Explorer.exe will not start no matter what I do

[DanTheFireman]

So, long story short I woke up one morning to find that my computer's explorer.exe file would not open at all. This problem has been going on for well over a month and I've been dealing with it by running things through task manager. At this point I've absolutely had it and I need to get this fixed and I'd hope to resolve it without having to re-install windows. There were no hardware changes, just newly installed games from Steam and that's it. All I use this computer for is homework and gaming every now and then. Explorer.exe when started manually will only open in task manager for a moment and then slip away into the darkness once again. I get no error messages at all. All I get when I boot up my computer is a black screen, no task bar, and just my cursor. Below I have listed everything I have tried so far and nothing has even brought me close to a solution. I'm hoping someone can help me because I've spent countless hours searching the internet and trying new solutions and I'm almost giving up hope. Please for the love of all that is sane in this world ****ing help me. This is on Windows 7 on an Asus G60 laptop

Interventions so far

• Starting manually through task manager
• Starting in safe mode
  
• Numerous malware/virus scans
• TDSSKiller
• CCleaner
• Start up repair
• System restores
• Registry scans
• Fresh explorer.exe
• Screaming and yelling loudly

 

[Perun]

When I get to the screaming part, I usually create a new user ( a "trick" I discovered when I was fiddling around with XP when it came out ). Can you try that and write back what happens ?

 

[DanTheFireman]

When I get to the screaming part, I usually create a new user ( a "trick" I discovered when I was fiddling around with XP when it came out ). Can you try that and write back what happens ?

I actually just tried that yesterday and it still gives me the same issue, but I do have a background instead of a black screen. I'm assuming that's because personalization stuff is run through DWM? I'm not entirely sure. Any other ideas? I currently have a new version of Windows 7 and am prepared to install it if I don't get this figured out in the next few days.

 

[DelJo63]

The windows file explorer (not the Internet Explorer) is located at

\windows\explorer.exe​

so get a command prompt

cd to \windows
enter .\explorer.exe​

That should bring up the window.

• if not, you've been infected
• if so, then your file associations are in question
• and perhaps even the environment variable %PATH%