Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: MaSonZ on August 31, 2011, 11:18:39 AM
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was deleted from my brothers computer for no apparent reason. he doesnt delete anything, and the day before it was deleted I ran a malwarebytes test and it found nothing, im ruling out a virus got to it.
how can i reinstall this, or better yet wipe his HD of JUST the OS and reinstall with windows 7? right now he has running Windows XP. it will boot to the desktop, it will load his background then a popup window will appear and say something to the effect of "explorer.exe is not present. please reinstall". i would rather not have him use my laptop much longer for the sake of keeping that fairly safe from his horrible browsing habits. if only the OS can be wiped, but all his photos and videos can be saved without backing them up to another drive (i have the room on mine if it needs to be done) I would like to go that route.
thoughts on how i could go about reinstalling Explorer.exe or wiping just his OS and starting fresh with windows 7?
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if you have a windows 7 disk, put it in the dvd drive, restart the system and then boot to the cd...follow the prompts.
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if you have a windows 7 disk, put it in the dvd drive, restart the system and then boot to the cd...follow the prompts.
the theory is it should override Windows XP?
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Yep, cant upgrade from xp to w7, just follow the prompts and you'll be fine.
Wurz
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Of course nothing cleans a computer better than a clean installation of the OS. If in doubt, a zero fill or some other wiping method will destroy any nasties that might self-recover from a normally formatted disk. There are some things you might want to try, though, if you'd like to check for some files to save through the original OS.
If you have the XP installing CD or the Recovery Console installed, you could also either run chkdsk /r, extract/expand explorer.exe or do a full repair install. I'd try with chkdsk first and if it wouldn't do the trick, do a repair install. You never know if there's some other file missing, too.
You also said you had run Anti-Malware the previous day with no finds. That doesn't mean you couldn't have a nasty MBR virus or rootkit in your computer, in which case all the above is in vain. So the very first thing to do would be running a rootkit finding virus scan from a CD. I have used F-Secure Rescue CD (http://www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA-Labs/security-threats/tools/rescue-cd/) for that purpose with good results. Just make sure it can download updates, not all network cards are supported. It can also be updated with a USB stick.
There's also the possibility of bad sectors in the hard disk drive. Most manufacturers have testing programs for that, or you can get a collection of them on Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/).
There's always a reason for a system file to disappear. IMHO it pays to find it out: Installing on a faulty disk can fail during the installation, making file rescue hard if not impossible. Installing on a heavily polluted disk without wiping can cause the new installation to be infected from the start.
Oh, and how can a computer be "clean" before shutting down and polluted the next startup? Here's an educated guess: One gets a piece of malicious code, which doesn't activate until the last seconds before shutdown. The antivirus program might already be down, and the code tries to infect an essential system file or driver like explorer, or the mouse/keyboard/display driver right before shutdown. If it succeeds, the virus code would act as a part of your running OS, making it impossible for your antivirus to eliminate or even find. The infectation has to happen in nanoseconds, among other possibilities of failure, which can lead to an unstable or non booting system.
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Personally, I'd back up the files before doing anything; insurance. :old:
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Personally, I'd back up the files before doing anything; insurance. :old:
If you save any data (files, etc), make sure you virus scan the files before reinstalling them into a new OS. just my 1.5 cents
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GGood point Catt, how do go about transferring them to my HDD? I don't feel like going through one by one (a few hundred files at the minimum between pictures and videos). If I could very simply mass scan them and switch them over in one sweep I would much rather prefer that.
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So it only starts at the command prompt?
Explorer is what gives you your desktop.
If the computer's graphical user interface is working, then explorer is working.
Now if you do have normal looking windows and am getting a message, it could be some virus action.
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So it only starts at the command prompt?
Explorer is what gives you your desktop.
If the computer's graphical user interface is working, then explorer is working.
Now if you do have normal looking windows and am getting a message, it could be some virus action.
it loads the desktop, but no icons. Assuming it is a viral action as it appears to be, get a new HDD or a used one that is still good and scan all the files with antivirus before transferring them im assuming?
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restore point?
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This might be the dummiest question ever, but have you right-clicked on the Desktop, pointed to Arrange Icons By and clicked Show Desktop Icons?
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restore point?
This might be the dummiest question ever, but have you right-clicked on the Desktop, pointed to Arrange Icons By and clicked Show Desktop Icons?
No mouse curser...how would I do that?
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Wow......then you really have a working computer with "explorer.exe" not being loaded.
It might be possible to manually put explorer.exe where it belongs but it makes you wonder what deleted or renamed it and whether the culprit still exists within the system.
Explorer.exe should also exist in c:\windows\system32\dllcache so you might be able to start the machine in safe mode command prompt using f8 when windows boots and use the copy command to copy explorer.exe to the windows directory......if it is indeed missing.
