I get this error: "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" everytime I open up Internet Explorer. This all happened in September, when I got a virus warning from Norton while on the internet. The virus is apparently gone, but I still can't open IE and for some reason when I am working on Notepad it will close abruptly after a minute or two without warning. I have searched my computer for spyware (using Spy Sweeper) and I found a lot of it, some of them were removed, others cannot be removed. I've been trying things for weeks and nothing seems to work. I would have tried a System Restore but for some reason, I didn't have any restore points at the time and I can't reformat everything because I'm in school right now and I can't afford to lose everything at this moment (I am thinking that I will have to if I can't fix this by Christmas) Any help would be greatly appriciated. One more thing, when I click on the link in MSN Messanger that says "X new email messages", Internet Explorer actually opens up (it doesn't cause an error or anything), but I can't view any webpages or open up anything using the menu (ex, clicking on Tools-Internet Options doesn't do anything)

I don't think you completely got rid of the virus. Someone will post here who recognizes it and tell you how to clean it completely. If you know the name of the virus, go to the Norton website and see if you can find their fix. You'll have to use another machine I guess. I have heard, but cannot corroborate, that Spy Sweeper is not a good program, and could possibly do more harm than good. Spybot is much better as is AdAware. Here are links for downloading. But if you can't get into IE, you'll have to download on another machine. AdAware Spybot

There's something else I wanted to add. If I open up IE using the MSN method I mentioned earlier, if I type something in the address bar it will say "http://www.whatever.com is not acessible. The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."

a few things you can do Get the XP Disk out , goto Setup, Go through the prompts, until it asks you if you want to install or Repair, not repair from console thats something different, you want it to Repair itself, basically it installs a new copy of XP over your old one without touching your data files or your programs. Thats an extreme measure, but very effective before doing that, try using the command SFC, you'll need your XP disk for this also After doing that, get ahold of Spybot Search and Destroy, thats the best Spyware/Adware remover that I've used and I've used Spy sweeper and Adware SE and all of those. I'm a Computer Tech so I would go with the XP Repair, it's not too tricky. good luck

I tried the sfc /scannow but I haven't tried that Repair thing you mentioned. One question, you mentioned that installing a new copy over the old one is an extreme measure. Is there any risk involved in doing the Repair?

How to do a system repair. -Boot from the xp cd and go past the recovery console to the install menu. Select repair the existing installation. You won't lose any data except the xp updates. Unless you have a slipstream sp1 cd you will have to d/l sp1 and all subsequent updates. Be sure the firewall and A/V is active before going online as you will be susceptible to sasser and msblaster. If you don't want SP2 go to autopatcher.com and d/l SP1 and subsequent updates. Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks.

Once again, do you know the name of the virus Norton found?