Hi, I'm using Windows ME on an old Gateway machine with a newish Intel motherboard. My old Windows disk doesn't work on it. Starting yesterday, when I downloaded (and then deleted) a file-sharing program, I have been having trouble with Explorer. Sometimes, instead of booting up, I get a message that says "Windows could not upgrade the file %1 from 52 %1: %2". Also, when I have tried to open files or folders using Explorer, I get an error message saying that "Explorer has caused an error in SHELL32.DLL. Windows will now close." I downloaded HijackThis, but can't open it because of this problem. Also, when I try to use the "find" function on the start bar, I get a window that won't close and a message that it is busy and will cause some problems if I try to close it (which I can't). System restore doesn't work, either. Any suggestions? --Jake

JakeW, sounds to me like you might have contracted some sort of nasty when you downloaded. You say that restore won't work. Can you disable restore? Be aware that ME and XP both have a feature called 'Restore'. A nasty (virus, spyware, etc) can hide there and since it is a 'Windows' file, Windows won't allow any alteration so long as it is active. The registry gets re-written on the next bootup and the last successful boot is used and since nasties don't count, the boot appears to be sucessful, thus a 'nasty' gets replicated. The solution is simple (assuming that's the problem), TEMPORARILY disable Restore (in order to 'unprotect'), scan/clean, re-enable restore and try again. May have to reboot. During the disable process, you will destroy ALL your restore points, thus some folks disagree with that fix, feeling that any restore point (even a corrupted one!) is better than none at all. You can sidestep that pitfall by creating a new restore point as soon as you have a clean machine. FWIW, I have used it on both ME & XP Pro with no lasting ill effects. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Hi Ed, Thanks for the tip. I may still need your help, though: Since my post, I have run Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D, and I have been able to reboot properly -- no %1 errors. I also figured out a way to open HijackThis, and while I was able to delete some obvious spyware, I was afraid to touch anything else on the log. My other problems remain, though, as well as a newfound one that is preventing my Windows Media Player from playing audio or video WMV files, and from playing the audio in MPG files. My problem with System Restore is that the last valid date is not only in October, but is unsuccessful when I try to load it. You mentioned disabling it -- how do I do that? Is it hard? I'm not afraid to reboot anymore, so I'm up for it if it isn't too hairy. Thanks, Jake

Okay, I disabled System Restore, rebooted, and saved a new restore point, but it unfortunately hasn't fixed my problem. I did get a KERNEL.DLL error once, though, when I tried to open a folder. --Jake