Lost in the title actually means I deleted it thinking it was part of my problem with "Isearch" and AdDestroyer. AdDestroyer showed up as running in my Task Manager and the process was attached to "explorer.exe" in the list of processes.

I took it out of System32 files and put it in the trash bin. That would have been fine but while I was finally getting some responsible help in getting rid of Isearch, I was advised to download and run "CleanUp" which of course emptied the Recycling Bin and now I'm minus a file which I suspect is the reason I've lost the handy green-verticle-bar volume control indicator that used to work with the updown volume buttons on my keyboard.

My question is, how difficult would it be to get a copy to download, and would it cost me? TIA & Blessings - Chuck521, Olympia, WA

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All 19 Replies

you may/will need you windows cd in the rom for this ,
go to start/run type in SFC /SCANNOW ,not the space between C /

Lost in the title actually means I deleted it thinking it was part of my problem with "Isearch" and AdDestroyer. AdDestroyer showed up as running in my Task Manager and the process was attached to "explorer.exe" in the list of processes.

I took it out of System32 files and put it in the trash bin. That would have been fine but while I was finally getting some responsible help in getting rid of Isearch, I was advised to download and run "CleanUp" which of course emptied the Recycling Bin and now I'm minus a file which I suspect is the reason I've lost the handy green-verticle-bar volume control indicator that used to work with the updown volume buttons on my keyboard.

My question is, how difficult would it be to get a copy to download, and would it cost me? TIA & Blessings - Chuck521, Olympia, WA

Your handy green control indicator for the volume from keyboard is likely software driven, but guaranteed not explorer.exe. It will likely be in your MSCONFIG still (start->run->msconfig) and will have something in startup similar to the name of your keyboard's manufacturer (IE, logitech will have something logitech related). to keep your system from bogging down (once you have solved your adware problem) I would put check back in boxes one-by-one until the volume works (that way you're not just re-enabling a bunch of unnecessary junk from start up, which hogs resources).
ciao, good luck.

just as caperjack said. or, find it on the main OS disk

actually like gonehere is saying ,not likely explorer.exe ,because windows will not work right with out it .

Thank you all for your guidance. Will do as you suggest. Blessings, C.

Hi caperjack, Searched my house from top to bottom looking for an XP disk. Found an old Windows 98 from my last PC, but no Windows XP. I'm not sure I ever got one. I bought this HP Pavillion at Fort Lewis Exchange, and I'm wondering if maybe they don't include the disk after they sell you the PC with Windows already loaded. Anyway, a crazy thing happened. I went back and looked in my recycle bin again, and there was Windows Explorer sitting there all alone. I restored it. I went to Stystem 32 files where I had deleted it and it hadn't returned. I searched for it with the start/search, and it was in WINDOWS\Prefetch. But 'gonehere' was right. It didn't bring back my volume change indicator lights (verticle green bars). Now I'm reading about NirSoft's Volumous. Is there any reason not to download from NirSoft? I'm running scared downloading anything since my "Isearch" experience. Blessings - Chuck

Hi 'gonehere',

I went to MSCONFIG and all the items were green checked. Since I've got plenty of RAM and Hard Drive memory, is there any good reason I should uncheck them? TIA, & Blessings - Chuck

Hey buddy :) glad some things are working out for you. It may have been deleted outright from startup, MSCONFIG is just one place that it could be (from my experience, that's first place I go to stop startup items, if you remove check from there, it remains there, just unchecked, which is why my previous suggestion).
Still convinced green volume thingie (top-secret technical terminology) is software driven, and will be available from your keyboard manufacturer's website, just do a search for their software section for your particular model keyboard, or if you happen to have an install disc. Heck, it may still be installed on your computer just not in your startup.
Reply with your keyboard model and manufacturer if ya can't find website and/or install discs that came with keyboard, I'll see what I can dig up when I get chance.
Regards,
me

Oh, yeah. BTW, about startup thing, most things are pretty redundant to have in there (example, linksys installs a wireless configurator, when windows wireless configurator works just find, and infact linksys interferes with it heh (well, unless your OS doesn't natively support wireless. just an example). So, I would just briefly examine it, see what you don't need and take it out. If you're not sure what you need, and are pretty sure your machine is spyware free then you can safely leave most things as long as you have ample memory or don't notice any sluggishness.
good luck

Thanks for your help 'gonehere,' as I told caperjack, don't have any of the startup disks that I expected to find when I went looking. There was a plastic envelope with some Hewlett Packard Books, papers etc. but no disks. Quite a let-down. Bought it at Fort Lewis Army Exchange a couple of years ago and really can't remember if I ever got the disks. When I got to be 70, I started losing memory about a megabite a week. Now I'm almost 71 and at CRS stage (Can't Remember S--t). I'll go to the Hewlett Packard Website and see if I can successfully talk Hewlett-Packardeeze. :) Blessings - Chuck

Hi 'gonehere,'

