iexplore.exe

Is this part MS and necessary for internet explorer to run, or is it a virus/malware/worm/etc?

When I go to shut down my system, the task manager comes up and says closing file, when I try and end now, the same message comes back.....if I let it run (close process) sometimes the same message comes back. It takes several tries at end now to get the system to shut down.

This has only started in the last week, and the system is running very slow. I have googled for it, and found posts that says it is a necessary part of internet explorer and necessary and other posts says it is a virus/trojan.

I have Trend Micro's PC-Cillin and it does not identify it as a virus/trojan. I ran Spybot S&D and Ad-aware, just before this problem started.

Need help.

thanks in advance.

 

Thank you for your response. I am doing the windows XP cleaning procedure now. and am uninstalling old programs and deleting old files. This may take a few days due to life. I have limited time to work on it, but do a few each evening.

The iexplore.exe message that I was getting at shut down no longer appears and the system shuts down normally??????

thanks again for your reply.