asked on

Windows 7 Explorer.exe crashes (sometimes) at login

Sometimes when I log in to Windows (7 Ultimate x64) I get an error that explorer.exe has stopped working. When I examine the error all it shows is that ws2_32.dll_unloaded was the faulting module.

I tired running sfc /scannnow but it came back with nothing to report.

How can I further troubleshoot this?

This started happening after doing a system restore and creation of a new Windows Profile.

Thanks

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Ashok Dewan

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

SOLUTION

Systech Admin

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Carlisle_Agent

Is the IE updated? If the above doesn't work, try updating IE or delete the IE9 update going back to IE8. Sometimes, some websites doesn't play well with IE9.

JasonRule

If your just getting the error when you logon and IE is running OK, just disable error reporting and you won't see the error message. We had to do this with out Terminal Servers. We would logon and get the error that IE has encountered an error and needs to close. But IE ran fine after logging in. I just disabled error reporting and no more message.

IT_Service

ASKER

This is not iexplore.exe (it's not IE). It's Windows Explorer (explorer.exe). Sometimes the error allows me to click restart and sometimes I have to manually run a new explorer.exe from the task manager to get the desktop icons to appear.

I did run malwarebytes as one of the 1st steps and it came back clean.

Systech Admin

did u try with trojan remover?? as mentioned above post??

Rob Miners

It could be caused by a mis-behaving shell extension. Try using ShellExView to disable all shell extensions that are displayed in a light shade of red and then, if the problem goes away, enable a few at a time until you find the culprit.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

IT_Service

ASKER

It was a trojan: DOS/Alureon.E

Crazy in that it stuck around even when I reformatted and installed Windows. Seems it can plant itself on a separate partition and then come back to bite you later.

Thanks for the advice.

@systechadmin the tool you suggested stopped explorer.exe from crashing until i uninstalled it, but it did not resolve the issue.