Weird error message

[drew259]

Hey i get a weird error message anytime i try to open a folder or anything Windows(Internet explorer, file folders, my computer...) firefox, games, all programs work fine.

 

[Mark T]

I think this is a common problem with Google toolbar in Internet Explorer. Try uninstalling via control panel- add/remove programs.

It should relieve the problem immediately.

 

[drew259]

but it does it with everything not just internet explorer. It happens with file folders and the ad remove programs thing so i cant remove the toolbar. Also i havnt installed a toolbar latley it just started doing it randomly

 

[Eric.]

but it does it with everything not just internet explorer. It happens with file folders and the ad remove programs thing so i cant remove the toolbar. Also i havnt installed a toolbar latley it just started doing it randomly

Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are the same thing, so I'd give it a shot anyway.

 

[Mark T]

but it does it with everything not just internet explorer. It happens with file folders and the ad remove programs thing so i cant remove the toolbar. Also i havnt installed a toolbar latley it just started doing it randomly

If your having trouble uninstalling it because of the error try booting into safe mode and uninstall it from there.

I've just found an old thread from another forum which deals with the problem. Have a read through it here.

 

[drew259]

broken link?

And ive looked through my add/remove programs and theres nothing google on there :/

 

[Flerbizky]

Try "Start", "Run", "Regedit" - and see if it opens...

I had a really bad infection not too long ago that gave that same Error message. Also prevented me from Running regedit as well as a misc. pigpen of other programs..

 

[Mark T]

What antivirus/spyware software are you running? Mcafee is know to cause a similar problem.

 

[drew259]

currently i have AVG, AntiVir, and Avast

 

[Mark T]

It's a really tricky one to solve as there are so many conflicts that could be causing it. If you search Google for "Runtime error explorer.exe terminated in unusual way" you should find quite a few topics. Maybe one of those may help.

 

[drew259]

Try "Start", "Run", "Regedit" - and see if it opens...

I had a really bad infection not too long ago that gave that same Error message. Also prevented me from Running regedit as well as a misc. pigpen of other programs..

regedit opens and works fine

It's a really tricky one to solve as there are so many conflicts that could be causing it. If you search Google for "Runtime error explorer.exe terminated in unusual way" you should find quite a few topics. Maybe one of those may help.

ok ill try that thanks

 

[Eric.]

If you want to fix this the quick and somewhat easy way, I'd do an OS repair. Whatever file is likely corrupted/missing/infected would be replaced by the original XP one and you would keep all of your data. Though you will have to reactivate Windows and do a bunch of Windows Updates (www.autopatcher.com for those).

 

[drew259]

If you want to fix this the quick and somewhat easy way, I'd do an OS repair. Whatever file is likely corrupted/missing/infected would be replaced by the original XP one and you would keep all of your data. Though you will have to reactivate Windows and do a bunch of Windows Updates (www.autopatcher.com for those).

How would i go about doing this?

 

[Eric.]

Pop in the XP install disc and proceed through as if you are going to install until you see the option that says "Repair". If you get to a point where it asks where to install you've definitely gone too far (but no damage would be done until you chose were to install).

You'd be booting from that disc, by the way.

And if your PC didn't come with an install disc and instead has a recovery partition (HPs for example) you will see the option when you first boot up. It should be called something relating to system recovery. I've used it on a friend's HP before and once it loads up (it has a GUI) you'll have the option to choose a clean install (NO!) or a repair (may be worded differently, but it makes a point to say that you won't lose data).

 

[drew259]

Ok well i dont have a disc or HP computer, so if i do a system restore to the beginning of the month what kind of data would i loose?

 

[drew259]

*bump*

 

[DustDriver]

You don't loose data when you go back to a recovery point.
But programs and updates installed after that date will be gone.

 

[drew259]

ok but no essays or other documents(pictures) will be lost?

 

[Jondot]

None whatsoever. Only changes in Windows and program files will be undone. Not much is likely to go wrong, either. If it can't do the restore for whatever reason, it'll just say "system restore could not be completed" or whatever after it reboots.

You might loose some browser cookies and things like Photoshop patterns that you've added since, but I'm not at all sure on that. It might be just me at 1 AM being stupid, but hey. It's things like programs being installed/uninstalled that it definately undoes.

 

[drew259]

ok thanks