Went to HP (which in AA means Higher Power :)) and plugged in my problem. They told me to download the latest Mouse/Keyboard Driver from Microsoft. Did so, and not only got back the verticle bars (no longer green - now gray, but you can't have it all) but also a big sign above the bars which informs me that I am decreasing/increasing my volume - a bit much, but more fun than the nothing I had. So I thank you once again and guess I'm all wrapped up for this thread. Blessings - Chuck

Hey guys, i'm new here and I have a similar problem. I have win 2k and Norton Antivirus deleted explorer.exe because it found a virus in it. My computer starts up and all that is displayed is the wallpaper. The bar on the bottom with the start thing nor my icons load up. My pc did not come with any CDs when i bought it. Is there somewhere were i can get this file from? I hit ctrl+alt+del and opened the task manager. I clicked new task and tried to open MSCONFIG but it would not open..

Just to note.. explorer.exe (the legitimate one) should be in c:\windows not in system32 as far as XP is concerned.

Ok, wow, so my computer decided that for some reason the explorer.exe file was a virus and decided to delete it. Now i have no desktop, no taskbar, no icons NO WINDOWS EXPLORER!! I don't want to reboot my computer because I don't have a backup of all the info on my comp! I tried everything, from regedit to downloading adaware to registry mechanic, but I don't know how to get my explorer back! I am currently using my Task manger to open all my file (ex. Firefox, ITunes, photoshop etc.). I also didn't get a cd because my laptop came installed with Windows XP home edition, but I know that there is a cd image on the comp, so that is not an issue. Can someone please help me?

Ok, wow, so my computer decided that for some reason the explorer.exe file was a virus and decided to delete it. Now i have no desktop, no taskbar, no icons NO WINDOWS EXPLORER!! I don't want to reboot my computer because I don't have a backup of all the info on my comp! I tried everything, from regedit to downloading adaware to registry mechanic, but I don't know how to get my explorer back! I am currently using my Task manger to open all my file (ex. Firefox, ITunes, photoshop etc.). I also didn't get a cd because my laptop came installed with Windows XP home edition, but I know that there is a cd image on the comp, so that is not an issue. Can someone please help me?

no to preach ,but you were /are suppose to burn copies of the recovery cd's yourself when you first use it. .if had you could use it to do a , sfc /scannow , from run. to replace missing and corrupt file ,you still can if you could borrow a windows disk ,the same version as you own!

Hello all as i am new to this forum (i signed up to answer this but i put an explorer.exe file in the attachments with a virustotal scan, even tho this problem is solved :P


http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/39fb4f35e01b8633f8b70ebde6ce2f329ff186e1d4445f66a5e70a57e10f6bb2-1249839991

or here

Antivirus Version Last Update Result
a-squared 4.5.0.24 2009.08.09 -
AhnLab-V3 5.0.0.2 2009.08.08 -
AntiVir 7.9.0.248 2009.08.09 -
Antiy-AVL 2.0.3.7 2009.08.07 -
Authentium 5.1.2.4 2009.08.09 -
Avast 4.8.1335.0 2009.08.08 -
AVG 8.5.0.406 2009.08.09 -
BitDefender 7.2 2009.08.09 -
CAT-QuickHeal 10.00 2009.08.08 -
ClamAV 0.94.1 2009.08.07 -
Comodo 1922 2009.08.09 -
DrWeb 5.0.0.12182 2009.08.09 -
eSafe 7.0.17.0 2009.08.09 -
eTrust-Vet 31.6.6667 2009.08.08 -
F-Prot 4.4.4.56 2009.08.09 -
F-Secure 8.0.14470.0 2009.08.09 -
Fortinet 3.120.0.0 2009.08.09 -
GData 19 2009.08.09 -
Ikarus T3.1.1.64.0 2009.08.09 -
Jiangmin 11.0.800 2009.08.09 -
K7AntiVirus 7.10.814 2009.08.08 -
Kaspersky 7.0.0.125 2009.08.09 -
McAfee 5704 2009.08.09 -
McAfee+Artemis 5704 2009.08.09 -
McAfee-GW-Edition 6.8.5 2009.08.09 -
Microsoft 1.4903 2009.08.09 -
NOD32 4319 2009.08.09 -
Norman 6.01.09 2009.08.07 -
nProtect 2009.1.8.0 2009.08.09 -
Panda 10.0.0.14 2009.08.09 -
PCTools 4.4.2.0 2009.08.09 -
Prevx 3.0 2009.08.09 -
Rising 21.41.62.00 2009.08.09 -
Sophos 4.44.0 2009.08.09 -
Sunbelt 3.2.1858.2 2009.08.09 -
Symantec 1.4.4.12 2009.08.09 -
TheHacker 6.3.4.3.378 2009.08.08 -
TrendMicro 8.950.0.1094 2009.08.08 -
VBA32 3.12.10.9 2009.08.09 -
ViRobot 2009.8.8.1875 2009.08.08 -
VirusBuster 4.6.5.0 2009.08.09 -

the file in that link is explorer.rar

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