Help! I deleted explorer.exe

[crakasteven]

Well it was really late last night and I was just coming of AIM and on the taskbar was a tab of internet explorer that could not be alt f4/ ctrl alt deleted out of. So I hit ctrl alt delete and go to processes and I meant to delete iexplorer.exe but I didn't and deleted explorer.exe instead, so my icons taskbar start menu all disappear. I didn't know what to do so I just turn the computer off with the button. Later I go to turn it on and it keeps going through restart, It says at one point that I need to choose how to start (safe mode, start windows normally etc) but it wont let me select with the arrow keys or any other key, I know the keyboard is working because I hit del and saw all the advanced things during start up.

thanks you for reading any help is greatly appreciated

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

(IF) you can call up 'task manager' (during the startup process), you can restart explorer.exe. Go to 'file' tab and use 'New Task'...Run. I've never tried to call up task mgr. during startup. Good Luck.

 

[Nodsu]

Killing the explorer process has got nothing to do with your problem. Hard poweroff of the computer might..

It could be that one of the alt-shift-ctrl keys is "stuck" try tapping through all these to get functional arrow keys.

Also, make sure your keyboard is properly connected. Maybe try another one?

 

[almcneil]

You need to go into your BIOS and wipe out your saved settings. Something got messed up when you powered off suddenly. Next time you start up, select your BIOS, find the settings store and erase it. Then restart again.

 

[Cinders]

You didn't delete explorer.exe you just stopped or "killed" the process, so you probably haven't hurt anything, and do as Nodsu said do and you'll probably fix the problem. Explorer.exe is the main process that runs when you start your computer, so it always runs anytime you start the computer. When you "killed" explorer you also told your computer to shut down.

If you log into a domain you can actually get the task manager to appear before your computer finishes the boot process, but you would find that explorer was already restarted, so you will not have to restart the process with the task manager. Even if you did manage to "delete" explorer the Windows File Protection System would kick in and replace the file for you.

 

[crakasteven]

I connected a different keyboard and selected safemode start up, normal start up and all the other start ups there where but it would just reboot again. Im going to try what almcneil said to do in bios.

thanks for the help guys

I cant find that settings store, What about load optimized defaults?

 

[Cinders]

Try to load default settings first. If that works and your computer boots then go back and load optomised setting and try to boot a second time. If both attemps fail then you probably accidently hurt a windows file when you crashed your computer. You will need your reinstall disk and your serial number to repair Windows if that is the case.

 

[crakasteven]

Nothing seems to be working, I think I might just reformat

 

[almcneil]

Nothing seems to be working, I think I might just reformat

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Reformatting is a LAST RESTORT!! And in your case, it's nothing to do with your Windows installation! It was the BIOS settings that got messed up! Those settings are stored in a memory chip referred to as CMOS! Reformatting your hard drive won't do a thing about that!

Restoring BIOS default settings is the cure! Just change your BIOS settings manually now to whatever they were and everything should be fine.

 

[Nodsu]

What a pile of rubbish..

Forget about the BIOS settings. BIOS settings do not get corrupt when you power off your PC. Also, killing explorer.exe does not make the computer reboot.

Very likely the filesystem is damaged (because of the hard poweroff). Boot to the recovery console (on your Windows CD) and run chkdsk on your disk. That should fix any corruption.

Of course, we could have a hardware problem too. Test your RAM and run the manufacturer diagnostics on the hard drive just in case.

 

[beef_jerky4104]

Nodsu is correct.

 

[Blekk]

Yeah do what nodsu said, I don't think the BIOS settings could have messed up from turning the power off.

And btw, I sometimes get my windows loaded up without a taskbar or icons etc and I have to start explorer.exe so you definetely did nothing wrong in that camp.

 

[crakasteven]

What a pile of rubbish..

Forget about the BIOS settings. BIOS settings do not get corrupt when you power off your PC. Also, killing explorer.exe does not make the computer reboot.

Very likely the filesystem is damaged (because of the hard poweroff). Boot to the recovery console (on your Windows CD) and run chkdsk on your disk. That should fix any corruption.

Of course, we could have a hardware problem too. Test your RAM and run the manufacturer diagnostics on the hard drive just in case.

It said the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems

 

[almcneil]

It said the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems

Sorry to inform you, but your filesystem is toast and you need to reformat and re-install. Unfortunately, there are some cases in which they are unrecoverable.

 

[almcneil]

What a pile of rubbish..

Forget about the BIOS settings. BIOS settings do not get corrupt when you power off your PC. ...

Rubbish my ***!!

BIOS settings are stored in CMOS which is volatile memory. Volatile memory means that the contents can be changed accidentally. An abrupt power down can result in the BIOS attempting to update the CMOS but the power fails before it can complete. The result is corrupted BIOS settings.

I just helped someone solve his boot up problem in another thread by restoring his BIOS settings to defaults.

 

[crakasteven]

I tried reformat and there was an error that came up and said it stopped the process and was going to shut off to make sure nothing is damaged, It also said something about software and hardware problems, So it very well could be my RAM

 

[almcneil]

Either it's a RAM problem or your HDD has a problem. Best to take it to the comp store at this point. I can't think of anything else you can do except maybe swap in a new HDD and see if it works.

 

[Cinders]

Crashing your computer did not hurt your memory. Your hard drive is dead get a new one.

 

[Nodsu]

An abrupt power down can result in the BIOS attempting to update the CMOS but the power fails before it can complete. The result is corrupted BIOS settings.

So maybe you can tell us which BIOS settings are frequently updated while the computer is running? You know, something that Windows changes every second or so? Or, can you actually name any BIOS settings that Windows would change on its own, ever?

The fact that some BIOS settings somewhere got corrupt for whatever reason, does not mean that powering off a computer corrupts them.
It's pretty normal for BIOS settings to get rest when you have a dead battery, but this would occur no matter how you shut down the machine.

 

[almcneil]

Nodsu,

BIOS program varies from manufacturer to manufacturer so I can't say which settings or program values are routinely updated and saved in CMOS as the PC is running. What I can say is I used to be an embedded systems developer for 15 years and I know that what the BIOS basically does. Your point that Windows saves info to BIOS is incorrect. BIOS and Windows are separate in that they do not message or exchange info. They act as separate processes in a sense. Anyhow, the BIOS has certain settings that are explicitiedly set by the user but also settings or stored values of it's own as it runs. Abruptly cutting the power may corrupt the "runtime" values as BIOS does not get a chance to gracefully shutdown.

 

[thehacker]

Nodsu is CORRECT. but killing explorer.exe should not cause this much problem......as u said slecting modes of startup was stuck it was a keyboard problem......i think u r a newbie...just reinstall windows....if it fails to install then TRY TO INSTALL WIN 2000. THAT WINDOWS HAS THE POWER TO GET LOADED ON CORRUPTED HDD. I HAVE TRIED IT 4-5 DAYS AGO. I HV POSTED IT TOO. CHECK OVERCLOCKING CATEGORY AND SEARCH FOR MY THREAD" A PECULIAR PROBLEM"