Windows explorer has stopped working - windows 7

ressem

D'oh. I'm wrong, there's two versions of the file. 32bit and 64bit, and both will be installed on a 64bit Windows install.

MD5 I gave you was for the 32bit version as the MD5 generating program was 32 bit, and windows swaps them depending on who/what is asking..

The 360 K version is the 64 bit version, the 32 bit version is the 284672 byte file.

Nehaxak

The thing is, that file failing can actually be a symptom of another number of system files it relies on failing so it's not necessarily that file itself that's at fault.
I personally wouldn't rely on AVG as your anti virus, even the Microsoft security essentials AV is better then that imho (actually mcrosofts AV is pretty decent in fairness).
Run some recognised and dependable rootkit removal scans not just AV scans, possibly also in safe mode to be sure. You'd be surprised how much crap AVG can miss.

Tar.Aldarion

Any suggestions? I've changed AVG to Nod32 atm and am looking for a good rootkit scanner. Sophos? GMER? Rootrepeal?

Nehaxak

F-Secure's Blacklight rootkit eliminator is pretty decent - you can download it direct via this link...

ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/tools/fsbl.exe

Could also boot into safe mode and run Nod32 as it's probably one of the best AV's out there and at the very least should find any rootkit installed, whether or not it can remove it afterwards if it does find any I don't know.

At the end of all this, if you find nothing then at least you've ruled a virus or rootkit out as the problem (and gotten yourself more secure anyway).

Overheal

Tar for all the time you've spent on this problem, I think it's high time to reformat the drive, it sounds like something is corrupt somewhere, or infected, and you could be at it for a year and not find it. Just reformat, it takes about an hour or two once you've backed up your files. Not nearly as bad nowadays at it was with XP and Win2k, once Vista/7 have the internet connection they are pretty autopilot.

As for your PC overheating,

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

reinstall would be such a pain to take stuff off a terrabyte drive ugh. Especially as sooooo many people have had this problem and fixed it in various ways. My computer overheats after its been on ages and I play intensive games for a few hours, happens a lot, usually no ill affect,I just wait a bit for it the psu to cool down

That simply shouldn't be happening. We aren't even talking about Florida or somewhere the ambient temperature is high, theres just no reason for it. Either the system has accumulated too much dust or you have a crippling airflow problem that you need to investigate. If the Power Supply is the culprit then you are putting it under more load than it's been rated for, which could be really bad when it fails and fries the entire PC in a blaze of glory.

Tar.Aldarion

nod32 and rootkit removers did **** all, apart from one infected file in temporary files.
I just like to find out what is wrong but yep I've been trying to reinstall for ages by getting win7 off msdn bu their dl keeps failing and well it would just be easier to pirate it at this stage(also would dl 10 times faster)

I've replaced the PSU since I wrote that, you are right.

Overheal

you've tried ccleaner though right?

Tar.Aldarion

yei used that, would really like to know now but will just install w7 on a new hdd