I'm working on a customer's PC (HP Pavilion). His kids installed about every spyware ap known to man. I think between AdAware and clicking off things in MSConfig, I've got rid of most of it. Even if I do a clean boot into normal mode (selective startup, all unchecked), nothing based on Explorer will come up (no Windows Explorer, IE, My Computer, Control Panel, etc). It all works in Safe Mode with Network Support (but I don't seem to see any icons associated with Network Places other than Networking in Control Panel). Does this sound like a particular Malware or Virus to anyone? Is there an Admin Tools->Services setting that could do this? How do I re-extract Explorer.exe

Is explorer.exe listed under the processes tab in Task Manager? If not, run CMD and enter explorer on the command line. If that doesn't work, explorer.exe could have been violated of there could be rogue shell extension at work. Run SIGVERIF and see if that uncovers any issues with system files. Your final effort before wiping the drive and reinstalling Windows is to stop explorer.exe, start a new process CMD, rename explorer.exe to explorer.exx and reboot. That's supposed to build a new shell. I've never done that, but I've heard it works. Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me, Skywalker.