All things are possible Naman. There is a rather unlikely possibility of a hardware problem. If you are happy inside the box take the RAM in and out a few times which will clear any oxide off the edge connectors. While you are there check all the connections. I suspect that in the end overlaying Windows might prove to be the only option, especially if you can't even make Safe Mode. As Naman said you don't loose anything. You may need to tweak your personal settings back or even re-install the odd program but that's all. Derek.W

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Hello I renamed Explorer.exe to explorer.old Now when I login it tells me that I need to reinstall....???? I dont have my Win98 CD-ROM Can I make a boot disk? If so, where would be the best place to get one? I "Googled" for one and found MANY, but I would like to know that I am getting the correct one. Thank you!!!!!!!!!

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Not sure why you renamed explorer.exe and I'm not surprised at the results. If you want a copy just let me know whether you are on W98 First Edition or W98SE (Second Edition). I can send the file and it can be put back from DOS. I'm not quite sure where you are going with the boot disk idea but you can get one from www.bootdisk.com (you need one with CD-ROM support for you Windows version). If you have ever made a Startup Disk then this will do fine. Derek.W

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.... better idea, rename explorer back again. Tap F8 while booting and you should get the startup screen. Select one of the command prompt options. Now type this: ren c:\windows\explorer.old explorer.exe (hit Return key). This will restore it back again. Note the space after ren and after .old Derek.W

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I'm having a similar problem, caused by my deletion of Sidefind. Now explorer won't start and I can only sit there in DOS. I have a Gateway system restoration disc (version 12.5) but I'm afraid to restore Windows because I think it may initialize my entire hard drive. Can my system restoration disc only overwrite the old Windows, or do I need a boot disk such as those referred to above? (In which case, I may be begging for one from someone here! :)

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I assume you Googled into this thread which is not quite the problem you are having. Go to top left, choose your operating system and start a new post. This one is a few days old and will not get many visitors now. Derek.W

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Hey, I encountered the same problem... thing was that I tried every suggestion and none worked on my computer. When i tried renaming explorer it said "file now found - c:\windows\explorer.old" ... any further suggestions?

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Sleek See my post #12. Windows overlay might be one way forward, but it would be best to explain your own problem in a new post (with system details) and then it can be taken forward properly. I'm not sure why folk keep attempting to rename explorer.exe to explorer.old which could only make matters worse but I gather you didn't succeed anyway. The main thing is that there is just the one copy of explorer.exe and that should be in c:\windows Derek.W

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Thanks Derek, but I don't understand why my computer can't even find the file if it's supposed to be there! It's not like I deleted it or something... These are the details.. although I know nothing about fixing computers! EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in module SHELL32.DLL at 0167:7fcc2479. Registers: EAX=004353ac CS=0167 EIP=7fcc2479 EFLGS=00010246 EBX=00006946 SS=016f ESP=0059deac EBP=0059dec4 ECX=004354aa DS=016f ESI=004354a2 FS=1b47 EDX=00006e6c ES=016f EDI=0043c316 GS=1b36 Bytes at CS:EIP: 66 8b 17 66 83 27 00 66 89 55 08 e8 3f 0a 00 00 Stack dump: 004353ac 004354aa 00434c30 00000004 0059df04 00000000 0059dee4 bfb86e90 004353a4 004354a2 00434c30 0043c316 0059df04 82736768 0059df18 bfb86fb5

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Like I said, best start your own post by chosing the operating system you are using (top left). This post is old and you are probably stuck with me until you do so. You may well need help from others, which you will then get. I'll tag along for a while tho. Firstly we need your operatings system (W95, W98, W98SE or whatever). It doesn't really sound as if your explorer.exe file is "missing" but that something is causing an error when it tries to run shell32.dll Although I doubt replacing explorer.exe will help, if you have not already tried it you might as well. If you are on W98 (either version) you type sfc in the Run box (hit Return key) then use the "extract one file feature". It will almost certainly direct it to c:\windows (which is the right place). You will need your Windows CD. Replacing shell32.dll is best avoided at this time because I know that it gets updated from the one on your CD, so it might put back an older version. One other long shot you could try (if you are on W98) is to "Shut down and Restart in MS-DOS". You then type scanreg /fix (hit Return key). This will rebuild your registry and is quite harmless. When it's finished type exit (hit Return) to restart Windows. This will only help if it happens to be a registry problem. If this doesn't work then a new post would be the best option, saying what problem you have and what you have tried. Derek.W

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I had a family member who brought me her computer for exactly the same reason: "explorer caused an invalid page fault in module explorer.exe at 0167:00401f31" I tried everything that was suggested above to no avail. I finally found something that helped out on another posting. Derek had the right idea. Run scanreg /restore (instead of /fix, this did nothing to fix the problem) and it will prompt you to choose a previous copy. Choose from when you know you had no problems. Reboot and it should work. Good luck! Betty

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