Hello, recently I have been having a strange problem with explorer.exe... When explorer.exe is running, I cannot run msconfig, mspaint, defrag, or GenuineCheck.exe from Microsoft.com for downloads, and who knows what else (windows update seems to be freezing too). I formatted the drive for this reason along with others, but I cannot figure out why this is happening. If I run one of these programs that don't work, they do appear in the Processes tab, but no window ever appears, and if I don't 'end task' them, I receive a Memory Instruction error at logoff/shutdown. Once I end explorer.exe through Task Manager, I can run all of those programs from Task Manager perfectly.

At first I thought it may have to do with policies, but could find absolutely nothing in the registry (winxp home) supporting that. I'm pretty certain it isn't a virus but you can never be too sure, although looking through my HJT logs, running processes, and running AV scans, I could find nothing suspicious. Renaming these files did nothing also. Running these programs in safe mode however was successful. I found Windows Firewall was supposedly blocking MMC.exe since it popped up, and I turned it off but with no success. Now I might be leaning toward software I installed may be causing this, but I don't see any reason how because I wasn't having this problem before.

I'm really stumped because I have no idea what is causing this... I've been trying to fix this for quite some time now and I would REALLY appreciate any help.

I'm running Windows XP Home SP2 on an administrator account.
Thanks for taking the time to read.

you say that you formatted the drive.
Formatting would erase windows.
Did you reinstall?

Yes I formated as in erasing everything. I tested them when I first installed (defraged mostly), which is why I'm thinking something I've installed may be causing it, but it seems odd because these problems worked before.

If you just reinstalled and you aren't to far into it try again. Something may have gone wrong.
When doing this keep it offline and try do do some things to test the setup and then add more functionalityIf you have SP2 on a disk put it in second. then other needed progs(AV firewall etc) and retest again to see what could be causing the trouble. Some where along the line you will find something.

Trouble shooting is a pain but do it step by step

PS the firewall should be the last thing before the internet, as it watches all of the other programs.

Thanks, although I'd rather see if I can find a solution for this because I really don't want to format again since I've pretty much completed restored what I wanted. Any other suggestions?

You say that you think it may be software related.
What software do you have?
What is running at startup?
What exactly does the error message say?

I believe I found the problem. I just decided to go along with what you suggested and reformat and go step by step. Appears to be IconPackager by Stardock is interfering somehow... Thanks for your advice and time!

Its great to see someone sent a message about closure.
Some time when you try to help no one tells you if it actually helped and it leaves you wondering if it did help.
You're welcome.