My computer has issues. One day I wake up and find that whenever I click on a folder on the desktop or in the Start Menu, the desktop resets. I mean, the entire screen goes blank except for the wallpaper, then all the folders and 'exe's and shortcuts come back on the screen again, but the folder has not opened. All 'exe's and shortcuts work from the desktop, including CMD. But, it gets tiring accessing your files through CMD. I think it's a problem with Explorer.exe, but I'm not sure. I thought it was a virus, but I have two programs (Symantec, Yahoo Anti Spy) that are both up to date, and they only detect the occasional Trojan. What do I do? By the way, I have Windows XP: Professional. Thanks!

Hya Zyph , welcome to PCHF.



Does it happen when left clicking , right clicking , or both?


Give this a try first:

go to start / run and in the run window type in:
sfc /scannow >enter
Have you XP CD in youre drive, and it'll run itself, replacing any missign or damaged protected XP files.


If that doesn't help , then let's have a look for malware problems. For that please follow the instructions in the "Prework" link below in my sig , and post back with the two resulting logs.

Okay. I didn't have my XP disk with me, because I got it through my work, and it's back at my office. But I did download Ewido and Hijackthis, so here are the logs. I'll have my XP disk by monday. And yes, it's both right-click, and left-click.

My Ewido report is too big of a file, so I'll try and host it on a different site. I'll post back when it's ready.

This could possibly be caused by exiting hybernation. You can also try a defrag on your windows hard disk. Right click on My Computer -> Manage-> Select Disk Defragmenter. The right side of that window should change, and give you a selection of your hard drive(s). After making the selection of your drive, click on Defragment and watch. Try not to use your computer while this is running as it may access a file.


The problem with Windows, is it puts things where it can fit, which is not always the best solution. Say I install MS Office 2000, and then later want to install Open Office (which is a similar program, but not by Microsoft). If I uninstall MS Office, it leaves a big gap in the files. If I installed more programs while this gap was there, it would put the files for that one program all over the place, basically wherever it could find a place. What defraging does, is move the files into the best sequence so all the empty hard drive space is at the end of the disk, and not splotted all over the place. This increases file searching, general windows operation, and also game performance.

Keep in mind this process could take upto a couple of hours, depending on the state of "fragmentation" of your hard drive, and the size of it.

http://www.maj.com/gallery/Zyph/Sigs...707-231249.txt

This is the link to my Ewido report.

I am defraging the disk now, hopefully that'll do something...

Start HijackThis and place a check beside the following:

Now first close all windows and browsers other than HiJackThis , then click fix checked and close HijackThis.

Reboot youre pc.

I did it and it didn't work. Any other suggestions?