Upon logging into Windows 98 I receive this message: EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in module EXPLORER.exe at 167:00401f31. I tried Method 1 on this page http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=293174 and ran the appwiz.cpl. The dialog came up but there were absolutely no installed programs listed. Any suggestions for the next step to solve this problem. Of course, there are many programs that should be in this list...

The solution there assumes that IE5 was at fault. Your post suggests that Explorer.exe was responsible. If this is a recent event, you could try restoring your registry by booting to command prompt only. At the dos prompt type 'scanreg /restore' there is a space before the /. From the resulting list, choose a date before the problem began. Any software you have installed since then will need to be reinstalled. Although I'd recommend leaving it a day so that you can create a new restore point first.

This Worked! The error did not occur after restoring to about a week ago. THANKS! So how does this "solution" relate to the error message indicated, EXPLORER.EXE? Should I still uninstall Internet Explorer and reinstall it? If so, what is the best way to do this without losing all the custom settings? Thanks-a-bunch!!!

There is a lot of confusion between Explorer.exe, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer. Whilst they are closely related and share the same name, they are three separate programs. Explorer.exe is in simple terms, your desktop including task bar. Scanreg /restore reinstalls a backup copy of your registry and is very useful when the registry corrupts or changes in a negative way. The draw back to using it is any newly installed programs will no longer be properly installed. I don't see any reason to reinstall Internet explorer. There is no harm in doing a repair install though. You will come across this if you try to uninstall it. I'd be more concerned that you might still be running the Task manager shell.

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! Costa Mesa, CA June 5th, 2005 I use Earthlink and AOL and something updated and no more W98SE. Saw the same FAULT 0167 and fell into the same "explorer" trap. Thank you!!! TIME you just saved me! Any idea why this occurs???? -leonard I'm sooooo happy!

You use AOL?!!! The 0167 is part of the memory address at which the error (code 0x being a hex nunber) occurred. It is only usable by a programmer who knows exactly which programs are running, in what order they loaded and how much physical ram they each occupy. The scanreg /restore command replaces the current registry with one it saved a few days ago (you choose). While this means you now have a registry that you know works, it also orphans any programs or updates you have added in this time. In your case this is a good thing!

rimfire, I just have thank you for this one. I came across with the same problem, I went to microsoft support and tried a couple of useless solutions then I found yours, it worked as a charm. I ran scanreg /restore and took the one from yesterday and worked. Thank you. I think my problem could have been because 2 things: 1. I was trying to open mediaplayer and tried to open a radio station and did not work and something was downloading and stopped windows media player then all the shortcuts were erased, not the icon the information then I reboot and got the error message with explorer.exe. 2. Other reason could be that I was disk cleaning at the moment I close down Windows Media Player and everything started to have problems, so nothing else I was doing. I do not know but keep doing this, someday you would be recognized. cheers.