Explorer failure when in Documents and Settings folders

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Here's what's going on, I wanted to go into Local Settings and dump a few
temp files, get a few cookies out, that sorta thing. I'm a pretty
knowledgeable guy, done it tons of times before, but for some reason,
Explorer resets itself anytime I try to do something in the Docs and Settings
files (NOT My Documents, but everything else). So my question to y'all is,
what's wrong with my XP? Why does it make my life hell?

Should I try a complete reinstall of XP (hope not), would it help to do the
IE reinstall I see listed all over these newsgroups, should I revert back to
2k? Cheers!

 

[galen]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

In news:9D0F32A5-6F8C-4F57-94F3-7FDB72F011B3@microsoft.com,
XP Gorillaz Fan <XPGorillazFan@discussions.microsoft.com> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> Here's what's going on, I wanted to go into Local Settings and dump a
> few temp files, get a few cookies out, that sorta thing. I'm a pretty
> knowledgeable guy, done it tons of times before, but for some reason,
> Explorer resets itself anytime I try to do something in the Docs and
> Settings files (NOT My Documents, but everything else). So my
> question to y'all is, what's wrong with my XP? Why does it make my
> life hell?
>
> Should I try a complete reinstall of XP (hope not), would it help to
> do the IE reinstall I see listed all over these newsgroups, should I
> revert back to 2k? Cheers!

A few things come to mind. The first is this... What are you using for
anti-virus? (Strange as this sounds bear with me...) Try turning it off
(while offline) and seeing if you can then open the folders and delete the
documents. The next would be a question of malware, in an effort to save
time:

Malware Cleaning :
http://www.kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

The third is a bit of tweaking and not something to be undertaken lightly...
If you run the Desktop as a second instance of explorer it seems to help a
bit with odd problems such as this. Take a peek here but again I caution you
to know what you're doing before you do it as editing the registry
improperly can have some rather dismal effects.

Explorer as a Separate Process :
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/tips/sep_explorer.html

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes