Member Avatar for mm_mary73

My friend had the Yankees game streaming and was working on something else online, when the screen went blank. I restarted the laptop, but now I have only the wallpaper and the message error with explorer.exe. I had just allowed Norton to expire and was in the process of buying another antivirus program. Help!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by PhilliePhan

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A quick expert summary and next steps that extend and without repeating their exact tool instructions.

The symptom — only the wallpaper visible plus an explorer.exe error — most often means explorer is crashing, the Windows shell has been replaced or corrupted, or system files are damaged. An expired Norton subscription by itself is unlikely to cause this; sudden desktop loss usually points at malware, a bad shell setting, or corrupted system files.

Useful diagnostics to add:

  • Boot to Safe Mode to see whether the desktop and icons appear (this helps separate third‑party/software causes from system corruption).
  • Test with a second (temporary) user account to determine if the problem is profile-specific.
  • Check the Application log in Event Viewer for the explorer.exe crash entry (note the Event ID and the faulting module/exception code — those details help identify whether a module or shell extension is causing the crash).
  • Verify the explorer binary looks legitimate (right‑click the file in Windows, check Digital Signatures and file size/date).

Practical repair steps to consider (back up data/registry first):

  • Run System File Checker to repair system files: sfc /scannow (or run SFC from WinRE/installation media if normal boot fails).
  • Inspect the Winlogon shell registry value — HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell — it should normally be explorer.exe. Also inspect HKCU run/startup entries for unexpected shells.
  • If malware is removed but the desktop still fails, consider rebuilding the icon/cache and doing a Repair Install (in-place upgrade) or using System Restore from a point before the failure.

When posting follow-up, include the MBAM/OTL/ExWin logs already requested by / plus the exact Event Viewer lines (time, Event ID, faulting module) and the properties of C:\Windows\explorer.exe. Avoid unknown “one‑click” fixer apps; back up important files before making registry or system repairs.

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Member Avatar for gerbil

Your Norton contract expiring should not be the cause of that [AV cos aren't that mean...], but I could guess that you got hit by some malware.
When you get your sys started to that screen, press Ctrl-Shift-Esc. In TM under processes is explorer.exe present? If not, use File, New Task to run it [enter explorer.exe].
If it is already there then at FIle, New Task instead enter your browser executable [eg. iexplore.exe, firefox.exe, opera.exe]; then ...
==Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
from: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Malwarebytes_Anti-Malware_d5756.html
or: http://www.besttechie.net/tools/mbam-setup.exe
=Dclick that file, mbam-setup.exe, to install the application,
-ensure that it is set to update and start, else start it via the icon, and UPDATE it.
Select "Perform QUICK Scan", then click Scan; the application will guide you through the remaining steps.
ENSURE that EVERYTHING found has a CHECKMARK against it, then click Remove Selected.
If malware has been found [and removed] MBAM will automatically produce a log for you when it completes... do not click the Save Logfile button.
Examine the log: if some files are listed as Delete on Reboot then restart your machine before continuing.
Copy and post that log [it is also saved under Logs tab in MBAM].

==Download OTL from http://oldtimer.geekstogo.com/OTL.exe to your Desktop.

* Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
* Under the Custom Scan box paste this in:

netsvcs
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe
/md5start
eventlog.dll
scecli.dll
netlogon.dll
cngaudit.dll
sceclt.dll
ntelogon.dll
logevent.dll
iaStor.sys
nvstor.sys
atapi.sys
IdeChnDr.sys
viasraid.sys
AGP440.sys
vaxscsi.sys
nvatabus.sys
viamraid.sys
nvata.sys
nvgts.sys
iastorv.sys
ViPrt.sys
eNetHook.dll
ahcix86.sys
KR10N.sys
nvstor32.sys
/md5stop
%systemroot%\*. /mp /s
%systemroot%\system32\*.dll /lockedfiles
%systemroot%\System32\config\*.sav
CREATERESTOREPOINT

* Click the Quick Scan button. Do not change any settings.
When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows: OTL.txt and Extras.txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL.
Please copy (Edit->Select All, Edit->Copy) the contents of these files and paste them here.

Member Avatar for PhilliePhan

Hi Mary,

In addition to what gerbil has posted, I would suggest that you first give this a go if you are able (you may need to use a command prompt):

Please download and run it.
Click "Extract" and it will extract the ExWin folder to C:\ExWin.
Please open that and run RunThis.bat.

Command line to run it is C:\ExWin\RunThis.bat

Anyhoo, once it runs (3-5 minutes), a log will pop up. Please post that for us.
Also, reboot your computer afterwards and see if there is any improvement.

Cheers :)
PP

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