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Windows Explorer (Not Internet Explorer) Causing problems
I've never posted on a help forum before, so please bear with me.
I have a Dell Studio 1749 laptop, running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
Windows Explorer is not working. That is, Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer. It seemed like every forum I already checked this confused people. The only way I am able to communicate with you fine folks is to manually run Firefox using the Task Manager interface. Here are the things I have tried, and the things that I am incapable of trying, and why:
1.) I tried booting in safe mode. Windows Explorer still would not work.
2.) I tried booting with only the bare necessities through System Configuration (msconfig) by selecting Diagnostic Startup, but the problem still occurred when I would boot to my desktop.
3.) I tried doing a system restore to 3 days ago, before the problem ever occurred, but it simply didn't seem to take, as some software I installed just last night was still here when it booted. That was a weird one.
4.) I tried rebooting with a chkdsk /r, but I could not get this to work because in order to set that up, you need to be able to run the command prompt with administrative privileges, which I cannot because Windows Explorer is not working. (I feel that maybe there is some secret way to do a chkdsk without needing the command prompt, but I couldn't find instructions anywhere.)
5.) I tried uninstalling the software that I believe to be the culprit, which happens to be Skype. Last night I received some pictures through Skype, and whenever I tried to view them, Windows Explorer would stop responding and need to restart. I deleted the pictures but didn't think at the time to uninstall Skype. I can't uninstall it now, because I can't access the Programs section of the Control Panel, because Windows Explorer doesn't work.
6.) I tried repairing my OS install, but the problem here is that I cannot eject my CD drive to insert the OS disk (there is already a disk in there.) My computer is a Dell Studio 1749, and there is no physical way to eject the CD drive. There is a touch sensitive button that I would press to eject the drive, but I cannot use it because I don't have the necessary driver. I would install the driver, but I can't, because Windows Explorer does not work (there is no way to save it somewhere, or even simply run the driver installer through firefox.) And going to Start > My Computer and manually ejecting the drive that way doesn't work, because... Well, Windows Explorer still doesn't work.
It's really discouraging how many things depend on Windows Explorer working properly.I will gladly do a complete reinstall of my OS if somebody can fix my disk drive problem, but obviously that is a last resort. If I didn't provide enough information, just tell me what you need. Thanks in advance to anybody who can try to help me.
*** Edit:
I should clarify, the problem is not that Windows Explorer won't launch, it is that it tries to launch over and over, every time giving an error, to which I can either restart, or check for solutions and restart. It just gets stuck in an endless loop until I end the explorer.exe process. Just thought I should clear that up.
Last edited by AgedBlaine; 26 Dec 2011 at 22:21. Reason: Didn't clarify the error as well as I thought.