Blooming Box!

Each time I start my computer the Exploring C Drive box comes up. I use "Startright" but cannot find it there, nor in my start folder. Any ideas how to stop it please? I have Win 98SE.

 

hmm, sounds like youve got "explorer.exe" on either the registry startup key or a startup folder, or even autoexec.bat. That would explain that window popping up (since youve already got windows running)

 

It is the explorer.exe box coming up. It is not in the Startup Folder and I do not know how to stop it appearing each time I start the PC.

 

Try running msconfig from the start/run menu, then look under the startup tab for explorer.exe, if it's there de-select it.

 

Not there!

I have looked in MSCONFIG - Startup, also in REGCLEANER - Startup, but no explorer.exe file there!

 

ogri,

Maybe we're all looking for the wrong thing here. Something must be launching whatever you're seeing at every bootup.

When you call it the "explorer.exe box" and "the Exploring C Drive box," what exactly is it that you see?
Does the Windows Explorer open in the display of the C: drives files and folders?
Do you see a dialog box?

Can you post a small screenshot of the "box"?

 

I have tried to attach a screen shot. The box for exploring C drive comes up with the various folders. Just as iff I had clicked Mycomputer, then C. In the Starghtright, Start folder there is only: Tweak UI,
AVG_CC
Load Qm
gnetmouse
Lexstart
Taskmonitor
LXSUPMON
Lexmark Print Tray.

Most of which I recognise as my Anti Virus system, Mouse and printer. Although Zone Alarm and Bixfix also loads but is not in there.

 

OK, ogriman,

I have a long answer and a short answer. The short one first:

Open your Windows folder in Windows Explorer, double-click All Users, then Start Menu, Programs, StartUp.

Your Zone Alarm startup is there, and the Bixfix (whatever THAT may be -- sounds like a breakfast cereal with medicine added) is probably there, too.

Betcha didn't know that folder was there!

If there's a shortcut to explorer.exe with some added stuff in it there, delete that shortcut, but don't empty the Recycle Bin.

Reboot. If the Explorer window is gone, and everything else seems fine, empty the Recycle Bin and come back and say it worked.

If you don't find the shorctut that's starting the thing there, we'll go to the long answer (which also may not work, but it's worth a try).

 

No Luck!

Thanks for the try. But it was not there. I have tried going to "Find", putting in, "Start" and checking all folders that seemed possible. But the file was not there. If you have another way to suggest I will gladly give it a try.

 

OK, are you comfortable with editing the registry of W98?

Nothing happens that isn't in there, so if you're willing to follow some detailed instructions in your registry, we should be able to find the culprit and squelch it.

 

I had forgotten about the role of those things in the 98 boot. But the man says that he already checked the boot files with msconfig.

Halo's right on target here, guy. Maybe you should give it another try. Go Start, Run, type msconfig, hit Enter, and scan every one of the tabs there *in depth*. If there's a + beside a name, click the + to expand the section, and read all of the lines. The culprit that calls explorer.exe may be hiding in there. If it is, just UNcheck the line that includes explorer.exe, save the changes when you're asked, and reboot.

If that fixes the problem, find the file the line was in, open that file in Notepad, and edit out the line, as Halo said, by adding REM <space> at the beginning of the line. After a couple of smooth boots, go back and just delete that whole line.

 

So near yet so far!

I have been back to msconfig and checked every file I can find there. In system.ini was a "shell = explorer.exe" ticked. So I unticked it. Clicked "Apply, Ok" and rebooted. Still box comes up. Rebooted again, same result.
Config Sys was empty.
Autoexe.bat did not have any file with "explorer.exe" in it.
I do not know about editing the registery, but if it will fix this am willing to try.

 

Re: So near yet so far!

First, you should go back and tick the shell=explorer.exe box. That's the default, and unless you give it another file to use as shell, Windows will use explorer.exe even with it UNchecked, but check it anyway. (You can use that control to set Windows to another shell while you do maintenance work, but that's a fairly advanced procedure, and not recommended for everyone.)

OK, this is the last thing I can think of to try:

The "explorer.exe /x,/y,C:" launcher might be hidden in the reg in a Key. (The x and y don't mean anything special here, but there are probably letters like n and e there in the command to tell explorer.exe what to display and how to display it.)

So, you need to Start, Run, type regedit, hit Enter. Use the Edit > Find... control, and ask it to find Run. In the Find box, before you click the Find Next button, leave the Keys check-box checked, but UNcheck the others. Now click the Find Next button.

