error in windows explorer

[rovingcowboy]

i know its in windows explorer not mediamonkey but you programmers here deal with explorer shell all the time.
so i'm wondering if you know what is wrong and how to fix it.

every time i close a folder or a program that is using the explorer shell the way i close it does not matter by right clicking the taskbar window holder or by the x in the upper corner, the explorer closes locks the taskbar and half the desktop icons are gone. i can only alt control delete and open taskmanager then end task on explorer.exe and then use the run command on taskmanager, and restart explorer.exe then i get use of everything again.

its been doing this for a couple weeks now and i can't find any malware or spyware or virus or trojan on the system.
i've used several off line and online scan programs all find nothing.

do any of you know what is wrong with the shell code? i've searched the web and found several posts in other forums about this happening in 2003 and 2004 but only one post of it showing up in 2011 on windows 7. so it has to be something recent that brought it back.

this is an xp pro sp3 computer its on here.
thanks for any help you can give on this matter.

[Guest]

Maybe a corrupted user profile? Do you use any Registry 'cleaning' programs? They do more harm than good and can easily cause such corruption. Make a new profile and see if the problem persists.

[rovingcowboy]

Maybe a corrupted user profile? Do you use any Registry 'cleaning' programs? They do more harm than good and can easily cause such corruption. Make a new profile and see if the problem persists.

yep i use a registry cleaner and defragmenter but had no trouble with it.

i'll try the new profile and see if that works i just hate to have to set up all the icons and theme stuff again.

[rovingcowboy]

well thanks again guest for that suggestion.

but it did not work i still have the same dang troubles. so it's got to be something in one of the updates for one of the apps on the system?
or windows update did something?

[rovingcowboy]

well i restored the windows folder from backup.

great now i have no tool bars on the windows explorer just a frame and scrollbar and the explorer bar for the folders on the left, which won't stay closed. what in the ............................bleeeeeeeeeppp is going on.

[rovingcowboy]

okay got the tool bars back in windows explorer don't know which tweak i did that brought them back.
but now it is still refusing to open the folders in the same window. it opens them all in new windows so none of the shortcuts work proper i use them just to open the folder then i have to close that folder and use the next shortcut to open another. but i can't close the last open folder or explorer closes and locks the computer? strange things since i took out zone alarm? or maybe it was an windows update??

[Arobaaz]

Are your Exchange logs available in the backup? It should be automatically performing the required recovery. You should probably open a support case.

[rovingcowboy]

Thanks for the post reply to this. I had forgot i posted this thread here.

Update i got the folder window to not lock and crash the explorer now but i'm still unable to get them to open in the same folder window, it will not change the setting to not use separate process's it is all set to 0 for that in the registry, but each shortcut still opens a new folder window for the folders. And each window opens the explorer task bar ( that is a window on the side with the folder tree in. )

Arobazz what is the exchange logs and where would i find them, and if they are logs wouldn't they just be a read me file as all logs are? Or do they have a controlling code in them?