Explorer.exe: How to safely remove it?

Explorer.exe: How to safely remove it?

Hello Stephen!

I can see that you are having some technical difficulties with your windows XP’s explorer.exe. Did you have any trouble with this in the past? Or did it just suddenly appear after downloading something? Your Computer could also have been infected by a virus or something you downloaded of the internet, which targets your systems registry.Here are some tips that might help you solve the problem.

All solutions can be done in any order:

1. You mentioned that the icons and task bar on your screen suddenly just disappears and reappears. If the taskbar is not visible you will then need to press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to access your task manager. When at the task manager click “new task” from the menu bar. Now enter “explorer.exe”. If the task bar disappears again, you will need to try and open it again. Your explorer.exe should now then be running correctly

2. In some cases you can try to access “My computer”. You now then go to your C: drive and access the “Windows” folder. When at the “Windows” folder search for the “explorer.exe” file and copy it. You now then paste it in the same folder as where you copied it. You now then have a file named “Copy of explorer.exe”. You now then rename the file “explorer.exe” to “Your_name.exe” (ex. Gary.exe). Your explorer should now then be running correctly.

3. You can also access the REGEDIT to restore your explorer. Click the start button and go to “Run” type in “regedit” and press the enter key. Search for the folder named “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrent VersionWinlogon”. In this folder you will find a folder named “shell”. Double click it and you will find that the “explorer.exe” is the rename it to “Your_name.exe” (ex. Gary.exe). Your explorer should now then be running correctly.

4. You can also access the Windows folder from the “Run” command in your start button. First click the start button and click run. Type in “cmd” in the provided box and press enter. You will now be taken to a MS-DOS screen. If there are extra things pre-coded you can use “cd..” to remove the other until you reach “C:>” only. Now type in “cd C:Windows”.Then type in “REN C:Windows Explorer.exe Your_name.exe” (ex. Gary.exe). Your explorer should now then be running correctly.

5. You can also use your hard drive as a “slave” to another hard drive. When your hard drive is a slave you can access the folders without having problems with the desktop icons disappearing. You now then rename the “explorer.exe” to “Your_name.exe”(ex. Gary.exe) located at “?:Windows” folder. Then you can now use your old hard drive back to the main drive.

6. This is considered to be the last resort for your problem. Install a new Operating System to fix the problem. It is best that you transfer your files via “External Hard Drive Adapter”. As installing a new operating system will wipe out your C: Drive completely.

You will have to restart your computer for each solution to work. Restarting the computer will allow you to save the changes in systems registry.

Good luck!