Shell32.dll

woolswell said:

You are welcome.

In fact I've learned much more from your posts since my registration here!!!

I'm glad we have helped each other. That's what this place is all about :)

smeghead said:

I think you first went wrong when you used "Save As" with Restorator. You're using the 64-bit version of 7 and you should use "Save" instead, as when you click "Save As" it saves the file as a 32-bit one. I found that out the hard way too. Had to do a repair install. Also, don't mess with shell32.dll in SysWOW64 !!! You only really need to edit the one in system32 !!! I found that out the hard way too!!

I tried it first by just clicking "save" and it failed. I tried every way possible

The problem is the latest Windows Updates (you were right serg). I haven't gone through them one by one yet but one of them is changing the custom Shell32.dll back to default and changing it back to custom will prevent explorer starting! This, to me, is outrageous! Restoring the system to a state prior to installing the update fixes the problem so for now I've hidden these 3 updates. I hope a fix or workaround becomes available or we'll be screwed when SP1 arrives!

KB976422, KB975496 & KB980408. Like I said, I haven't narrowed it down yet but these 3 were released together and once installed they revert back to default shell32.dll. After installing these if you try to replace shell32.dll you're in for a nightmare. I had to restore an image to get up and running and it took me like 2 days to figure out it was these updates causing all my grief. I searched for similar instances of this but couldn't find the same problem posted elsewhere.