Posting from blackberry.....I need a new phone
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You cannot simply install Win 7 on top of Win XP and have it replace only the OS while leaving his files intact. Sorry.
You might try a repair from the Win XP installation disk, by booting from that CD? You *might* get lucky if you boot from the Win XP disk, select repair, and then run "chkdsk /r" on his drive?
...or you could wipe out all his user files by installing Win 7 with a full low-level disk format, and then just say "oops." :devil
Users seem to learn better when you inflict a certain level of pain.
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You cannot simply install Win 7 on top of Win XP and have it replace only the OS while leaving his files intact. Sorry.
You might try a repair from the Win XP installation disk, by booting from that CD? You *might* get lucky if you boot from the Win XP disk, select repair, and then run "chkdsk /r" on his drive?
...or you could wipe out all his user files by installing Win 7 with a full low-level disk format, and then just say "oops." :devil
Users seem to learn better when you inflict a certain level of pain.
xp came installed on it, so no disk... but I should be able to easily say" oops" :devil. Could be sell worth it......
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was deleted from my brothers computer for no apparent reason. he doesnt delete anything, and the day before it was deleted I ran a malwarebytes test and it found nothing, im ruling out a virus got to it.
how can i reinstall this, or better yet wipe his HD of JUST the OS and reinstall with windows 7? right now he has running Windows XP. it will boot to the desktop, it will load his background then a popup window will appear and say something to the effect of "explorer.exe is not present. please reinstall". i would rather not have him use my laptop much longer for the sake of keeping that fairly safe from his horrible browsing habits. if only the OS can be wiped, but all his photos and videos can be saved without backing them up to another drive (i have the room on mine if it needs to be done) I would like to go that route.
thoughts on how i could go about reinstalling Explorer.exe or wiping just his OS and starting fresh with windows 7?
run -> cmd -> sfc /scannow
Microsoft(R) Windows XP Windows File Checker Version 5.1
(C) 1999-2000 Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved
Scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.
SFC [/SCANNOW] [/SCANONCE] [/SCANBOOT] [/REVERT] [/PURGECACHE] [/CACHESIZE=x]
/SCANNOW Scans all protected system files immediately.
/SCANONCE Scans all protected system files once at the next boot.
/SCANBOOT Scans all protected system files at every boot.
/REVERT Return scan to default setting.
/PURGECACHE Purges the file cache.
/CACHESIZE=x Sets the file cache size.
If you don't have a XP install disk, copy explorer.exe from another machine...
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Explorer exists in more than one place on most windows machines.
If he get's desktop and not mouse then it should boot to command prompt easily.
Boot pc.....hit f8 over and over until you get start up options menu.
Once in command prompt he should type "copy c:\windows\system32\dllcache\explorer.exe c:\windows".
All the standard dos type commands exist within the c:\windows\system32\dllcache directory so, if he has trouble with it not being allowed, he can use those tools such as "attrib.exe" to get what he wants though he should probably type "path=c:\windows\system32\dllcache" so he can execute them from any directory he might be in.
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No mouse curser...how would I do that?
Sorry, re-read your original post and noticed that you had told about the message about explorer not being present. But in that case I refer to my first answer. If there isn't the possibility to run Recovery Console in the start options menu, you can use any version of XP cd to boot. Even the famous pirated corporate edition disk will do, as far as you don't try to reinstall from it.
And for reinstalling the original XP there should be an option to do it from the hard disk by tapping a certain button (F10, F11 or F12) during startup. Some brands and versions have this function to be activated in BIOS settings, under the title of like "F10 option at startup -enabled/disabled" and/or "startup options ## seconds".
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Wow......then you really have a working computer with "explorer.exe" not being loaded.
It might be possible to manually put explorer.exe where it belongs but it makes you wonder what deleted or renamed it and whether the culprit still exists within the system.
Explorer.exe should also exist in c:\windows\system32\dllcache so you might be able to start the machine in safe mode command prompt using f8 when windows boots and use the copy command to copy explorer.exe to the windows directory......if it is indeed missing.
Posting from blackberry.....I need a new phone
Explorer.exe is a protected system file - you can't delete it yourself from windows desktop without special actions. Therefore it's 99.99% sure a virus deleted it.
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I thought of you when I found this article this morning. Looks like pretty good instructions, says it works for XP as well, and sounds like it'll fix you up. MaximumPC magazine.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-tos/how_repair_faulty_windows_installation_without_reformatting
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Explorer.exe is a protected system file - you can't delete it yourself from windows desktop without special actions. Therefore it's 99.99% sure a virus deleted it.
Could be just case of corrupt, missing or wrong registry entry.
I'd check if HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\Shell actually points to explorer.exe
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again I would try a restore point from about a month or so ago