D7, in MalwareScan check the "Shell Value" in the left column about half way down, make sure nothing appears there - if it does you can surely delete it.

Also make sure that explorer isn't initially loading and then *crashing* due to some issue before you actually see the desktop. Check event logs.

FOR TESTING PURPOSES ONLY, you might even replace the shell value with another app, such as taskman or cmd, just to see if it fires properly when Windows loads. That will tell you if you have a registry issue or an exe issue with explorer or something crashing it...

 

[B Trevathan]

Could it be that its still infected?
Try renaming explorer.exe to something like explorer1.exe and also change the shell to the new name in HKCU, if changing just the name to explorer1.exe doesn't work try changing the extension also like explorer1.com

Instead of restoring the registry from the repair folder why didn't you restore it from one of the snapshot folders in the restore points folders?

Have you tried running an offline virus scan from a live CD like Avira AntiVir Rescue System?

Have you tried running sfc from ERD Commander 2007 for XP or loading a restore point?

I'm guessing you have tried safe mode, last known good config, etc. etc....

 

[KM@ Dave]

Run command Prompt...

sfc /scanfile=c:\Windows\explorer.exe

Or just scan the whole system with sfc /scannow. I think you may need a Windows Disc in the drive to use SFC on Windows XP.

 

[Burt_100]

Rite got the explorer problem sorted now, turns out the hkcu shell was missing the explorer.exe extension, problem im having now is i cant get internet connection, ive plugged the machine into the back of the router and it shows connection but just no ping or internet and to top it all off the windows wireless zero configuration is playing up as it cant see any networks but if i use wireless net view the network is showing available at 100%, ive searched for viruses and malware but its all clear, ive used d7 to reset hosts file, reset ip settings & reset winsock - ive also tried to set the ip as static but still eith no success, occassionaly the ballon with wireless networks available would pop up but when i click on the view networks tab no networks can be found, any ideas as im totally confused???

 

[FoolishTech]

Hmm, that seems to be going around lately...

See this thread for a few suggestions on that note.

If something works for you or you otherwise find a solution, let me know! (I'll try to get a fix in D7 for it...)

 

[Burt_100]

Tried everything even in the other post, fresh copy of the tvip.sys file etc and the repair procedure in the link still no good, the more i look at it the more it seams like a broken registry, ive tried system restore but still no good, can anyone shed any light on this as im so confused.

 

[FoolishTech]

Tried everything even in the other post, fresh copy of the tvip.sys file etc and the repair procedure in the link still no good, the more i look at it the more it seams like a broken registry, ive tried system restore but still no good, can anyone shed any light on this as im so confused.

whew. Ok how about the solution from the OP in this thread!

 

[frase]

Try to create another user profile, if still fails a repair install is what I would do. The user data is not lost and will fix explorer.exe issues.

 

[Burt_100]

Right, got a bit further, ive noticed that the wins proxy was missing from the registry, inputed and enabled the value but still no good when i plug into the back of the router the lan says connected but i still cannot ping, i tried the winsock resets both manual and several tools but still nothing, i tried to follow the thread that foolish outlined to uninstall and reinstall the ip protocol but could not get the uninstall tab to highlight even when i followed the instruction to the very word, normally i wud just do a reinstall but im challanged by this and would like to fix it if possible, i seams to have something to do with missing values its just determining which ones, any ideas would be most appreciated!