Windows vista explorer exe application not found

[John_57]

Hello, internet explorer will not open. Get a error message "explorer.exe application not found. If you try to open any other program a window comes up asking what program you wish to use. The choice is internet explorer or browse. Nothing will open and my antivirus seems ti be disabled as well. I use avast.

 

[hang-the-9]

You picked up a virus or you deleted / uninstalled one application too many. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/242796-44-simple-free-guide-removing-malware

 

[livebriand]

Try malwarebytes anti-malware - do a full scan in safe mode w/ networking.

 

[TitusFFX]

yeah, I've actually ran across that virus and it's defined as a boot sector virus so insure the virus protection your using is designed to prevent those and remove them.

*Boot sector virus - A virus that loads during the inital 13 core processes of the operating system which normally emulates a standard Explorer.exe shell. This method is designed to completely ignore all attempts that could threaten the removal of it. *

Normal methods of removal include; running under safemode or an isolated environment such as linux cd based os if avaliable such as knoppix, gnome, or redhat.

If all else fails you can remove the hard drive and attach it to a working computer * be sure to use a live protection system such as microsoft secruity essentials that can block access to usb devices and secondary drives and remove it that method.

Always scan a bootsector virus with multiple virus scans since most all are not written the same way and a single virus protection may not remove it fully.

 

[John_57]

Tried going into safe mode with networking and down loading Malwarebytes but no luck, same thing happens in safe mode and I'm unable to download. Should I re boot operating system?

 

[TitusFFX]

Well reloading your operating system by by formating and installing a fresh copy of windows is always a good solution for when everything else fails but keep in mind you will want to back up your important files if you have to before hand if you haven't already from a secondary computer as a mentioned before.