explorer

Have Compaq w/win98. Whenever I turn it on get error Explorer must close. Nothing comes up on desktop to try to fix,am I fried, orhave I lost all pictures,music etc.

 

Have you tried booting up in safe mode?

You shouldn`t have lost all the data on your hard drive, dont panic yet. Try booting in safe mode (I think on a compaq its F8 or F12 at boot) to see if you see any problems screaming out at you.

Have you got any virus checking software on your compaq? If so and you can get in on safe mode give it a try. If not log onto one of the free on-line virus scanners. (Symnatech do a good one.)

By the way is it a laptop or desktop?

 

I have tried in safe mode, same response.The only thing that comes up is the screen saver. nothing on the screen to open.Error(explore:exe@017F etc)Type =Desktop

 

It might be an idea to take out your hard drive and plug it into another system to see if you can retrieve all your files. If your system is getting you through boot but not any further I would think your files would all still be there.

I dont know if anyone else can give you some better advice but I think a re-installation of windows might be the only way.

Do you have a operating system disk or restore disk you can use do do a clean install or recovery?

 

There are a few other options.....but....try an overlay, repair, re-installation of windows. This is the easiest. No, I'm not suggesting a reformat and reinstall.

OR

The following, is a PITA way to fix your issue......

If you can press F8, boot to DOS prompt. Then, type in:

cd\windows
edit win.ini (enter)

(or it could be)

Edit system.ini (enter)

[sorry can't remember which]

Find shell=

Change shell = to:

shell=command.com
click file, then save, then exit.

Reboot the computer.

Now, when windows 98 starts up, a "dos box" should appear. Next try starting explorer. By doing the following:

cd\windows (enter)
explorer (enter)


If that doesn't work, do you have Spybot, adaware, or any antivirus programs running?

If so, list them here.