explorer.exe problem.

[I Took the Red Pill]

So I noticed today that all of my programs were running extra sluggishly, so I rebooted hoping that would help. Everything seems to be running at decent speed, but a new problem presents itself: when I log in, I get the wallpaper, but explorer doesn't boot up. So I tried going into the task manager and manually running explorer.exe. It comes onto the screen for a maximum of 5 seconds, and then disappears. So now I have to run all of my programs through task manager. I've tried a system restore to 2 days earlier, I've ran an AVG and Spybot scan and removed all spyware (no viruses presented themselves), and I've uninstalled programs recently installed that I thought might cause the issue. All of them unsuccesful.

So, any thoughts? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

What version of Windows?

[I Took the Red Pill]

XP Media Center Edition.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

Did you change any settings or add new hardware recently?

[I Took the Red Pill]

Not that I can think of, excluding tweaking specific programs (ie uTorrent). Hardware, no.

[Odaisé Gaelach]

1) Does this happen in Safe Mode?

2) How does Explorer behave when you use another user account?

[I Took the Red Pill]

Well a trip to safe mode fixed it. Upon booting to safe mode, I was informed that the system restore I had previously attempted failed, so I system restored in Safe Mode to 3 days before, and it seems to have worked itself out. Still, I'm curious as to what the hell caused it in the first place. Anyways, thanks for your time OG

[Odaisé Gaelach]

Well a trip to safe mode fixed it. Upon booting to safe mode, I was informed that the system restore I had previously attempted failed, so I system restored in Safe Mode to 3 days before, and it seems to have worked itself out. Still, I'm curious as to what the hell caused it in the first place. Anyways, thanks for your time OG

Strange...

Still, glad you got it sorted out.