Hi,
I have a problem with my computer. When my Windows XP Pro starts without intervention, I am unable to open any programs, or even get a right click menu on any desktop items. The programs appear to open but simply never start. In addition, the Programs, Documents, Settings, … , Run, Log Off and Shutdown items in the Start Menu never appear. In addition, Ctrl-Alt-Del does not make the Task Manager appear.
In desperation I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del once as the machine started up, as soon as the desktop background appeared. The Task Manager appeared normally and showed EXPLORER.EXE running as my own user. The computer then spawned around 150 extra copies of EXPLORER.EXE all as my user, with initally aroun 64K memory usage, then moving up to around 4.5MB, and then the computer behaved as described above. Manually killing each and every EXPLORER.EXE process, then manually starting a fresh explorer.exe through the Task Manager allows the computer to work properly. In addition, when I start the computer it sometimes spawns “EXPLORER.EXE” copies, and sometimes “Explorer.exe”, and sometimes “Explorer.EXE”. The %systemroot% copy of explorer is named “explorer.exe”.
I’ve run a full virus scan (AVG 7.5) and a spyware scan (AdAware) and they both have turned up nothing.
I’m not sure how to proceed from here – any ideas?
