I have a friends computer that has been hit with several viruses and about 700 files of adware/spyware. I have managed to get all this off but still didn't fix problem with explorer has caused an error in unknown, explorer will close. I have tried reinstalling win me, but as soon as it boots and sits for a couple of minutes, explorer error pops up again. You don't even have to open up anything to get this error.

May sound dumb, but search the system for a program file named "unknown". There have been cases of virus dropping a file by that name and it not being picked up by virus scan programs. Try several different online Virus scans and both Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D as they often pickup different versions of Malware. Then a good Trojan finding program might be in order. Run a good standalone memory test like MemTest86_v3.1a to make sure it is not a hardware problem. Check the Scheduled Tasks list and see what might be starting in the background and causing the error. Some Windows process like Tune-UP (not really needed) or System Restore could have corrupted data control files and are causing the errors. Make sure you have the Windows Updates installed because there were fixes to both system restore and automatic updates to fix problems like this. If all else fails, use HijackThis to see what is starting on your system.

How did you re-install? Format C: or just over the top of the original Win ME? Sounds like you have a virus still hiding on that machine. If it was full of bugs, there may be changes in the registry that would take forever and a day to sort out. A fresh install (format c:) may be in order. When the PC is fixed I would virus check all and any floppies/CD's that have been used in the machine in case any of the bugs were backed up accidently.

did search, no unknown file. adaware and spybot clean. symantec virus protection and have downloaded update. still clean. I have went through schedule task and disabled everything. Problem still there. Went to msconfig and did a selective start up with only explorer and systray running, still have problem. Highjack this did find an unknown file in winsocklsp (inetadpt.dll). I was going to do a fresh start on the c: and format but could not get samsung disk manager disk to work. Keeps telling me comp cannot load dos. This is a gateway comp thats about five years old. I'm beginning to hate these.