When it finds Run and shows you an entry that contains explorer.exe in the right-hand panel, you've got it.

If you don't see an Explorer command, tap F3, and the Editor will continue searching.

Once you have it, click the Run folder, then click Registry at the top of the Editor display, in the Menu Bar, and choose Export, choose a folder and give it a filename, and that will store a copy of the Key you are going to change.

The last step: Click the entry in the Right-Hand Panel (NOT the Key folder in the left-hand panel) that contains the explorer.exe string, and Delete it. Say Yes, when you're asked whether you really WANT to do that.

Now close the Editor window and Reboot the computer.

The boot should NOT produce the Explorer C: window.

(If anything is not to your liking after that boot, all you need to do is find the Exported .reg file that you created above, double-click it, Yes, and Reboot, and you'll be right back where you started.)

This whole thing will only take a minute, but it COULD find the problem. If not, I'm sorry, but I give up. I'd have to see your machine, eyeball-to-monitor, to go any further.

 

Re: So near yet so far!

What about in Win.ini? There is a "LOAD" line in there (something like that) that will run programs at startup as well. I assume by implication in the previous posts you've looked there too. That's the only other thing I can think of outside of closing all explorer windows before shutting down/restart the computer - they will come up opened when windows is started (where this info is stored to make it happen I don't know unless it's part of the registry somewhere).

There's a startup manager called Starter - good program too; didn't see it here at MG -- http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/ that gives you a thorough list of all startup entries outside of the typical places mentioned already and also outside of entries in MSCONFIG. Give this a shot and see what it comes up with.

[edit: Had to install this so I can explain a little bit better. Under Options/Miscellaneous there's an option to show "Expert only items" .... that's the extra stuff I'm referring to. I'm not familiar with these...someone else?

 

This may be a long shot, but do you have Internet Explorer version 5.0? If so, check the following link:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q228/5/02.asp&NoWebContent=1

--- Registry Editing is risky, do not follow the next step unless you are comfortable doing things like this. ---

2nd long shot, Using Regedit, look in
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for a value entry with no contents, often identified by double quotation marks (""). If there is one, deleting this value should make your problem go away.

It may help if you download and run Hijackthis from the following link:

http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

That site has instructions on how to run it and post the results here.

Post the log here and we can see a list of everything that starts up when you boot your computer. I suspect it is trying to run something that is no longer there and therefore opens the explorer window. I've seen it happen before a few times on several different machines.

 

Thanks for jumping in, Ken and Jamiko! As you saw, I'm stumped.

Ken, he's already followed my suggestion to scan every single msconfig file, and he found nothing suggestive of the problem. I think we can rule out everything obvious now.

And Jamiko, he's already got a good startup manager monitoring launches, and he has nothing there, either.

I don't know where the Explorer 5 link might take us. I'll have a look at that, too.

But the Hijack This! idea is a good one. Maybe the simple running of that will tell us where his Explorer C: display is coming from.

Go with that, ogri, if the registry search for Run values doesn't produce the answer.

 

Jamiko, Startup List is just a subroutine of the HijackThis! utility. We don't want ogri to think that he has to download Hijack This! AND download another utility called StartupList. Once he opens HT and clicks the Config button, then Misc. Tools, he'll get to the Generate Startup List button.

I don't think that deleting an empty value does anything except clear out a little deadwood from the registry. An empty "" value doesn't DO anything.

I'm having trouble getting to ANY MIcrosoft sites today, so I haven't been able to check the MSIE 5 suggestion, but I found the title of the page, and it looks promising. "... Windows Explorer may open at boot to the Root directory ..."

 

Here is the main text:

SYMPTOMS
After you start your computer normally or in safe mode, Windows Explorer may start and display the contents of the root folder or the Windows folder.

CAUSE
This behavior can occur if you are running Internet Explorer version 5.0 and the Windows Explorer DesktopProcess registry key is set.

RESOLUTION
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.


To resolve this issue, delete the DesktopProcess value from the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

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And you are correct about Hijackthis, sorry for the confusion as it has been a while since I've recommended that tool. I'll edit the previous post.

 

Jamiko,

I think that discovery looks more promising than anything else in this thread. I hope you try it, ogri. If you read my general directions above for editing a Value, you can safely do what Jamiko found for that Key. Just don't skip the backup step, and you can't have major trouble.