explorer malfunction..need help badly

[kehlo]

I am having problems with explorer restarting every time I try to open a folder. Everyone has told me to run adaware and spybot s&d and I have with no helpful results. The error message the event viewer logged is (event 1002)"The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.". This has been occurring for several days and I cant figure out anything else to try. Someone please help. I am running Win XP SP1.. but this happened before installing the service pack.

I figured out you can fix the problem by doing the following:
go to "run"
type "Control Inetcpl.cpl"
go to advanced and disable third party browser extentions
problem averted...but not fixed completely.

There is some BHO that is causing the crash... and as soon as I find out which one I'll post it here for future reference.

[john66]

scan for viruses?

[kehlo]

this problem is caused by hijack software... thats why the problem is solved when you disable third party browser extentions. I wish I really understood it better... but I'm just begginning to learn since my recent problem.

[Azn_tweaker]

have u updated the Reference files for spybot and ad-aware?

[ESALADUANE]

HijackThis will give you a list of your BHOs (it's free).

.http://www.webattack.com/get/hijackthis.html

[Azn_tweaker]

sorry to go off topic, ESALADUANE are u an hijackthis expert?

[ESALADUANE]

No, I'm not. Here are a few Tutorials.

http://aumha.org/a/hjttutor.php
http://hjt.wizardsofwebsites.com/
http://www.help2go.com/article153.html
http://computercops.biz/HijackThis.html

[Azn_tweaker]

thanks for those useful links